Europop – Page 113

Diandra – Out Of My Head

She has come out with a proper TUNE.

Tim: Recent winner of the Finnish variant of the Idol brand, Idols, she has come out with a proper TUNE. (That’s, like a CHOON, but not quite a full-on dance track. You’ll see what I mean.)

Tom: I agree. That is a TUNE. With a T.

Tim: I started listening to this up to the first chorus, thought, ‘Yeah, it’s okay,’ and swiftly stuck it in a background tab. Thirty seconds later I thought the song was about to finish, so I went back to it, and then realised it was still only in the second chorus. Now, that’s a lot of words for a fairly dull story, but it demonstrates what I’m about to say: this song has HUGE choruses, and I LOVE THEM.

Tom: There’s something about those simple, up and down the scale choruses that just work, isn’t there?

Tim: Simple? Melodically, maybe, but other than that, not a chance – there’s so much to them that calling them simple is just plain rude. It’s not all great: the first part of the middle eight goes on far too long for my liking, and that long note before the closing part is positively yearning to be followed by a key change, but that aside this song’s a right good number.

Tom: The ghost of Tony Blackburn taking you over for a moment, there. He’s right, mind you.

Jesse Kaikuranta – Vie Mut Kotiin

I spent the first minute of this hoping that it kicked in.

Tom: An anonymous reader sends this in, from The Voice of Finland contender Jesse Kaikuranta, along with a translation of the lyrics that I’ll add below in the comments. Very thoughtful, but it’s for a reason: “I think Finnish is one of the world’s most beautiful languages,” they add, “especially in his mouth.”

I spent the first minute of this hoping that it kicked in…

Tom: …and it does, but never for long enough, never quite enough.

Tim: Seriously? I think it gets it exactly right.

Tom: It’s a slow tease of a song, too slow, and that left-channel woodwind in the middle-eight is distracting rather than fitting.

Tim: You really think? Because I think it’s just lovely. It’s not often that I’ll go straight back to the beginning of a track after a first hearing, and especially not with a slow song, but this is just, well, lovely.

Tom: But oh, that last chorus. We’ve complained before that a song can start so heavy that it has nowhere to go: well, this goes somewhere wonderful, just not quite for long enough.

Tim: I disagree. It starts weak, sure, bit then when the chorus hits you realise it’s meant to be like that, and that actually it works. It’s all wonderful.

MOMOFOKO – We Know

“It’s…huh. Pretty good. Um.”

Tim: Previously, on Europlop!, we tried to listen to Still Need To Dance but ended up complaining that it was more of a film with a musical backing. Now, they’ve pointed us in the direction of their new track. So what’s the video like?

Tom: For a start, it’s got brief shots of a topless woman, blood and injury, and other occasionally inappropriate things in it, so viewers at work may want to keep this in a background tab.

Tim: Good point. Unless you work in a fishmonger’s, in which case you may use it as a training video.

Tom: Other than that, it’s largely nonsensical.

Tim: Well, full of destruction, which is always fun, but even better than that, it doesn’t interrupt the music! So let’s review that properly.

It’s…huh. Pretty good. Um. Part of me thinks that the bloke shouting/girl chanting combination jars a bit, but part of me thinks it works well. Though to be honest, a larger part of me is somewhat indifferent and reckons that while they’re both decent, it’s the backing music that really stands out here.

Tom: Solid drums and keyboard in the background, true – but that voice is good, too.

Tim: It is, and actually, on a second listen, I want to change my opinion. I now think it’s great, because I’ve got it. The ahh-ah-ahhing works as a nice complement to the backing bit, and the bloke singing over the top should be seen as the main vocal bit. That way, it’s almost a sort of instrumental chorus, and it’s lovely. And also contrasts somewhat with the whole destruction thing going on in the video, which is…interesting?

Tom: I think “interesting” just about sums it up.

Straight Up! – Family

Crikey, has Lady Gaga gone and got herself a beard now?

Tim: Yesterday we discussed the Stockholm Pride 2012 song, and I reckoned it wasn’t as good as it could have been. This has reinforced my view, because, well, just listen to it.

