Category: Europop

Saturday Flashback: Magnus Carlsson & Alcazar – Happy, Happy Year For Us All

Like Peter Andre with sleigh bells.

Tim: Last of the festive ones and ten years old now, here’s to 2012!

Tom: Dodgy grammar in the title, and a tune that sounds like Peter Andre with sleigh bells. This doesn’t bode well.

Tim: Oh come on. It’s a lot more in the vein of tradition pop than previous weeks have been, but this still has a sizeable number of fanfares and jingly things to convey the festive spirit, as if the lyrics weren’t enough.

Tom: Despite my initial skepticism, the chorus did win me over a bit. It’s by the numbers, of course, but it’s not going to get me off the dancefloor at an office Christmas party. If I worked at an office.

Tim: Alcazar are, as we should all know, also noted for their considerable success with a cover of Last Christmas, but this has the benefit of being both original and, unusually, more about the new year than Christmas itself. It’s a very upbeat message, and who could really dislike it? Well, except for that idiot at my work who insists that if it’s not from the 80s it’s rubbish.

Tom: And a happy new year to you too, Tim.

SOJO – I Remember

It’s hard to shake off a massive feeling of resemblance

Tim: There’s not a saxophone in sight, but it’s hard to shake off a massive feeling of resemblance to Mr Saxobeat in this track from July.

Tom: Well, that’s because they’re basically the same track.

Tim: Yes – it’s such a massive feeling, in fact, that this could almost be accused of ripping it off entirely.

Tom: It’s the Jimmy Hart Version: they’ve gone “ooh, that was popular, let’s make something similar but make sure we don’t get sued”.

Tim: However, it does lack a couple of things Mr Saxobeat had, such as the male moaning about a minute in, which I always found a bit weird, and the saxophone, which to be honest I’ve been getting a bit bored of.

Tom: Really? I’m not sure it’s possible to get bored of the saxophOH WAIT YES IT IS.

Tim: Things it adds include whistling, which for some reason I seem to have started enjoying recently, like here, and her voice, which I prefer to Alexandra Stan’s, especially over the almost a capella bits. So basically, it’s like of the biggest tracks of the entire year, but a little bit better. That’s good, right?

Tom: Pity it didn’t get there a little earlier.

Stefan Raab feat. Lena Meyer – Satellite

This is how you open a Eurovision Song Contest.

Tom: Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you open a Eurovision Song Contest. And get a hit single out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXNMb5DRgN8

Tom: It’s worth mentioning that Stefan Raab is also the only Eurovision host who could reliably pull this off, too. It’s hard to describe him, because there’s no British equivalent: imagine a young Bruce Forsyth crossed with Simon Cowell and you’re vaguely in the right area.

Tim: That’s quite a crossing.

Tom: It is, but it fits: he’s their Cowell-equivalent on talent shows, he wrote the now-legendary “Guildo hat euch lieb” – yes, that one – and yet he’s still popular enough to star in a 4-5 hour light entertainment special once or twice a year.

Anyway: It’s hard for me to overstate how much I disliked ‘Satellite’, Lena’s 2010 Eurovision-winner.

Tim: As a song in general, or as a Eurovision winner? Because although I never liked it that much, I didn’t think it was too bad.

Tom: Both, really. Her bizarre pronunciation, the Ting Tings-like backing, the way the melody just kept disappearing into nothing.

Tim: All fair points, I suppose.

Tom: But as a big band number, it’s perfect, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better Eurovision opener.

Tim: I think on that note, you could be right.

Tove Styrke – Call My Name

The mud woman in the video scared me a bit.

Tim: I can’t remember why we didn’t feature this – I think it might have been because the mud woman in the video scared me a bit. Anyway, it has since become clear that it is in fact one of this year’s better songs, so let’s put that aside and have a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBrGicA8tA

Tim: First off, about that video: I haven’t a clue what’s going on, so I’ll leave it, although I will say that on occasion they seem to be doing that weird transition where they change the background but keep her face by sort of moving it around a bit; here, they’ve failed, but for a display of it looking excellent, check out C’est La Vie.

