Saturday Flashback: Casablanca feat. Malena Ernman – La Voix

The excellent Melodifestivalen tradition of previous-winner-genre-mindfucks

Tom: You remember La Voix, right? It was Sweden’s entry to Eurovision in 2009, and finished in an unjustifiably low 21st place. It’s one of those fantastic crossover opera tracks that make it in occasionally.

Well, at Melodifestivalen the year after, this happened:

Tim: Ah, the excellent Melodifestivalen tradition of previous-winner-genre-mindfucks. Sometimes it fails miserably

Tom: I’ll assume that’s the reason that Casablanca – and the performances since – appear to have mimed.

Tim: …but when it works it can be terrific.

Tom: The trouble is, since the Swedish entry is generally always schlager, the new version is generally rock. I’d like to hear a schlager cover of Lordi’s ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’, say.

Anyway! Casablanca are a supergroup, comprised of members of other Swedish bands – and in my opinion, they knocked it out of the park with this one. Not to everyone’s tastes I admit – all rock vocals and guitar solos – but that ending, with Malena Ernman singing opera and Casablanca’s singer doing harmony lines that weren’t in the original? Makes it all worth it.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah it does.

Linda Sundblad – Trasig

“That kicks in with a vengeance, doesn’t it?”

Tim: Means ‘Broken’, this does, and it’s rather good.

Tom: That kicks in with a vengeance, doesn’t it?

Tim: Sound of Arrows instrumentation (ALBUM ALERT), gentle soothing vocals that match it faultlessly, with the extra effort being applied in all the right places.

Tom: If I wanted to be uncharitable, then I’d say it was Owl City instrumentation, but the song’s too lovely for that.

Tim: The middle eight is an excellent lead-in to the closing section, and lengthwise it strikes me as exactly right.

Tom: That’s what she said.

Tim: Quite probably, yes. After all, if she thought it was too long she’d have chopped bits out. Wait, no. No, please don’t say it.

What this song is perfect for, in fact, is a sunny day, when you’re lounging around in a quiet park, perhaps doing something vaguely relaxing and enjoyable. Coincidentally, right now it’s a sunny day and I’m lounging around in a quiet park doing something vaguely relaxing and enjoyable. What do you know.

Tom: A note for readers: Tim wrote this last weekend in London. I’m betting that the heavens have opened as usual since then.

Linda Pritchard – Wicked Game

In the words of Louis Walsh, she’s really made this her own.

Tim: A cover of a fairly well-known track off the 1980s, but it’s safe to say that, in the words of many a TV reality show judge, she’s really made this her own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH52UpnpKrU

Tim: Chris Isaak’s was a soulful, crooning, almost depressing number.

Tom: This starts the same way – brilliant, mournful guitar work at the start – and then it just kicks in and keeps going.

Tim: A sharp contrast, yes – very much get on the floor with your hands in the air. By and large it’s standard compilation dance mix CD stuff, but there is a big question: whether such negative lyrics match work with the upbeat vibe; this is most definitely a case of Your Mileage May Vary. Personally, I think they do, if only because, with a CHOON like this (I’m sorry, it has to be written like that for this reasoning to work), people don’t really care about lyrics.

Tom: You put a chorus drop like that in a song, and no-one will mind what you’re singing about.

Tim: Indeed – and let’s be honest, if they did mind, Scooter would have been dead before they started.

Tom: SIBERIA! THE PLACE TO BE!

Saturday Flashback: Secret Service – Ten O’Clock Postman

I can only describe that beat as righteous.

Tim: I saw this shared on Twitter recently; until then I had never heard of them, but I think this is most definitely worth a mention, because it’s fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMRzgyLY3c0

Tom: Some old school disco! I’ve not heard it before, but I can only describe that beat as righteous.

Tim: First, the song: I think it’s lovely that this bad wrote a song dedicated to a postman.

Tom: The Carpenters did the same thing, but with significantly less funk.

Tim: Second, the band: well, according to their biography on Spotify, these guys (from Sweden in the early 1980s, incidentally) have quite a distinguished background – they wrote a few Melodifestivalen entries, though nothing that won, then decided to go into the singing business. Multiple Europe-wide hits, including their first release, 1979’s Oh Susie, this one from 1980, and their biggest hit, 1982’s Flash in the Night.