Tom: Crikey, has Lady Gaga gone and got herself a beard now*? Because the movements and style of Bearded Man do seem a bit… “inspired by”.

* Heh. That joke works on at least two levels.

Tim: They do, don’t they? And that is just one reason why I reckon this would have been a vastly better choice. I don’t know how these things get chosen, but musically it’s just as, if not more, clubbing and banging and all that than Lena’s track, and it’s lyrics where it stands out. I still don’t know what yesterday’s one means…

Tom: Although to be fair, that’s because you don’t speak Swedish.

Tim: Fair point, but these ones are definitely sending out the right message – about coming out unafraid, fighting against anyone saying no and showing people why they’re proud. And all that’s just in the first verse, before we get to the chorus about taking a stand together as one family.

Tom: While I’m being a bit childish, by the way: he also pronounces “duty” as “doody”.

Tim: Yes, yes he does. Well done. The band themselves describe themselves as, would you believe it, an “unambiguously gay duo”…

Tom: That may or may not be a plan on Saturday Night Live’s “Ambiguously Gay Duo“, which is worth a watch. If you’re not at work. (And yes, that’s Stephen Colbert.)

Tim: Nice. And they did actually do last year’s official song, so maybe the organisers didn’t want the same band two years running or something. But still, Lena’s track’s rubbish compared to this.

Tom: There, I can agree.

Lena Phillipsson – Du Följar Väl Med (SoundFactory Pride Mix)

Ehh. Don’t know what to think.

Tim: Official Stockholm Pride 2012 anthem, this is, and a remix of a single from earlier this year.

Tim: Ehh. Don’t know what to think. It’s big, it’s brash, it’s dancey – at least, it is for the most part.

Tom: Well, mainly the second part.

Tim: Yes, that’s the problem – the first verses just seem a bit dull, which is a real shame. When pretty much everything from two minutes on is as big as it is, it just seems a shame to waste the first half of the track, when you could build this up into something right from the start, especially if you’re making a remix. They’ve already made it significantly more lively than the (not remotely dull to start with) original, but, why not go all the way?

Tom: I think part of this might be the compression we’re hearing on the web version – it seems rather low-quality and dull, as if it’s been crushed within an inch of its life. I rarely hold truck with the audiophiles who claim there’s a major difference with MP3 audio… but I wouldn’t mind hearing a slightly higher-bandwidth version of it.

Tim: Yes, that may be part of it. It also doesn’t help that I have no idea what the lyrics are. Google isn’t hugely helpful with the title, and I can’t find actual lyrics anywhere. WHY CAN’T I SPEAK SWEDISH?

Agnes – One Last Time

Whoa. That is emotional.

Tim: Remember Agnes, off of four years ago?

Tom: Nope.

Tim: Yes you do, you know, her.

Tom: Oh, her.

Tom: Whoa. That is emotional.

Tim: Bit different, isn’t it? Previously was CLUB BANGER, but now we have beat-heavy ballad, and I like it. Partly because it’s been a while since I heard a song where the emotion of the lyrics is mirrored so perfectly in both the delivery of them and the music behind them.

Tom: Sinéad O’Connor’s version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” comes to mind. Not because this song’s equal to it – it’s a good track, but it’s not that good – but becaues it has that perfect match between vocals and instrumentation.

Tim: Right. Normally something seems a tad off – maybe it’s a bit too fast, or the voice is too excited – but here it just seems to work. She’s not too over-the-top screamy desperate, and the music’s got just the right amount of, well, whatever it is that it needs to be right. (That made sense in my head, I promise.)

Tom: Once I parsed that sentence, I can only agree.

Tim: It’s even there in the video – the quiet longing, not overplayed but just enough to really get you if you’re feeling a bit emotional. Basically, here everything goes together perfectly, and because of that, full marks.

Tom: It’s a proper break-up song. If you’re in the mood for that, well, it will do the job nicely.

Youngblood – American Girlfriend

This song is ridiculous.

