Category: Europop

Nova Delai – Just Love

Folk-pop, perhaps?

Tim: Nova is a Swedish singer, and in my view somewhat underappreciated. Here, her third single.

Tom: I was half-expecting that to go into “Against All Odds” after the intro.

Tim: A question: what genre’s this? Beyond just pop, I mean, with the heavy drums in the background. There are a lot of tracks around right now in this vein, not least Emmelie de Forest’s Eurovision winner, and I don’t know what to call them.

Tom: Folk-pop, perhaps? The vocals and instruments would seem to give it that kind of air.

Tim: Hmm, sounds pretty good. But regardless of the name, it’s a good track. I find myself needing to struggle through the verses somewhat, as they’re a bit bland and a bit shouty, but the chorus has a lovely first part and a good in a different way second part, and the middle eight could almost be described as delightful.

Tom: See, I’m not much of a folk-pop fan if I’m honest; while I can appreciate that musically, this is quite a good song, the style of vocals leaves me a bit cold. That’s my personal taste, though: since you seem to like the genre, what d’you think?

Tim: Seven out of ten for now, but higher if it had a nicer verse.

Beatrice Egli – Mein Herz

“Oh my word, the orchestra hits.”

Tim: They say schlager’s on the way out – there was nothing to really represent it in either Eurovision or even Melodifestivalen this year, and a lot of people are saying it’s just not the done thing any more.

Tom: I really hope this is a leadup to a schlager song, and your punchline isn’t “so here’s some dubstep”.

Tim: So, here’s some…

Tom: Oh my word, the orchestra hits.

Tim: I propose that ‘they’ are wrong, though, as evidenced by this track, which is the first single by the winner of this year’s Deutschland sucht den Superstar (or what the rest of the world would call German Idol), and she actually made it her thing just to sing schlager, and then beat the runner-up with a convincing 70% of the vote.

That’s refreshing, isn’t it? That a young new artist can win a singing contest with this, and then be number one in the charts for two weeks running.

Tom: Blimey, number one with this? That’s not so much refreshing as just full-on startling. It’s good, but it’s extremely old-school and… well, it does go on a bit.

Tim: It does, yes, and it could probably do with a lazy key change – you know, the ones that get criticised for purely being there to give a bit of life to a song that’s reached its limit. That aside, it’s a perfectly standard example of the genre – a decent listenable track and worth mentioning, if only for the nice “cheese is alive” message it sends out.

Soluna Samay – L.O.V.E. (If Women Ruled the World)

“Repetitive? Yes. But great? Also yes.”

Tim: Cast your mind back twelve months to Baku and you may remember Soluna representing Denmark with the rather pleasant Should’ve Known Better; if you don’t, then, well, to be honest it doesn’t make a difference one way or the other regarding this track, which is new.

Tim: Repetitive? Yes. But great? Also yes.

Tom: That’s because rhythms like that have been used in pop music for a very long time – this is new, but it’s drawing on a lot of old sources to make something very nice indeed.

Tim: Hmm. Maybe the world is running out of music. Or maybe people just know what works. Either way, it’s very good.

The video reminds me of the stock photo library trawl that was Tegan and Sara’s Closer, but here it doesn’t seem weird, it just seems brilliant – while I watch it, I can’t stop myself smiling.

Tom: That’s because it’s got some proper art direction to it.

Tim: YES to the trainers and the crappy sunglasses and the pineapple, LOVE the catapult and the milkshake and all the other things that are just there. Why are they there? So we can play with them later. Why should we play with them later? Well, why the hell not? IT’S FUN. Like the song, really.

Tom: It is that. I was about to write that it could have been written any time in the last thirty years, but you know what? I think I’m wrong. This is still a modern song in its production and style, it just uses very traditional… well, everything.

Tim: As for what the title’s about, I’m not entirely this sort of frivolity is what people like Emily Davison and Emmeline Pankhurst had in mind when campaigning for women’s rights, but it’s fun so WHO CARES? I DON’T, because I’m smiling.

Lisa Miskovsky – Wild Winds

It’s lovely.

Tim: Lead single and title track from her upcoming album, this is. And it’s lovely.

Tim: The production is lovely, the singing is lovely, the backing sort-of-singing is lovely, all the tiny details buried in it are just lovely – it’s all gentle, peaceful and, well, lovely. This is the sort of track I like to put on, move over to another tab and have it as backing music. It’s just…well, it’s nice, isn’t it?

