Author: tom

Matt Cardle – Run For Your Life

He’s trying to be Snow Patrol.

Tim: Well, it had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. But first tell me: if you were an X Factor winner, and the nation had already pretty much decided you were fairly damp and boring, would your first proper single be a message of ‘go on and forget about me’?

Tom: I’m both simultaneously disappointed and relieved that this wasn’t a Beatles cover – because, while that would be a fantastic song for him to cover, there’s no way it could be better than the original. So what’s he actually singing?

Tom: Right, he’s trying to be Snow Patrol.

Tim: It’s…well, it’s not terrible, I suppose.It’s certainly no threat to One Direction at the top my my iTunes play count chart, but it’s listenable. It has a James Blunt v2 air about it, really – mostly dull, yes, but a chorus that’s at least 78% more energetic than I imagined it would be, and a closing part that’s almost overflowing with existence.

Tom: Talk about damning with faint praise. But you’re right; the chorus almost justifies the slow-motion verses. Almost. But not quite.

Tim: It’ll probably get at least top 10, but I can’t help thinking we’ve another Joe McElderry or Leon Jackson.

Tom: Who?

Tim: You know, Leon Jackson. Won X Factor, had a song ‘When You’ — actually, you know what? It really doesn’t matter.

The Saturdays – All Fired Up

Less ridiculous autotune.

Tom: You know, I’m a bit surprised the Saturdays are still going. When they first came out, I assumed they were going to be one-hit wonders.

Tim: Are you serious? Despite at least one of them having the musical pedigree of formerly being in S Club Juniors?

Tom: This track’s certainly better than their last one. A bit less ridiculous autotune on the vocals, backed by what I can only describe as a banging choon.

Tim: Less ridiculous autotune? Did you stop listening after 90 seconds? But yes, banging.

Tom: I think you’re forgetting just how much ridiculous autotune they’ve used in the past.

The middle-eight drops it down a bit too far for me, but all is made better by the slow-build ramp out of it. What’s with the dodgy fade-out at the end, though? Those seem to be making a comeback lately, and I’m not sure I like it.

Tim: Yeah, me neither – it sort of implies a lack of effort on everybody’s part.

Tom: One minor point of order though: it’s pronounced “ray-dar”, not “raider”. Just sayin’.

Tim: Erm, that should be “saying”, not “sayin'”. Just saying.

Tom: Git.

Electric Lady Lab – Touch Me

“This finishes way too soon.”

Tim: This finishes way too soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVmIZIEJuLk

Tom: Oh my word. You know I like mashups, and it takes a lot for me to have my brain confused by one – but this certainly managed it. I was already singing “The Sun Always Shines On TV” by the first repeat of that sample, and then I just got completely sideswiped.

Tim: Starts with a ‘ooh, this sounds like it’ll be lovely’, and then goes in a completely different direction, but it stills keeps that lovely vibe going throughout and that’s not something that often happens.

Tom: Hang on. You’ve heard “The Sun Always Shines On TV”, right? You must have done.

Tim: Erm… well, er..

Tom: You can’t have been into europop for this long and not heard it. Seriously, aside from Take On Me, it’s a-ha’s most famous single. Everyone’s heard of that.

Tim: Take On Me? Wasn’t that by A1?*

* I’M JOKING. But seriously, how long ago does 2000 look now?

Tom: What worries me is that if you have a gap this large in your musical knowledge – what am I missing?

Tim: Well, I don’t know – I guess I’ve just never explored the older stuff. Tell you what – I’ll get hold of a couple of compilation CDs and listen to them, and we can move on. Deal?

The middle eight, for me at least, has a ‘hurry up and get to the good bit’ feel to it, but then unfortunately when it does get there it almost immediately stops with a crap fade-out. Part of me’s hoping they’ve deliberately cut this short for YouTube; can’t think why they would, though.

Tom: As a mashup with an existing song, it’d be listenable but nothing special; if this is the track they’re actually releasing, then it’s not a patch on the original. Morten Harket’s vocals stand up to this day, and this new version is just… forgettable.

Tim: Well, I disagree and think it’s great. Only out in Denmark right now, mind.

Tom: I’ll be honest: I hope that’s where it stays.

Le Kid – We Are The Drums

Somewhat restrained for a Le Kid offering.

Tim: Their first album’s finally out next week, and here’s a new single from it.

Tom: Wait, haven’t they been putting tracks out for months? Took them long enough to get an album out. Let’s have a listen, then.

