Europop – Page 38

Saturday Flashback: Chips – Dag Efter Dag

“All the pub-rock-Christmas-piano tropes, only not about Christmas. I can live with that.”

Tim: It’s DECEMBER, so Christmas tracks are just around the corner; let’s get into the mood with Sweden’s entry for Eurovision 1982, shall we?

Tom: Oh boy. Okay, folks, I’m starting this December with even less Christmas spirit than usual, so this is going to be a bumpy ride.

Tom: It sounds Christmassy because it literally has the “ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum” piano bit from All I Want For Christmas Is You in it. The whole thing’s so stereotypical that I actually started laughing.

Tim: True, except that of course it’s not a proper Christmas track – the closest we’ve ever got to that on stage would arguably be back in 1963, with Monica Zetterlund singing “Come now, and let me show you this, our winter town”. Or maybe that Luxembourg one about penguins. Hmm. Nonetheless, sprinkle some bells on this and I’d say you’ve got yourself a damn good festive feeling.

Tom: I can’t disagree: it’s basically all the pub-rock-Christmas-piano tropes, only not about Christmas. I can live with that.

Tim: Overall, it’s an “everything’s brilliant” message, and with that key change in the middle, I can only agree. You feeling it?

Tom: Weirdly, I am. I’m surprised. It won’t last.

Sigrid – Strangers

“Blimey, that starts well.”

Tim: New one off Sigrid, who had that slightly notable Don’t Kill My Vibe a few months back, which we never got round to covering. Here’s her new one.

Tim: Here, I’m confused – I’m in two minds. I can’t decide whether most of the song is fine and the ending is just an overflowing mash up of nonsense, or if the ending finally brings enough of what the song needs to work fully.

Tom: A completely different conclusion from me: blimey, that starts well. That introduction and first verse are absolutely beautiful — moody, promising, well-composed. I’m sure I’ve heard those dark-sounding synths somewhere before, but I don’t mind at all: they’re used very well.

And then there’s a great chorus too! Admittedly by the end it started to lose me — four minutes is perhaps a bit too much — but this worked for me throughout. It’s good!

Tim: Well, a few listens in, that’s what I’m coming round to: there’s a third option where actually most of the song is pretty good, and then while the ending might be a tad messy, it’s overall a perfectly decent tune. In fact actually yes, I think it’s that third option. Nice one.

ISA – I.S.A.

“If this isn’t a song about tax-free savings, I’m going to be disappointed.”

Tim: You may remember Isa from two and a half years back when she did Hairspray at Melodifestivalen, or any number of other tracks we’ve featured of hers; back catalogue notwithstanding, though, she’s chosen to do an introductory track.

Tom: If this isn’t a song about tax-free savings, I’m going to be disappointed.

Tim: I skimmed past it the first time I heard it, but then it got sent in anonymously describing it as “once again further evidence of Sweden doing Pop better than anyone else”, with a hands in the air emoji, no less. So here it is, for your judgment.

Tom: I actually startled a little on that opening line.

Tim: And, well, I’m still not entirely sold on it. The biggest problem is that after hearing it a couple of times the biggest thing I can remember from it (and so much that it pushes pretty much everything else) is that single chorus line “Isa is my name”, which is (a) a bloody stupid lyric and (b) almost entirely lacking of melody.

Tom: I know I’ve said this before, but: if you’re going to have a repetitive chorus line, it had better be a work of absolute genius. This… is not.

Tim: Sure, there’s a bit of fun sax in there, and I’m sure there’s some other stuff as well – but I can’t for the life of me remember it.

Stereoact feat. Voyce – So soll es bleiben

“I’m just not sure about this “understated” thing.”

Tim: Directly following on from yesterday, and it would appear that Kontor Records know what they like.

Tom: I was going to say “videos with women in skimpy clothing” as a quick joke, and then it turns out that’s frame one of the video. Sticking to form.

