“A nice little number for you with moments of wonder”
Tim: Hanne is from Norway, and has been off for ages but now she’s back with this, a nice little number for you with moments of wonder in there.
Tim: And it’s listenable and enjoyable from the get go, really, but, as with so many songs, it was only when I reached the chorus that it really took hold of me, because it has a lovely melody to it. So lovely, in fact, that I’d swear I’ve heard it, or a very similar one, previous to this, but I’m damned if I can work out what it is.
Tom: Really? ‘Cos I thought you’d have spotted that one right away. It is a lovely chorus melody, and it’s from someone we’ve talked about a lot here.
Tim: Regardless, it’s very lovely indeed. Actually, no, not regardless. It is lovely, but every time I hear it I am reminded of the other one. But WHAT IS IT, TOM? WHAT IS IT?
Tim: Proposition: we make this week all about last Friday, because damn there was a lot of good stuff. Take this, from the Swedish singer who’s just finished supporting McFly on their Anthology tour (which was fairly good, but THEY DIDN’T PLAY STARGIRL).
Tim: She’s styled herself as MY, and there seems to be absolutely no bio information about her on any of her social medias, so there’s no chance of anyone Googling her ever; she confessed though that she grew up listening to Abba and then discovered Nirvana, which kinds of explains the style of the track.
Tom: Really? I’m not sure I hear much Nirvana in there. Although to be fair, you can basically say that Nirvana has influenced anyone who’s ever picked up an electric guitar since the early 90s, so never mind. The track.
Tim: And what a track it is – I did think it got stupidly loud and raucous the first time I heard it, but then I realised I had it playing in two tabs at once which let’s face it rarely gives an optimal audio experience. On its own, that is exactly as loud and raucous as it should be, and excellently, the verses don’t seem too quiet in comparison, which is quiet an achievement when you consider that actually they are quite quiet.
Tom: For me, it suffers from the problem that I can’t remember it, can’t sing along with it. It might be a grower: but for us, where we’re looking at one track a day and mostly done on first impressions, that’s not great. I guess it’s… competent?
Tim: Fair enough. I see her as an excellent popstar in the making, with other tracks coming which will surely be equally very good.
“A much better instrumental/synth backing than the vocal itself.”
Tim: The video won’t make any sense at all until I tell you that ‘dyrene’ is Swedish for ‘animals’, and if I’m honest it won’t exactly make much sense even when you do know that. Try the song, though.
Tom: I enjoyed that! I don’t know why I enjoyed that, though.
Tim: I’d posit a theory: it’s a rare example of a song with a standard vocal-focused pop structure, but, for me at least, a much better instrumental/synth backing than the vocal itself.
Tom: Yes — you’re absolutely right. Why does that chorus synth sound so good? By all rights, something that distinctive should just annoy me, but it doesn’t: it’s great.
Tim: It is, so don’t get me wrong, the vocal is still perfectly on point and I can’t complain about it (though I’ve no idea what it means so can’t comment on the tone of it). That backing under the chorus and coming after it, though, is just beautiful. Maybe it is helped by the vocal on top–
Tom: Maybe that’s it: it’s distinctive enough to be noticed, but the vocal stops it being repetitive.
Tim: –but it’s good enough that I don’t care about the simple chorus line being repeated four times after the middle eight. I think it’s WONDERFUL.
“There’s the old mantra of ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’…”
Tim: There’s the old mantra of “don’t bore us, get to the chorus”, which is all well and good – no-one likes to be kept waiting for a song to get going, as we found out yesterday. On the other hand, sometimes it gets taken to an extreme, and then you feel a tad let down afterwards. For example.
Tom: Oh, that starts well!
Tim: Indeed – a massive start, indicating the song will also be huge throughout. Except, no, suddenly it’s as though the song starts as Wile E. Coyote running at top speed just as he passes the cliff edge, and then screeches to a halt and thinks “hang on, I can’t keep this up” and drops miles and miles and miles until it can drop no further.
Tom: That’s true, but I reckon it works: and it sounds a bit like OneRepublic. This is really, really good. I actually enjoyed that first verse.
Tim: Oh, it’s certainly not unenjoyable – it starts up again soon enough, that backing under the first verse is perfectly decent, and when the chorus comes back it’s just as good as it was the first time. To be honest, this would be a perfectly good enough song if it didn’t have that first chorus, and in my mind better as it wouldn’t suffer from the missed expectation. So start it 19 seconds in, I’ve no problems at all. Easy.