Tom: Oddly enough, that’s exactly what I did: after the intro, I put it into a background tab and promptly got distracted by other things. It’s… well, yes. I hate to overuse the word, but “lovely” pretty much sums it up.

Tim: Annoyingly, I can’t think of much else to say, possibly because this is just calming my brain down so much. It’s basically everything I want in a song like this – it’s meant to be a calming, peaceful track, and it manages that absolutely perfectly. I really can’t fault it at all – not even the fade-out ending, which here just seems to serve as a reminder to skip back to the beginning. Indefinitely.

Meow – Radio Silence

“Nice track, this.”

Tim: Half British and half Norwegian, this is a new electropop duo with an utterly ridiculous name.

https://soundcloud.com/meow-uk/radio-silence

Tim: Nice track, this, not least for that chorus, with it’s fairly determined earworm hook in it which is refusing to go anywhere and the second half of it which is really very very good indeed.

Tom: Agreed: that chorus comes out of nowhere, and while it it isn’t a match for the rest of the song, I think the clash works.

Tim: It’s got a weird mix of mood in it – I’m not sure if I’m meant to hear it this way, but while its obviously a fairly downbeat track for the most part, that “radio radio radio” seems like a sudden glint of happiness in the middle. Sticks out a bit, but not in a bad way, I don’t think, because it’s an excuse to just yell out that bit and get everyone in the train carriage to look at you (which may or may not just have happened).

Tom: There are worse songs to be singing along to. At least no-one joined in.

Tim: And in the end, if a song can make you sing along involuntarily, I think that’s a pretty good song. Though not always.

Tom: Crikey, there’s a blast from the past. One of the few songs on that album where it’s difficult to tell it apart from the original.

Tim: WHAT A TUNE.

Krista Siegfrids – Amen!

“She’s divorced and back out on the pull.”

Tim: Tom, you’ll be glad to heard that Finland’s somewhat manic wannabe fiancée has given up on the whole marriage idea, largely because it didn’t work out for her – two months later, she’s divorced and back out on the pull. Let’s see how she gets on, shall we?

Tom: Crikey, you know the intro with that distorted version of her Eurovision track? That’s pretty much how I heard it the first time.

Tim: Well, as far as I’m concerned that divorce has done wonders for her, musically at least, because I really like that.

Tom: Really? Sounds to me like she’s trying to be a Gwen Stefani knockoff, and she’s not really managing it.

Tim: You think? Obviously it wouldn’t have suited a Eurovision entry (though as it turned out, neither did Marry Me, which was a bit of a shame), but it’s a big pop number with a lot going for it.

Tom: I suppose the Big Pop Bits aren’t all that bad, but those verses just clunk so badly that I can’t say it holds together as a track.

Tim: I disagree – I reckon it works well. Sounds almost Gaga-ish, or at least round about 2010-era with verses taken from Ke$ha back around then as well.

Tom: Which means she’s about three years too late. You’re right with both of those comparisons, it’s just that they seem to have lost a lot in translation.

Tim: Hmm. All your negativity’s got me slightly worried again about an issue I’ve mentioned before – would I like this if it was a Ke$ha track? I don’t know, but I do know that, whatever you say, I like it as a Krista Siegfrids track, which is what it is. Amen for that.

Tom: I’ll just pray it doesn’t get airplay over here.

Tim: Well, that’s probably a given.

Saturday Flashback: Haloo Helsinki! – Huuda!

Tim: Exclamation marks!

Tom: Yes! And if you couldn’t tell from the band name, these guys are Finnish. Before you press play, though, I’ll let you know that on most occasions, if I got pointed to this I’d likely spend at most twenty seconds listening, think “what a racket” and then switch off. Don’t do that.

Tom: I wasn’t convinced until that pre-chorus, which was delightful; I suspect you’re a fan of the chorus?

Tim: Absolutely. The verses can, quite clearly and accurately, be described as a racket, but the rest is something else – the chorus is pure pop, albeit slightly aggressive, and the lovely descending post-chorus is delightful. And speaking of delightful, the lyrics: ‘huuda’ means ‘shout’, the pre-chorus is also about changing the world for the better, and the chorus itself goes something along the lines of ‘shout for joy, shout for freedom, etc.’ All jolly lovely.