Tim: I’d be disappointed with anything else really, though that’s not where it stops. Let’s be honest, there are a lot of similarities between the two, both being understated dance-pop tracks (though this verges further towards the pop side, proper middle eight and everything).

Tom: I’m just not sure about this “understated” thing. I know there’s a place for it, but tracks like this and yesterday’s feel like they’re sitting in an uncomfortable uncanny valley between “pleasant pop ballad” and “banger”.

Tim: Perhaps, but looking at that from a different perspective they’re both nice to listen to, admittedly with nothing hugely exciting going on, and in both the most interesting part is the vocal pre-chorus. But here, I absolutely love that part. I don’t know what it is – maybe it’s a bit familiar? – but that vocal and the underlying beats just sound so great together.

Tom: I’ll admit that, by the second chorus, I think I finally figured out what they’re aiming for. It’ll take a few more tracks like this to convince me to like it — I suspect, though, that Kontor is ready to provide.

Tim: The title translates to “That’s the way it should stay”, and you know what? I really think it should.

Full Of Keys – Don’t Look Back

“Isn’t it fantastic?”

Tim: No spoilers for this; just press play and don’t read too far ahead until– well, you’ll know the bit. The big bit.

Tim: Isn’t it fantastic?

Tom: It sounds like a Madonna chorus that I never heard before. Yep, I will give you that: “the big bit” is good, particularly when the choir come in.

Tim: I was enjoying it a fair amount from the off, although it wasn’t until the chorus came along with that lovely backing and the vocal that verges on operatic at points that it really got me. After that, well, the second verse kept me hooked, introducing to us a nice string backing, then the chorus starts up again, and then, oh, AND THEN.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard — actually, it was last week with This Is Me, but before THAT — a long time since I’ve heard a choir used so well. Not overdone, but just brought in as a little bit extra to push the song up with, a way to keep the song moving forward, and sound just marvellous.

Tom: It’s a shame about the middle eight, and — if I’m honest — about the melody line and the composition. The production and vocals on this are excellent, I just wish it was a slightly better song.

Tim: Hmm, not far off what you said last time we met her. And you’re not wrong about the middle eight – but the rest is MARVELLOUS, I tell you.

Saturday Flashback: Kristina Bach – Hey ich such hier nicht den grössten Lover

“Blimey.”

Tom: I was on a coach in Germany. The driver was listening to an oldies station. For some reason, they played the Diana version of Candle in the Wind. They also played this, and, well, blimey.

Tim: Oh, oh yes blimey is exactly the right word there. There’s just…so much happening. The Eurodance beat, the Spanish guitar, that eastern European Eurovision entry “sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na”, and oh that lovely “ta da” ending.

Tom: As far as I could tell, this radio station was not having an Ironic Playlist Day. That’s genuinely on their playlist, “sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na”s and all.

Tim: It’s fun to listen to, I guess? But I can only begin to guess what the song writer was on when they put pen to paper.

Tom: I’d like to clarify, by the way, that the translation of the title is “Hey, I’m not looking for the greatest lover”. It is definitely not “biggest lover” as Google Translate suggests.

Tim: Duly noted.

NorthKid – Firefly

“All the necessary bits are there.”

Tim: New boyband off the north of Norway, nice and deep inside the Arctic circle; presumably that’s where the name comes from. Here’s their opening number.

Tim: Pretty good, right?

Tom: I was going to say “meh” until that quiet pre-chorus; that actually made me sit up and listen.

Tim: They are Helge, Bilal, Håkon, Sebastian and Vegard, and pleasingly they all seem fairly competent, always a bonus. One of them’s already been described as ‘the Zayn of the group’, which feels a bit like tempting fate to me but there you go, it’s done now.

Tom: See, that just means “first to leave” to me, but never mind.

Tim: Well, indeed. Whatever happens in the future, though, we can only judge them right now on the material they put out, and so far it’s looking promising – melody, instrumentation, production, vocals, all the necessary bits are there.