Tom: I’ll be starting it at the beginning, repeatedly. This is one of my favourite songs of the last few weeks, Tim — it’s good.
“Just something nice to have on in the background to relax to.”
Tim: It’s Friday, Tom, so guess what?
Tom: Flares are back in fashion?
Tim: Erm, wasn’t where I was immediately going, though if you want we can do that. But mainly: LET’S GET TROPICAL!
Tim: Summer’s drawing to a close, and the dance tunes are on the way out; that is, thankfully, no reason for pineapple juice to disappear, always hanging around ready to be sprayed on to any pop song that wants it, such as this, from a pair of Finns.
Tom: Pineapple juice mist? That just sounds unpleasant and sticky. Which is also what I’m starting to think about a lot of these tropical-house tracks. Kygo has a lot to answer for.
Tim: Maybe, but I like this: nice vocal, with a pleasing gentle instrumental. The slight chanting vibe in the chorus, encouraging us to sway side to side in time with that up and down chorus line. Nothing too exciting, just something nice to have on in the background to relax to.
Tom: I guess I can deal with that. It’s not spectacular, but it’s not terrible either.
Tim: Other thing to like: the video, coming as it does with an almost certainly coincidental sunset vibe serving as a pleasing metaphor for the genre, for the time being at least. Like any setting sun, it’ll surely rise again; maybe in March, or maybe not for another few years when Kygo’s wallet runs dry. Or maybe even next Friday, I’ll keep you posted.
“I don’t really see what I’d put either side of this to fit in.”
Tim: Madden is Swedish, here’s his second single; starts out as a nice gentle ballad and then goes…elsewhere.
Tim: And although it sounds clear listening back a second time, despite that build I entirely failed to see that breakdown coming, and had a massive “whoa, what the HUH” moment.
Tom: I was more surprised by the very start of that build: just that simple synth surprised me. The breakdown was predictable, but not any worse for it.
Tim: Right – after a second or two, once I’d calmed down, I realised I really liked it. All of it, in fact, and yet in very different ways. I can’t help thinking this might slightly hurt the track – it wouldn’t fit well on a ballad playlist, and it wouldn’t fit particularly well on a dance music playlist.
Tom: Yep. This isn’t danceable, and it isn’t calming. BUT: you could say that about a lot of Aviici tracks.
Tim: Very true. I would, I suppose, play it if I wanted to hear this track in particular – and I can see that happening – but I don’t really see what I’d put either side of this to fit in. Still, who wants playlists? I’ve heard this five times while writing this, and I’m not really getting tired of it. PLAY IT AGAIN.
“Let’s call it inspiration rather than ‘bandwagon we totally jumped on’.”
Tim: Here’s a synthy track for you, and, well, have you seen Stranger Things?
Tom: No: it’s not really my sort of show.
Tim: Fair enough. There is reasoning for my question, though – have a listen, then I’ll explain.
Tim: Thing is, I’ve a hunch that people’s feelings for this may somewhat mirror their attitudes to the TV show. “You like 80s stuff? Well then here’s the song for you!”
Tom: And if you think that the majority of songs from the 80s were a bit rubbish, same as the majority of songs from any decade, and that the only reason we look back at the 80s with such nostalgia is that all the terrible music has been forgotten in hindsight, and that all the retro 80s bars and radio stations play from essentially a list of a few hundred tracks at most…
Tim: Well, look at you cutting all the bullshit right down to size. I don’t know, I may be being too cynical here – God knows it wouldn’t be the first time – but given that this is a fair break from her previous tracks, I can’t shake the idea that someone thought “hey, 80s nostalgia really is massive right now, isn’t it? I’m having A LOT of that”.
Tom: Right. But 80s nostalgia has always been massive. We’ve had so many resurgences of it.
Tim: True. But specifically in this instance: there’s a line on her website, that says “Bonus points if you can tell me what inspired the song.” I’d say the answer is blindingly obvious, and perhaps someone else thought “hang on, we’re gonna get flak for this? Let’s call it inspiration rather than ‘bandwagon we totally jumped on’.”
Tim: At the end of July you gave Tropical Fridays a month; with one exception last week when a brilliant track took priority, I’m pleased to inform you we’re still going strong. This got brought out in March, but is now being given an extra push, just as the clubbing season draws to a close. Nope, me neither, but here it is.
Tom: They really need to put some capitals in his Vevo account name, because I keep reading it as “mad slanger”. Anyway. This is pretty mediocre, isn’t it?