They split in 1987 and the lead singer, Ola Håkansson, became part of a song writing team known as Norell Oson Bard, who then wrote all sorts of songs. (‘Bard’, by the way, is the same Alexander Bard who would later be in BWO and Gravitonas.)

Tom: And so it all becomes interconnected. If you have that urge to write music, then a band breaking up won’t stop you – you’ll just form a new one.

Tim: Absolutely. And that, children, is this weekend’s musical education and message. Wasn’t it fun?

Maria Mena – Homeless

“Now oh my word, do I have an issue with this.”

Tim: Just released a new album, this lady has. Let’s have a lead single, shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXGLS5yrVjI

Tim: Now oh my word, do I have an issue with this.

Tom: Ooh. I’ll batten down the hatches, then.

Tim: Because let’s be honest, it’s not the most inspiring song ever. Sure, it’s light, and it bounces along gently, but it’s not going to get anyone excited, is it? OR IS IT? Because from 1:30 we begin what is most definitely a warm up to something. The quiet drums are kicking in, the strings repeating themselves over and over, gradually going for something.

Tom: It’s a build. A slow build. It’s got to be leading to something.

Tim: Hasn’t it just? And then comes a moment of silence – wow, this is going to be big – then come the snare drums – OH GOD IT’S HUGE – then just WHAT. What was that. I’ll tell you: it was 30 seconds – THIRTY SECONDS – of buildup to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Tom: Musical blueballs, Tim.

Tim: I first heard of you five minutes ago, Maria Mena, but now I hate you. I BLOODY DESPISE YOU.

Tom: I think we may just listen to too many europop tracks; the cues we expect don’t always apply here.

Tim: Oh this isn’t europop expectations, this is just rules of LIFE. You don’t do that, ever. YOU JUST DON’T.

Erik Segerstedt – Break The Silence

Predictable, somewhat dull, and guaranteed to make you like it.

Tim: A former bandmate of Danny from EMD has gone back to doing solo stuff; he’s also gone back to doing songs of Pop Idol winners. Formerly it was his own; now it’s a cover of South Africa’s Jason Hartman, from 2009.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0bi-bRDmjQ

Tim: You can tell it’s a winner’s song, can’t you?

Tom: If I had a lighter, it’d be in the air.

Tim: Absolutely – the happy key, the increase in emotion towards the end – all adds up to something formulaic, entirely predictable, somewhat dull, and guaranteed to make you like it. Because that’s what these songs do.

I have no real trouble with this, mind, but for your first release as a returned-solo artist, why cover this?

Tom: Most people in his home country won’t have heard it; and if it’s already been picked as a winner’s song it’s reasonably bankable.

Tim: Yes, I suppose on some levels it’s appropriate, but it’s also boring (and almost identical to the original). Give us something good.

Tom: Oh, he’s already managed that. Something new, now that’d be worth a listen.

Elodie – Go Away

A video that’s returned all the way to the 1980s.

Tim: Yesterday I demanded a return to sensible videos; here we have a video that’s returned all the way to the 1980s.

Tom: I’m not sure that makes it ‘sensible’.

Tom: Interesting. I wonder whether it was actually filmed with 1980s tech, or whether it’s been carefully recreated with modern computers? The fancy backgrounds suggest the latter for at least part of it, but it’s hard to get that proper ‘fringing’ effect without actually pointing a camera at a monitor.

Tim: And let’s be honest, the music wouldn’t sound out of place 25 years ago either, really.

Tom: Ah, now that’s where I disagree with you. There’s a lot of newer dance stuff in there, although I’ll admit it’s not the most exciting of tracks. You’d expect a bit more from a final chorus, wouldn’t you?

Tim: You would. Ending is remarkably abrupt, which came as a bit disconcerting.

Tom: Perhaps, but I did realise why you got the 80s vibe from – that last bit sounds like the drum bit from Blue Monday.

Anna Abreu – Stereo

Lesbian antics, dancing and gambling nuns.

Tim: Last time we met, if I remember correctly, you asked of me, “Tim, why aren’t there more Swedish music videos featuring a combination of lesbian antics, dancing and gambling nuns.”