Tom: And yet, that’s not unqualified praise from either of us. When the best part is the quiet pre-chorus, I can’t give it anything more than what you said earlier: COMPETENT.

Tim: I’m not sure I’d personally choose to put this forth as a lead track to hold an album up, so hopefully there’s something a little better or more special to come later, but I’ll take it for now.

Cajsa Siik – White Noise (Forêt de Vin’s 1988 Edit)

“That was the sound of 80s-fatigue setting in for me, I think.”

Tim: Just been sent this, a remix of a track from May that we never got round to featuring. As you may be able to guess from the title, it’s kind of a ‘let’s put it back in time thirty years’ event.

Tom: That was the sound of 80s-fatigue setting in for me, I think.

Tim: Maybe, but it’s still quite nice, really, even without knowing the original – that tinkly swooshy middle eight in particular is very lovely indeed.

Tom: You’re not wrong about that — it’s lovely — but it now feels like the world has been through the 80s twice, and I’m not sure we really need to keep going. There are quite a few decades out there. I just can’t find anything to grab onto here, if that makes sense; it just sounds like some stock music that’d be in the back of an 80s soap. Nothing wrong with it, just nothing interesting either.

Tim: To be honest, even with knowing the original this is such a reworking it’s almost like a new song, and a good new song at that. Gentle vocals, nice flowing melody and all in all a rather nice listen. I like it.

Madden & Chris Holsten – All About You

“A bit like a clucking chicken”

Tim: I heard Madden’s excellent track Alive recently, and thought to myself “hmm, I wonder if Madden’s done anything else recently” and then it turns out he has. To be more precise, this, which as it happens came out just a couple of weeks back. (Oh, and the HD version of the video is at 50fps, so if you find that as distracting as I do, you might want to switch down.)

Tim: I swear, I’ll never get used to it. But the song? Well, it didn’t start promisingly, because in late 2017 that is, let’s be honest, a fairly generic voice/synth style. With competition like this, you’ve got to be very special to pull that off well, and, again let’s be honest, most of this isn’t.

Tom: And that chorus is very much a “yeah, I see what you were going for there”. A little Random Access Memories, a little… well, a little of a lot of things.

Tim: HOWEVER (and it is a however that deserves the capital letters), when the instrumental breakdown comes along (well, if we’re counting distorted vocal samples as an instrument), it picks up quite a bit, and the rest of the song from that point on is very enjoyable.

Tom: Takes a long time to get there, though, doesn’t it? More than half the song. It’s basically a song where the middle eight is better than everything else, and that’s not a good thing.

Tim: Yes – it would be vastly improved if that middle eight was brought out to be a standard post-chorus. As it is…hmm.

Tom: Also, counterpoint: those vocal samples sound a bit like a clucking chicken.

Tim: OH MY GOD they do and now every part of it is problematic. Thanks, thanks a lot.

MØ – When I Was Young

“This has quite the post-chorus, so listen out for that.”

Tim: New one off MØ, and it’s winter outside, and winter in the video, so let’s naturally set out getting a teensy bit tropical. And this has quite the post-chorus, so listen out for that.

Tim: And that’s a song.

Tom: A ringing endorsement, there. It starts out like almost it’s trying to be a Bond theme, decides not to for the chorus, and then goes somewhere else that’s both interesting and — to me, at least — a bit disappointing.

Tim: I like it, I think – or at least, having listened to it a few times now to write this I’m at least on board with it. That post-chorus did take me a bit by surprise, which I think was what prompted the repeated listens – it’s a while since we’ve a prominent brass line in a dance track, or at least one that I can think of, and it certainly works as a USP for this.

Tom: It’s… well, it’s not bad, I suppose? It’s not that I actively dislike it, I just can’t find anything to particularly like. Like you said, it has a USP at least.

Tim: Definitely more than the video, anyway, which is probably trying to have some sort of narrative but which really comes across as just a tad weird. But it’s mostly okay.