Tim: Hmmm….well…kind of, yes, and so you may well be asking yourself “has Tim brought along this largely unremarkable track just because it has tropical undertones and he wants to drag Tropical Fridays out as long as possible just to prove Tom wrong?” Well, I won’t answer that question directly, but I will say that there’s a remix available by someone called Tortuga on most of your standard streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify, but annoyingly nowhere that’s embeddable.
Tom: Doesn’t help your case now, though, does it?
Tim: No. No, it doesn’t really. Balls.
Tom: As ever, this is one of those generic tracks where the middle eight is the best part. Doesn’t speak well for the rest of the song.
Tim: Well, that remix is a bit more worth a listen than this original, mostly because it’s more summery and dancey and worthy of the tropical title. A bit messy in places, as it doesn’t really seem to know where it’s going, but have a listen if you can, why don’t you.
Tim: Welcome back Tom! How do you fancy a BANGER to get right on with?
Tom: That’s the best offer I’ve had in three weeks. And thanks to Adam for keeping things going while I was out of commission. Who’s this then?
Tim: Well, ‘Felicity’ is entirely unGooglable, and there is precisely no biographical information on any of her social medias, but various tweets indicate that if she isn’t Swedish she at least lives in Sweden; Project 46, meanwhile, are easily discoverable as Canadian and provide the vocals. That’s the admin out of the way, so here’s the track (with apologies for the couple of f-bombs that are dropped).
Tim: See what I mean? BANGER, and not one I would have the remotest problem dancing to. It has more or less everything it needs to be a hit, to be honest – the big beat, the decent melody, the half-arsed lyrics that if we’re honest are only there so it appeals to more than just fans of thumping beats.
Tom: Agreed. This is one of those surprisingly good tracks that you’d find in the middle of a Ministry of Sound compilation — the sort that you’ve never heard of, but which make you sit up in the middle of an otherwise undifferentiated pile of “thump thump thump”. It’s even got that standard euphoric-build three quarters of the way through it.
Tim: It almost certainly won’t be a hit – for starters, it’s off an EP entitled “Summer Feels” which is enough to make any sensible person run a mile rather than have it lurking forever it in their streaming history – but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. Enjoy it a lot, in fact. Let’s DANCE.
Tim: Lollo herself sends this our way, telling us that “it’s a melody-based, space-themed pop song, written by me; Lollo Manford, a Swedish pop artist and songwriter.”
Tim: And oh, I hate being critical when artists send in their own stuff, but presumably she’s up for it: this is sort of okay.
Adam: I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings! I feel bad enough not knowing if the artist will read this but I know this will. I’ll try and go easy on you Lollo!
Tim: The melody, I can cope with. It’s good enough. The production: not bad.
Adam: I think the underlying songwriting is actually very positive. The production sounds a little dated to me. I think if the instrumentation was switched up a bit this would be a much more attractive to listeners.
Tim: See, I’m fine with the instrumentation. But the lyrics? Oh, Lollo, no. I’m sorry, but that chorus just sounds like you’ve got one line you like in one hand and a rhyming dictionary in the other. “Stars right in my face,” that sounds okay. But the other two. “Dressed only in lace” is, let’s be honest, about as clunky as you can get. And “Singing my own phrase”? Sorry love, but someone’s already taken it.
Adam: I’ve been writing music and lyrics for around ten years and I’m still rubbish at it! It takes a lot of work like everything else. Is English Lollo’s primary language? I think she can be forgiven if it isn’t. Just keep working at it and in the future Tim won’t be so mean. Or maybe he will – haters gonna hate, right?
Tim: No, I’ll always be complimentary when I can – though somewhat contradicting that, the less said about that lyric video the better, really. A piece of advice for the future: don’t just take Windows Movie Maker and go through the effects one at a time.
Adam: Yeah… The music video isn’t great. I think the most important thing though is that it’s a good song, it just requires a bit more finesse.
Tim: I’ll try to finish on a positive – the music, I would listen to again. As an instrumental or with other lyrics, because there’s nothing wrong with the vocal. But find a lyricist, or a bigger rhyming dictionary.
Adam: This is the last time I’ll be reviewing tracks on this blog for the time being since Tom is back from the Arctic Circle. I hope you’ve all enjoyed my words and I haven’t been too negative! I’m glad I could end my time here writing something positive. Maybe in the future you’ll see me around again?