Tim: Somewhat restrained for a Le Kid offering, I feel, but none the worse for it. I was a little disappointed at the started when it sounded all autotuney and horrible, but then it goes all happy and poppy and lovely so it’s okay.

Tom: I was really quite worried with that first bit, but fortunately they pulled it back quickly enough. It isn’t quite as bubblegum as their earlier tracks, but then an entire album that was as sweet as ‘We Should Go Home Together’ would just be too much.

Tim: The whole ‘WE ARE MUSIC’ vibe seems to indicate no small amount of ambition, and according to their website they’re ‘getting ready to show Le Kid to the world’. While I can’t quite see it getting properly playlisted on Radio 1 any time soon, perhaps they’ll find a place on Scott Mills’s Ready for the Weekend or something (where, in fact, both September and Cascada got their Radio 1 debuts).

Tom: You know, I can see them getting a respectable following over here.

Tim: I would be very happy if they did. Going back to their website quickly, it also promises that “every follower of ours who wants to help us spread the Gospel of Le Kid has a special place in our hearts, and will be able to sleep with their Le Kid member of choice in five years time”. If that’s not encouragement to tell people about them then I really don’t know what is.

Bekker – Right on Time

Standard Star Pilots style tune… ludicrous key change.

Tim: Bekker, also known as Johan Becker, also known as him off of Star Pilots, presents us with this three-minute number.

Tom: A bold choice for a title there, given that many people will confuse it with Ride on Time, but let’s have a listen.

Tim: Standard Star Pilots style tune, with a nice pop/dance mix. While this is good, it wouldn’t really be enough to get me that excited.

Tom: Decent chorus, standard vocals. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just a bit, well, normal.

Tim: Except, of course, for the somewhat excellent five seconds that start at 2:20.

Tom: That’s a ludicrous key change right there.

Tim: It is, and I can’t help feeling that overall it doesn’t really help the song, because that sort of knocks the rest of it into mediocrity by comparison. It has a great chorus, better than average verses, but I said at the beginning it wouldn’t get me excited. And yet this song should. So here, I think we’ve found a key change that actually harms the song.

Tom: Yep. He’d have been better off cutting it beforehand – although two minutes might be a bit too short even for a track like this.

St. Lucia – All Eyes On You

A big dance tune, with some proper instruments over the top.

Tim: From New York, this song was on Radio 1 when my alarm woke me up at an antisocial hour on Saturday morning. And my, word, did it get me out of bed in a good way.

Tom: I’ll try and leave innuendo aside, shall I?

Tim: You could do, but you never have done before.

Tom: It starts a bit slowly, doesn’t it?

Tim: Well, yes, it does take a minute or two to get going properly, but when it does it’s absolutely brilliant.

Tom: I found myself quietly nodding my head along to it after that first minute, and when it finally kicked in – well, yes. I wasn’t expecting that.

Tim: A big dance tune, with some proper instruments over the top, and all sorts of strange somewhat blurry vocals. At forty seconds, the middle saxophony bit could be said to be a bit long, and it could probably be chopped in half and no-one would mind, but when my only complaint is that part of it is a bit too long, I think we can safely say this is a good tune.

Tom: Saxophone solos! They’re coming back, Tim, mark my words. And I don’t think it’s too long at all – the piano-chord build justifies it.

Tim: There is that, but I just think it could all be sped up a little. Anyway, you were saying?

Tom: I wouldn’t say it’s entirely a dance tune, though; it’s not got enough of a beat for that. It’s designed for listening, rather than dancing, I reckon.

Tim: There’s an element in the chorus – especially when it comes back for the big climax – of Take That’s The Flood, which is a bit strange, but it’s certainly not a problem. Mash-up, anyone?

(Oh, and the weird face thing in that video does have a reason for being there – it’s the single artwork. Just so you know.)

Eric Amarillo – 50kvm

“Is this the way to… oh. No. Sorry.”

Tom: Is this the way to… oh. No. Sorry.

Tim: Yeah, no. Last time he was synth-heavy and somewhat mushed-up (go with it). This time? Well, let’s find out.

Tom: Ooh, I do like that opening. That’s… well, am I being blasphemous if I say that opening is a bit Pet Shop Boys? I mean that as a compliment.