Tom: Shame about the middle eight, where it all falls apart for a bit – going SHOUTY and then all quiet.

Tim: Yes, although speaking of that quiet bit, there’s a new track, Vapaus käteen jää, which is similarly quieter and rather pleasant to listen to; it doesn’t really sound anything like the rest of this so check it out, why don’t you.

Loreen – We Got The Power

To be honest, I’m not all that keen.

Tim: You’ll have heard this on Saturday night; it’s a bit different, isn’t it?

Tom: I’ll say this much: the Eurovision interval act is a hell of a plug for a new single.

Tim: So, what to say? It’s the lead from her second album, out later this year, and to be honest I’m not keen on it.

Tom: I wasn’t expecting that from you. Why’s that?

Tim: I like Loreen – I like the type of music she’s come out with, and her first album was very good. There’s still plenty of material there to plunder, so I can only assume this is a sort of change of direction; that’s a real shame, because if all her new stuff’s going to sound like this then, well, then I won’t like it very much.

Tom: It certainly is a change, but it’s one I’m rather happy with it. Drumline backing and a sinister guitar may not be high-energy pop, but it’s certainly music that I enjoy listening to. This is a cracking pop song, even if it’s more minor-key than we’re used to.

Tim: I want arms in the air, spaced out dance music, not military-drumming stuff that only really inspires me to get up in order to skip to the next track. Am I demanding too much?

Tom: No, but you are demanding something different.

Janet Leon – New Colours

“That absolutely, totally, works with my brain.”

Tim: You, incorrectly, didn’t think much of Janet’s Melodifestivalen entry, Heartstrings; others apparently did, or at least enough to pay attention to her, as her follow-up is the official single of Stockholm Pride 2013, coming with an appropriately colourful lyric video.

Tom: That is excellent. To the point where I immediately downloaded it after listening through once.

Tim: Crikey.

Tom: It’s that good. It’s a very rare song that makes me do that, but this is that rare song. This is the kind of pop that absolutely, totally, works with my brain.

Tim: High praise there, for what is indeed a lovely lovely song. The lyrics don’t really tell the happiest story, although they sort of do because when a desire is sung like this then let’s be honest it’s going to happen, isn’t it. Janet is going to get her new colours, whatever they may metaphorically be, and then she’s going to parade around with them all and shout about it. Until then, though, she’s just going to make music like this.

Tom: She’s welcome to. Seriously, I don’t think I have any criticisms about this song. This is certainly the best pop song of the year so far — at least to me.

Tim: Powerful, beat heavy, club friendly, and happy. A good chorus that we can all sing along to. A massive closing section that everyone can go crazy to. Basically, music that is FUN.

Oscar Zia – #fail

“Those words are awful. Just plain awful.”

Tom: Oh, that’s a bad title. That’s a really bad title.

Tim: Yes, yes it is.

Over the years we’ve had a good few tracks with decent music but awful lyrics; this was probably epitomised by Olly Murs’s Thinking of Me, and to be honest I never thought we’d find one to beat it. Then again, I never thought I’d come across a song with a hashtag for a title.

Tim: Those words are awful. Just plain awful. I know what I want to write about them, but dammit I won’t. I won’t give him the satisfaction of implying that it has some sense of linguistic acceptability.

Tom: I was wondering what you meant until that line. Bloody hell. I’m a descriptivist linguist, and that still absolutely grates like some kind of industrial strength cheese grater. The kind that produce those bags of pre-grated cheese.

Tim: There’s a bloke I work with who’s started speaking with hashtags, and while I’m not a violent person, I do have to fight a desperate urge to kick him in the face every single time. I got a similar feeling with Eric Saade on Saturday as well, as it happens.

Tom: If you want the ten-year-old equivalent: here’s a song all about AOL Instant Messenger. Warning: it’s just as bad.

Tim: IT IS A TERM FOR THE INTERNET. NOT REAL LIFE, DAMMIT. NOT. REAL. LIFE. You don’t say “lol”, you don’t say “gz”, YOU DON’T SAY HASHTAG.

Tom: To be fair, I don’t even type “gz”.

Tim: And the worst thing? That aside, I quite like it.

Tom: We need an instrumental version. We really, really need an instrumental.