Tom: You don’t remember correctly – but I do enjoy all those things, so I’ll run with it.

Tim: Really? You couldn’t just have said, “Why yes, Tim, I did. Why do you think it is?” Anyway, it seems Anna Abreu is here to answer the question you didn’t ask: because they’d all be bloody weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMQT5B3quto

Tim: I mean really, what is going on here. This is all getting a bit ridiculous, isn’t it. Anyway, music, I suppose, is all dancy and fun.

Tom: There’s a bit of Pet Shop Boys influence in there, I think – although that might just be the bell sample reminding me of some track of theirs.

Tim: Yeah, well maybe, but I really can’t focus much on the music what with that video still in my head. What on earth, please, was going through the mind of whoever came up with that?

Tom: I don’t know, but I’m trying to work out a “bad habit” pun now. You know? Habits? They’re what nuns wear.

Tim: Yes, they are. And?

Tom: Oh, suit yourself.

Tim: The lyrics are basically her ranting to an ex-lover about how he crushed her and tore her soul to shreds and all that usual rubbish, but here we’ve got her singing and dancing like there’s not a trouble in the world.

Tom: Which I’m not sure that chorus really deserves. It does go on a bit, doesn’t it?

Tim: Bloody silly, it really is. I demand a return to sensible videos.

Pandora feat. Stacy – Why – Magistral

Fantastic electronic backing.

Tim: Pandora: A Swedish lady off the 90s, whose song ‘Why’ had a chorus being used here. (See? I do know some old stuff.)

Stacy: A Latvian person taking that song, stripping out pretty much everything but said chorus’s vocals and adding her own stuff.

Tim: ‘Her own stuff’ here being the fantastic electronic backing, the foreign singing after the choruses and the foreign rapping.

Tom: “Foreign”? Oddly, it seems to have a bit of a Lonely Island vibe to it to me – something in the cadence, I think.

Tim: Two out of those three things are great; the less said about that latter one the better, I think.

Tom: That is some lovely synth work on the backing, isn’t it? After the track gets rid of the Twilight Zone pretentions at the start, it’s really rather listenable. But yes, pity about the rapping.

Tim: Video’s interesting; I like to imagine a conversation. “Hey, Pandora? Got this Latvian bird on the phone, says she wants to use your song.” “Yeah, sure, but only if I get to play some sort of religious omniscient goddess in the video.” “Erm, hang on…yeah, she says that’s fine.” “Sorted. But I warn you, if I don’t get some fucking MASSIVE wings, I’ll throw a serious hissy fit. Oh, and I want monks dressed in binbags as well.”

Tom: Wow. It’s like I’m in the room when that happened.

Agnes – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

“Not sure about the verses, but that chorus isn’t half bad.”

Tim: She’s back with a fourth album soon, and much as I’m sure you’d like it to be, no, this first single is not a cover.

Tom: You know me too well. Although it’s an odd decision to use the same name as an Elton classic, surely?

Tim: This is good. Much better, I would go so far as to propose, than Release Me, although I never really got that – always seemed a bit too slow and non-eventful, and I much preferred On and On, which was sadly somewhat overlooked in the UK.

Tom: It takes time to kick in, but it’s worth it in the end. Not sure about the verses, but that chorus isn’t half bad.

Tim: Back to the matter in hand, though, I find the chorus somewhat disturbing: for some reason, probably the, I don’t know, whatever it is, I find myself actually wanting to break her heart. It’s sort of that the pumping-ness of it makes me want to do something, and she’s there singing at me, all about breaking her heart. So what if she doesn’t want me to do it? I want to do something, and she’s given me an idea.

Tom: I’m got an idea for a song. It’s called “Don’t Poke Yourself In The Eye”, and it’s got a banging chorus. What do you think?

Tim: Um… actually, you know what? Go ahead and record it – I’m sure I’ll enjoy hearing it more than enough to compensate. We can even review it on here.

I’m not really sure about this introduction – the dubstep style of it isn’t remotely related to the rest of the song, and it almost seems as if it’s been put there just to lure people in. It seems a bit of a cheap trick, though if it works I reckon it’ll have been worth it.

I really have that Elton John track in my head now.

Tom: So do I.