Category: Europop

Ask Embla – Cry Baby

Very much a Decent Track.

Tim: The second single from a duo composed of two fairly prolific songwriters – Ina Wroldsen is responsible for, amongst many others, pretty much every hit The Saturdays have had, while Arnthor Birgisson has written lots of other great stuff as well.

Tom: Which is just as well, given what happened the last time we had a duet singing “Cry Baby”.

Tim: Oh, you really didn’t need to link to that, you know.

But here, fortunately, a decent track, is pretty much a given. So can they do it justice vocally?

Tim: Hmmm, not so much, unfortunately.

Tom: That’s a shame, because as you said in the introduction: that is very much a Decent Track. Maybe not decent enough to set the charts on fire, but enough to make them smoulder a little. Sorry, that’s a terrible metaphor.

Tim: Not so bad – I like the idea of a smouldering chart, brimming over with greatness. This might, might make it, but there seems to be a fair dollop of autotune on there, and whilst it’s still a great track, I can’t help feeling it might have been better with other people singing. It’s understandable that they want to do a bit more – after all, the vast majority of music-buyers don’t give anywhere near as much credit to the writers as is deserved, and if you’re writing songs, singing them is a fairly logical next step. It’s just, like I said when we talked about Jedward, it’s two different skill sets, and there’s only so much that autotune can do to rectify it.

Tom: And there is a hell of a lot of autotune on there – not enough that it can be counted as a Cher-style stylistic tweak, but enough that it’s bloody noticeable.

Tim: Still a great track, though, so I really hope they’re not quitting their day job for this.

Loreen – Crying Out The Pain

Tim: This is the new single for Swedish people from Loreen; internationally she’s just released My Heart Is Refusing Me, but that’s not on YouTube. Fortunately, this is.

Tom: That sounds a lot like Euphoria. That’s not a bad thing, mind.

Tim: Along with Euphoria, that’s three tracks so far, and together they paint Loreen as having a Thing: half-sung, half-whispered vocals over quiet synths for the verses, and then going all out for the chorus. And I like that, kind of, even if it does mean I’ll sometime skip over the first thirty seconds.

Tom: I got into an argument with someone the other night about finishing books: I maintain it’s absolutely fine to give up on a book if you’re not enjoying it, while they said that, once you’ve got a bit into it, you have to carry on to the end – or at least pretend to yourself that you’re going to.

The reason I mention this is: skipping the first 30 seconds of something like ‘Euphoria’ is just wrong. The build-up’s part of the track, and an important part. It’s like skipping into a Pink Floyd album half way through. You just don’t do it.

Tim: Perhaps not, but if I’m getting ready to go out, say, or just want to hear some properly BANGING BEATS, the early bits of the song aren’t right for it. (Though I agree with you about the book thing.)

Anyway, the whole concept does serve to emphasise what a lovely lovely voice she has, really, and that’s a good thing. Will it get boring? Possibly, after a while, and I’m hoping the entire album (October 29th) isn’t like this, but for the time being I’m very happy with what I’m hearing.

Alexander Rybak – Leave Me Alone

“I wanted to dance.”

Tom: Our reader Roger writes in with this, Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak’s new track. Roger writes: “I think this is (one of) his best after Fairytale. Really like those disharmonies.”

I was expecting to dislike this track, because I didn’t like Fairytale all that much. Instead, I wanted to dance, which is awkward because I was on a train when I wrote this.

Tim: That’s quite a different sound from what we all know. And not a bad one at all, actually.

Tom: I see what Roger means about the disharmonies – those odd fiddle-tweaks at the end of the instrumental parts. I think the song would be improved without them, but at the cost of being less memorable.

Tim: I don’t know, I’m with Roger and quite like them – they’re interesting, unusual and I think they work.

Tom: They act as an attention-grabber, and I can live with that when the thing they’re drawing attention to is this good.

Tim: They do, and it is this good.

Bim – Burn

“Ooh, now that’s very nice indeed. “

Tim: New single to tie in with a 5th November launch of their new EP Lifelines for you:

Tom: Ooh, now that’s very nice indeed.

Tim: Isn’t it just? And that video is the first time I’ve ever thought “why isn’t there more crime in the world?” Because if a young vigilante crime-fighter from Cambridge has nothing better to do than eat ice-cream and go bowling, I think that’s a crying shame.