Tim: Youngblood: a newish Swedish boyband, who had a flop debut single last year, announced themselves vaguely successfully to the world at Melodifestivalen, and are following up with this.

Video link

Tim: Right. First off, let’s get the inevitable out of the way: this song is ridiculous.

Tom: “Fell in love, face first?” No. You can fall in water face first. Or, if you’re Biff from Back to the Future, you can fall in manure face first. You can’t fall in love face first.

Tim: That’s what you’re going for first? Because musically, it’s standard boyband fare, so not particularly interesting, but lyrics-wise, it’s a whole other ball game. We have a Swedish band singing about how they know London so well, but desperately want a girl from New York. It makes no sense, and to be honest it wouldn’t remotely surprise me if this is a song that got rejected by One Direction’s management.

Tom: That’d explain the London references: switch it to a British band and it all makes sense. In fact: that’s pretty much the only explanation, sure?

Tim: Probably, yes, but it’s it’s not like it’s just the lyrics. There’s also the video, which opens with them encouraging a group of girls who’ve doubtless never heard of them before to sing along to their last song, and then mostly appears to have been shot with Instagram filters for no good reason whatsoever.

Tom: Ever since I’ve moved to London, videos like this annoy me. It’s the kind of thing that, as a Londoner, I’m going to have to grumpily navigate around as I make my way through the city.

Tim: Huh, see I quite like things like that. Like when I’m watching Fringe and I see a part of Vancouver I recognise, I’m a bit “Ooh, I know that.” Though admittedly it’s getting a bit dull now it’s London.

Anyway, stupid and ridiculous as this song is: I love it.

Tom: What?

Tim: I think it’s great. I can’t write that without laughing at myself for thinking it, but as far as I’m concerned it’s fantastic. And you won’t convince me otherwise.

Tom: It’s a fine line between “formulaic but good” and “utter pap”, and this falls squarely on the wrong side of that line.

Tim: Probably, but I DON’T CARE.

Saturday Flashback: Nadia Ali – Rapture (Avicii Remix)

Out go the drums and synthy stuff, in come the pianos and tinkly stuff.

Tim: ELEVEN YEARS AGO: iiO released their track ‘Rapture‘ which was massive pretty much everywhere that had nightclubs. Or, more accurately, music in general.

A FEW YEARS BACK: Nadia Ali, who did the singing, split from producer Markus Moser.

ABOUT EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO: she re-recorded the song, got it remixed by everyone’s favourite Swedish bloke called Tim, Avicii, and then re-released it.

IN FEBRUARY: it suddenly started getting radio airplay here, apropos of nothing in particular.

NOW: it’s June and therefore SUMMER(ish), so we’ll listen to it.

Tom: My word, that’s either excellent genes, excellent makeup, or she was ten years old when she sang the original of this. Not that it matters, of course, but, well, yes.

Tim: So, out go the drums and synthy stuff, in come the pianos and tinkly stuff. And then fairly different drums and synthy stuff, because they’re like a legal obligation or something. And to be honest, I’m not sure about this. I first looked it up because Dev, Satan’s gift to Radio 1, talked about it on the radio a while back.

Tom: I do wonder why you listen to Radio 1 if all you’re going to do is come up with witty insults about it. …wait, never mind.

Tim: I never heard Dev play it, and now I’ve listened to it – it’s less of a remix and more a completely different track.

Tom: For those of us who listen to a lot of mashups – in other words, me – that’s not a problem. Let’s not forget Tiesto’s ‘He’s A Pirate‘, which is pretty much the record-setter for how little of an original you can include to still qualify as a remix. I rather like it.

Tim: Oh, I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just that, well, the vocals are there, sure, although I’ve got to say I don’t recognise the second verse she sings. Underneath them, though, is standard ‘hurry up and finish so we can get to the epic breakdown’ piano stuff, and after that, well, like I say, a completely different track.

Like I said, I don’t dislike it – I’d probably really enjoy it if I’d not heard the original, or if it had some other vocals on it. It’s just not remotely was I was expecting, or, I suppose, hoping it would be, and that puts me off it.