Tim: No, I don’t think so. This song certainly sounds more connected than the previous one – there’s a tune and a melody, and he’s singing with it properly. This is a good thing, and I like that. We see an interesting tactic when he decides not to bother with lyrics or words or anything and just goes with a somewhat generic ‘ha-a-aah-ahh-ah-ahh-uh-uhh-uh’ thingy, which does at least help with the whole language barrier thing.

Tom: It does change up properly for the middle-eight, although the return from it is a bit lacklustre. It seems to have a chorus that’s uplifting in tone, but delivered in a fairly calm way. Perhaps the lyrics could help?

Tim: Well, perhaps they could, but, I’m not entirely sure what this is about. Google helps out a bit, but completely falls down on the choruses, arguably the most important part. Apparently ‘kvm’ means ‘square meters’, but I have no idea if this is too much, or too little, or entirely unconnected to the guy’s feelings. Still, who care? It’s good music, so I’m happy.

Saturday Flashback: Example – Watch The Sun Come Up

Adds up to a good track.

Tim: His released-tomorrow Stay Awake is sort of alright and earlier-this-year’s Changed The Way You Kissed Me was pretty good, but as far as I’m concerned nothing of his beats this, from 2009.

Tim: The rolling piano, the rapping that’s more like speaking and more than bearable, the singing in the chorus, nice bit of fun with all the unexplained drawing in the video – all adds up to a good track.

Tom: I’m going to assume it’s in the same universe as A-Ha’s Take On Me.

Tim: Don’t really like the message of the song, though. It’s all ‘I wish I could have stayed with you, and I wish this wasn’t a one night stand’, but he never really gives a reason for his leaving aside from a flight, which he says he wanted to miss anyway, so we’re sort of left ‘Actually, I only ever do one night stands, and even though I don’t want to now it’s just who I am so tough.’

The length it took me to explain that means that in terms of word count this is an overwhelmingly negative review. It really shouldn’t be, because the song’s great.

Hot Chelle Rae – Tonight Tonight

It’s a joyful party song. And I like it.

Tom: Not troubling the UK charts yet, but it’s on the Radio 1 playlist so it probably won’t be long until it is.

Tom: Tim, this song makes me very happy. It’s very simple. It’s a joyful party song. And I like it.

Tim: That is a bit good, innit? Chirpy and all that.

Tom: I defy you not to have those ohh-ohh-ohh choruses in your head after a couple of listens. They might not stay in there tomorrow, or next week, and I suspect it’ll be forgotten next year – but I reckon that this track, if it takes off, will be on the playlist of whatever replaces those ‘School Disco’ playlists in fifteen years.

Tim: Confession: I have never been to a party on a rooftop. And this song makes me want to go to one. Don’t suppose you know of any coming up, do you?

Tom: Alas, no. The last one I know about was on New Year’s Eve, and I missed it.

As for the song: admittedly, the first “la la la, whatever” does annoy me a bit. This track’s a bit like eating ice cream: it’s very nice, but have too much of it and it’ll stay on your metaphorical hips forever.

Nero – Promises

Not remotely in our comfort zone, but I think we should discuss this.

Tim: Now, I know this is not remotely in our comfort zone, but since you recently claimed you ‘must be getting used to dubstep’ and this prime example went straight to the top of the UK charts last week (albeit with the lowest sales of a number one single in almost two years), I think we should at the very least discuss this.

Tim: Because as it happens, I really like it. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a style that’s perhaps become more mainstream than the dubstep that was around a year ago, or because it’s just a question of getting used to it – God knows it’s gets played enough at work when any of my colleagues hijack the speakers – or perhaps just changing musical tastes, but I do really like it.

Tom: I think it’s all of those. Dubstep is becoming more mainstream (purists, no doubt, would argue that this barely counts), and we’re becoming more used to its sound. It’s like Dylan going electric, only much, much worse.

Tim: Much, much worse, you think? The vocal comes with a pitch and tone that make it somewhat charming, with a chorus perhaps described as ethereal, were I tempted to use a fancy word like that.

Tom: It’s a bit La Roux, in a very good way.

Tim: Mind you, the sounds that lie under the vocal probably wouldn’t be up to much without it, but the instrumental bits when the music’s there on its own are very enjoyable. I definitely like this. My name’s Tim, and I like this track.

Tom: My name’s Tom, and I like this track too.

Tim: Actually, I’ve just listened to Innocence, a Nero track from last April. I think it’s a combination of ‘used to it’ and ‘more mainstream’, because that one is manageable but not hugely enjoyable. Most importantly, my musical tastes seem to be as ever they were, so this site won’t be changing any time soon.