Tom: Hey, don’t knock British superhero crimefighting. There’s always internet classic Brummie Baywatch, one of the few pre-YouTube viral videos.

Tim: Oh, I’m not knocking it at all – I’m just a bit sad that there doesn’t seem to be any actual crime to fight.

I’ve no idea what a frustrated would-be superhero has to do with one bloke being fairly sure that his partner is having trouble putting up with him, mind, but I’ve long ago given up on the concept of music videos having anything to do with the actual songs, so I’m just enjoying it.

Tom: It is an odd choice: normally this’d be intercut with something of the singers, at least so the fans can identify them. Ditching them entirely for a somewhat odd concept video is a brave choice.

Tim: The point is, it’s great music and a wonderful video. Full marks.

Tom: Yep, no arguments there.

Saturday Flashback: Kati Wolf – What About My Dreams

Indeed.

Tim: We haven’t had any massive schlager tunes on here for quite some time, and that’s a shame.

Tom: Good grief, you’re right. We started this to talk about schlager, and we’ve all but forgotten about it.

Tim: Let’s rectify the issue with this, which, you may recall, was the track that finally got everyone dancing after an hour of everything else seeming to fail (even Aqua) at that Eurofest night you & I went to back in January.

Tim: Sorted.

Tom: Indeed.

Tim: Although…

Tom: What? That’s a top Eurovision track, that is.

Tim: Oh, it really is, but you may have noticed there was missing something from the usual formula – perhaps a second verse & chorus before the middle eight? So let’s hear it again. But the full version. The Hungarian version. The four minute version that got released earlier this year. Basically, the awesome version.

Tim: SORTED.

Tom: Indeed.

Andi Kristine – Magic

Gentle, calming, overall rather nice.

Tom: We’ve been sent this by Mar, who writes: “I just discovered this Icelandic artist while I was visiting last week, she is so friendly and sweet, and think she’d make a great feature!”

Tim: Sounds good – let’s hear it.

Tom: Just one problem with that: a little research reveals that Mar is actually this artist’s booking agent, and ‘just discovered her last week’ is a blatant lie.

Tim: AGH! We’ve been LIED TO?!?!?!

Tom: Mar was quite lovely about it when I emailed back and let them know they were rumbled. Oh, and a quick warning: while this video technically isn’t porn, I still wouldn’t like to explain why I’m watching it to a boss or family member.

Tom: Well, friendly and sweet she may be, but is the music any good? There are two biases I’ve got here: on the one hand, the duplicitous agent trying to dupe us; on the other, startlingly revealing clothing. Hopefully those two will pretty much cancel each other out.

Tim: I shall try to cast both those things from my memory in my judgement, and say: gentle, calming, overall rather nice. Nothing over the top, just pleasantly understated fairly decent stuff.

Tom: Aye, it’s… um. Not bad? I guess? Perhaps my brain’s too addled from trying to give an unbiased opinion, but I can’t seem to form any real view on it. It’s pleasant enough, I suppose, but it’s not going to be sticking in my head for long.

Tim: Sounds about right. I won’t go heading off to buy the album, but I wouldn’t turn it off if it came on the radio.

Tom: It’s not the glowing endorsement that Mar wanted, but hey, it could’ve been worse: it could’ve been INJU5TICE.

Tim: That reminds me, one positive thing I’ll say for that lot: it’s, what, two years since we reviewed that track? I can still remember the hook from it, though.

Smith & Thell – Here Comes The Sun

Beatles covers always give me a bit of trepidation.

Tim: Here Comes The Sun isn’t the most well-known or enduring of The Beatles’ songs, but it is the one Smith & Thell have chosen to cover to celebrate fifty years of said band.

Tom: Beatles covers always give me a bit of trepidation. Sure, there are tremendous ones, but for each of those there’s a dozen incompetent ones. They’re a difficult band to cover. And Here Comes The Sun isn’t too obscure, which puts it in a tricky position: it’s not become a “standard”, but enough people will be attached to the original.

And a house music Beatles cover? Colour me skeptical.

Tom: That would be so much better if it wasn’t a Beatles cover. I like it. It’s happy. It’s danceable. But my word, when you know the original, or even the wonderful version on the Love remix album … man, I’m all for cover versions, but they should try to better the original, not make it generic.