Tom: It works for me. And after all, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been dubstep.

Håkan Lidbo feat. Jessica Folcker & Cleo – Electric

Blimey, I’d have hated this last year.

Tim: Brace yourself, because if I heard this on the radio my initial instinct would be to throw the radio out of the window. It is, on first hearing, roughly as far out of our comfort zone as we could go short of ending up in Miss Trunchbull’s chokey.

Tom: Have you seen Matilda the Musical recently, by any chance?

Tim: It’s BRILLIANT. They make CHALK WRITE ON A BLACKBOARD.

Tom: Doesn’t all chalk do that? Oh, wait. On its own. Right.

Tom: Blimey, I’d have hated this last year. Dubstep – and all the associated electro genres that it’s dragged with it, ‘cos this sure as hell isn’t pure dubstep – has got its way into my head.

Tim: It first appeared as an interval act in a Melodifestivalen heat earlier this year, and was the point at which I realised I needed the loo. But on hearing this again three months later, my musical tastes have been mushed around enough that I actually like it. I know I said last week that I was bored of SUMMER ANTHEM CHOONS, but this is (currently) so far away from generic that I think it’s great.

Tom: I wouldn’t have counted it as an anthem until it goes to traditional four-on-the-floor at 1:45 – at which point I reckon I could dance to it.

Tim: Underneath the dubstep, every now and again you can hear echoes of the original Electric by Leila K from 1995 that this is a vague cover of (made slightly obvious by the somewhat misleading shout of ‘Leila K in the house’), and, well, that sounded quite ahead of its time back then, much as this sounds today. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of next year’s club tunes sounded like this. That’s not a bad thing, mind – as long as they’re not almost exactly like this.

Tom: I’ve got to admit, though: I don’t really like the track. I love the backing and the style, but the vocals and melody do nothing for me. Which is a shame, because there’s a great song in there waiting to come out.

Tim: Well, give it twelve months. By the way, I don’t suppose you can tell me which early-00s dance tune the backing not-drum bit that occasionally occurs, including 3:18-3:21, reminds me of, can you? It’s annoying me.

Tom: Not a clue, other than “generic dance tune”.

Tim: Fair enough.

Emma Lewin – Tro, Hopp & Kärlek

That’s more syrupy than a maple sap convention.

Tim: Tom, if you’d be so good as to reach behind you and sound the SCHLAGERTASTIC SIREN, we can begin.

Tom: WOOP WOOP! That’s the sound of… oh. The police, apparently. I think I’ve lost my siren.

Tom: Oh god, that’s more syrupy than a maple sap convention. (Sorry about that: sound the APPALLING ANALOGY SIREN, please.)

Tim: WOOP WOOP! That’s the sound of the APPALLING ANALOGY SIREN – I look after my toys. But it is syrupy, isn’t it, and beautifully so.

It’s all in there from the intro – the annoyingly upbeat singing, the gentle ‘start tapping your feet NOW’ tune behind it. Admittedly the verse isn’t all that, but the chorus is something you’ll either loathe or, if you’re sensible (and if you’re reading this you probably are), not be able to help swaying to, desperately trying to keep your hands by your side rather than waving them in the air like a commuting nutjob.

Tom: I was all ready to loathe it, and then I realised that my foot was automatically tapping along. DAMN YOU LEWIN.

Tim: And then there’s the obligatory you-know-what.

Tom: Voldemort? Oh, key change, got it.

Tim: It’s not as spectacular as it might be.

Tom: Neither was Voldemort. He gets the wind machines and pyrotechnics, but does he have backup dancers? No. He’d never win Eurovision, that’s for sure.

Tim: Well, the closest thing he’d have would be backup dementors, and they’d really kill the mood. But if we could move back to reality for a second, I’d have liked some sort of musical explosion in the background for said key change, even though that would sound totally out place, but we can’t have everything. But you know the best thing? This doesn’t sound out of date. Schlager’s a style of music that by all rights should be dancing around on a zimmerframe by now, but it’s been put together so well that it would fit in fine on any 2012 dancefloor. Top marks.