Tom: “Right, we’ve got enough budget for about two special effects shots. After that, it’s just going to be you on a bike.”

Tim: As for this song, well, like I said, one of this year’s better songs. The middle eight in particular, I do love, as I do the very last chorus with that same type of singing. On an energetic level, the verses aren’t really anywhere near the choruses, but they still don’t seem like filler, which I reckon would have been a challenge. And as for that chorus, well, it’s great, isn’t it?

Tom: It really is. Although ever since Aviici’s Levels came out, I keep wanting to hear “sometimes, I get a good feeling” after each chorus “whoa”.

Tim: It sounds like Robyn would be when she’s at her very best, and we’re left with a track you can dance to or listen to sitting down, and get an equal amount of pleasure doing either.

Tom: Which is pretty much exactly what we try to find.

Saturday Flashback: Aqua – Spin Me A Christmas

Proper old-school.

Tim: One more Christmas song for you. And since it’s Christmas Eve, how about we make it a good one?

Tom: Wait, hang on – an Aqua single I haven’t heard of? Blimey. This should be… interesting.

Tom: Ah, “Presented in AquaScope” with a drum roll! Proper old-school.

Tim: Ahem, I think you mean ‘old-skool’. It was a sort of toe-dipping in the waters of a reunion, and it seemed to do the trick. The regurgitating of the Coca-Cola/red Santa always annoys me, but René’s portrayal of a drunken Santa stumbling into his igloo does somewhat make up for that…

Tom: When the other three arrived in the first scenes of the video, I thought “where’s René?”, and then immediately thought “wait, he’ll be playing Santa, of course”.

Tim: …as do the other lyrics such as ‘all the dreams of white Christmas are getting you wet’.

Tom: “Are you ready to get stuffed like a turkey” is in there somewhere too, as well.

Tim: And “this is the season where the Wham! song damages your head” – somewhat unfair, but also somewhat true.

Tom: And this isn’t a bad track, actually – if it wasn’t a novelty Christmas song, this’d be a fairly solid Aqua single on its own.

The Storm – My Crown

How do you fancy a sort of rock/schlager blend?

Tim: So, how do you fancy a sort of rock/schlager blend?

Tom: What, like Goldschlager?

Tim: Oh, Christ.

Tom: Yeah, sorry, my puns have been disappointing lately.

Tom: The introduction kicked in, and I thought “well, that’s OK”. Then the second introduction kicked in, and I thought “that’s excellent”. The chorus is great, the verse not so much.

Tim: Well, in my view, this is pretty good all over. It’s not perfect – could probably do with cutting thirty seconds or so, and I’d prefer it didn’t have a fade-out ending – but these negative points are outweighed by the good, which include, well, the rest of it, really.

Tom: Agreed. It almost sounds like a rockier version of ABBA.

Tim: One of the nice things is the way the intro gives no clue as to the rest of the track – that bass line really doesn’t sound like much like the rest of it, which is poppier even though there’s still quite a lot of melancholiness there. The piano/guitar/other stuff instrumentation all goes along nicely, and the tone of the vocals is ever so slightly disturbing. And that’s a good thing, I think.

Mylène Farmer – Du Temps

“Remember Lonely Lisa? It’s like that.”

Tom: “She’s just released her second best-of album,” says reader Alex, “and this is the single from it. Remember Lonely Lisa? It’s like that.”

And that’s the way it is.

Tom: This has some proper old-school Eurodance-type backing to it, which makes me like it immediately.

Tim: It really does, doesn’t it?

Tom: And just as it seems to be going on a bit too long, we get a proper middle eight, followed by what Alex describes as “a KEY CHANGE MOMENT”. And what a key change moment it is.

Tim: Ooh, that’s great. Man, why doesn’t every dance track do that? Because it doesn’t sound forced, or just like it’s there to liven up a tired tune – it actually really works.

Tom: In summary: yes.

Tim: Yes. But no to that weird image just after two minutes in, because that’s just disturbing.

Tom: Fan videos: you never know what you’re going to get.