Tim: The problem for me is that this is a tune that is precisely six months too late/early. Because it’s so not an October tune, is it? Much like yesterday’s, it’s a summer dance anthemy type track. It’s very summery, and that’s the main thing I don’t like about it, because right now it’s cold and wet and grey and I have to go outside to go to work in a bit and I don’t want to leave my nice warm house.

Tom: I’m not so sure: “it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter” is a good line for that.

Tim: No, it’s a terrible line: it implies it’s finished, it’s gone, summer’s here to stay. But NO. NO IT ISN’T. It’s going to RAIN and RAIN and HAIL and DRIZZLE and be COLD and DAMP and MISERABLE. MOAN MOAN MOAN.

Tom: Get yourself a sun lamp, Tim. Blimey.

Tim: Okay, I took it too far, so HAPPY: aside from that, it’s great. Not entirely keen on the ending – it’s not just the suddenness, it’s that there’s no actual finish at all, almost like the power went out in the recording studio halfway through. Can we not have a slightly different final line, perhaps, or just some indication that it’s meant to finish here?

But still, my main complaint about this is the release date. And if that’s the worst thing about a track, then it’s a pretty good track.

Tom: The measure of a cover version, for me, is whether I turn it off and listen to the original. And here, I did. And that’s a shame.

Da Buzz feat. Jax – Tomorrow

A decent, feet off the floor, hands in the air dance tune.

Tim: Last week we had what could have been a great dance track; today, we have what is actually a great dance track.

Tom: It also sets a new record for how many syllables ‘tom-o-o-o-ah-ah-ro-o-o-ow’ can be pronounced as.

Tim: It has energy the Cielle track didn’t, it has no pacing issues, it sounds properly upbeat – this is a decent, feet off the floor, hands in the air dance tune. And I like it a lot.

Tom: It’s a bit quiet in the verses for a proper CHOON, but not enough to actually stop dancing. And you’re right: unlike Cielle, even the quiet bits still sound… well, fun, for want of a better word.

Tim: A bit of a shame that the main hook melody sounds like an Avicii rip-off, though since that was itself a sampling no-one can really complain, which is good, because I don’t want to.

Tom: It does say something about Avicii that just “a piano melody in the back of a dance tune” is enough to remind people of him. That’s a hell of a thing to have taken as your trademark.

Tim: It really is, and yet somehow he does. And that makes me want to DANCE, and with a beat like this and a voice like this I will have no problems doing so.

Cielle – Angel

This could be a great dance track.

Tim: This could be a great dance track.

Tim: But somehow, it just misses the mark, and I don’t really know why.

Tom: I think it’s her voice. Which sounds harsh, but… I think it’s her voice.

Tim: You reckon? Because pulling it apart, it’s got everything it needs – a lively (but not overly so) beat beneath the verses, a better melody for the choruses, decent singing going pleasingly over the top in the chorus, and a nice bit to go after the chorus. But somehow it seems lacking.

Tom: It doesn’t help that the song is (I think) in a minor key – which automatically sounds sad. Apologies to any musical readers – I’m simplifying it massively. Add to the fact that she’s, well, a bit off-key… and even the most powerful voice and tuneful melody won’t help.

Tim: True. I also think it’s a bit too stretched out – they’re taking four minutes to do what could be done in a three minute song. It’s let down by the padding they’ve got between the choruses – it’s nice, but I don’t think it’s enough to hold the song together.

Tom: It’s not, which is a shame: like you say, it could be a great dance track.

Timoteij – Faller

CATCHY.

Tim: CATCHY.

Tom: NAMED AFTER A SHAMPOO.

Tim: FALLER. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. OM MU OH MI EN.

Tom: The language research skills are up to their usual standard, then?

Tim: Now, that’s probably (alright, definitely) not the actual spelling, but I’m too busy waving my hands around and shouting it out tunelessly but joyously to use my vague knowledge of Swedish to write that it’s actually “om och om igen”, or “again”.

Tom: To be fair, no-one Swedish appears to have transcribed the lyrics yet, let alone translated them. But “faller” translates literally as “falling”, so I think we can work out roughly what the song’s about.

Tim: The rest of it’s pretty good as well, but for some reason that chorus line’s all I can really remember. And quite possibly all I’ll ever be able to remember ever again. Oh well. FALLER. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. LA LA LA la laa la…(fade to black)

Tom: That, and its enthusiasm, are about the only things the song’s got going for it. But they are good.