Saturday Flashback: Inga from Sweden – Inga’s XXXmas

“Inappropriate for some users.”

Tim: We had a Christmas song last week; let’s keep the December flashbacks festive, shall we? So, not to be confused with Miss Inga from earlier this year, this lady really does call herself ‘Inga from Sweden’, and back in 2007 was asking Santa for a spank because she’s lonely.

Tom: “This video may contain content that is inappropriate for some users.” Well, this should be fun.

Tom: Hahaha. Effects provided by a knock-off copy of 3D Studio Max and a terrible bluescreen. Is that by the same people who did Hooked on a Feeling?

Tim: God, I’d forgotten about that. What is it with you and the Hoff? Anyway, there are a couple of things I’m not keen about this.

Tom: Is the music one of them?

Tim: Harsh. Though somewhat fair, but no. There’s the Santa that sounds creepy as anything, and then I really hope what’s going on at 1:17 isn’t what it looks like it could be, although I’m fairly sure it is. Overall, though, this has me smiling.

Tom: Wait, really? Why? I mean, I’m generally okay with ridiculous Christmas records, but this is just terrible.

Tim: You think? It’s partially because of the general ridiculousness of the video – standing on a burning ice sheet, treading water through the ice, that utterly nightmare-inducing dancing snowman – and also the spanking sound effects. They’re entirely wrong, but they’re brilliant.

Tom: You’ve gone off your rocker. Too much brandy and chocolate?

Tim: No, still a bit too early for brandy. I’m getting through a good amount of cava, though, left over from when my parents bought several cases too many for a thing a few weeks back, and that’s a lot of fun.

Shackles – A Christmas Kiss

There are sleigh bells.

Tim: Yes, it’s time for the first of this year’s festive tracks, and we start with one which, its promoter has informed us, has just crept into the iTunes Norway Top 100. Excited?

Tom: There are sleigh bells, Tim. Apparently it is possible to be cynical and excited at the same time.

Tim: Despite the somewhat lacklustre introduction I gave this, I do like this – the music’s cheerful, with a decent helping of said sleigh bells (SLEIGH BELLS!) throughout, the video’s got happy people and festive scenes in it, and the lyrics are happy and loving.

Tom: It’s never going to be a Christmas classic, but it’s nice enough.

Tim: Well, I say happy – should you not be in a relationship with someone who makes you feel there’s magic everywhere, and are depressed about it at this typically joyous time of year, this song really won’t help. In fact it’ll probably make you feel even worse. Should probably have put a warning at the start, really.

Tom: I wonder if there are any songs about quick shack-ups at the office Christmas party?

Tim: None that leap to mind, but any that do exist are probably the ones everyones tries to forget ever happened.

SOJO – Jumping Jam

Imagine yourself a nice pot of strawberry jam.

Tim: Imagine yourself a nice pot of strawberry jam. It’s sitting there on the table, but then suddenly it starts moving.

Tom: What?

Tim: This track plays, and the motion becomes vibrant – the jar’s all over the place. Lights flash, smoke machines get going, lasers all over the place, you know the type. Got that? Good, because this song doesn’t have a video yet but that is totally what it ought to be like.

Tom: Well, with an introduction like that, I’m expecting great things.

Tom: …oh.

Tim: Yeah – if it did have that video, this song might be a bit more interesting. Actually, that sentence implies I don’t really like this, but I do, and did from the very first notes. The sudden speed-talking in the chorus comes as a surprise after the gentle crooning of the verses, and not a bad one at all.

Tom: It’s not bad, I’ll grant you, but it’s hardly going to set the dancefloor on fire.

Tim: Occasionally I get the feeling it’s going on a bit too long, but it generally comes back and sorts itself out, even if it is just with that chorus, which seems to carry a message of ‘hurry up, come along, don’t dawdle, what are you doing back there, if you don’t hurry up you’ll be sent to bed without any tea.’ And you know what? If I’d had this fifteen years ago, I might not have been so hungry on family trips to the Lake District.

Tom: I feel like I should be applauding you in some kind of group-therapy session now.