Europop – Page 53

Sara Sangfelt – Love Me

“The surf guitar in the verses is like Bond Theme 101 for building tension.”

Tim: A title that some might see as a tad needy; music to very much back that up.

Tim: So basically WOWZERS. Gets off to a nice gentle electro start (curiously but pleasingly reminiscent of one of the best soundtracks of recent times), tension generated from that as we wonder exactly what’s coming.

Adam: If we’re talking soundtracks, I’m definitely getting a James Bond vibe from this. The surf guitar in the verses is like Bond Theme 101 for building tension.

Tim: Before long we find out we’re waiting, and it’s worth it, or at least she really really wants us to think that it is because my word can that lady put the effort in. And unlike the woman I’ve just watched on The X Factor, she’s actually got some decent singing talent to go with it.

Adam: When I think about The X Factor the first thing that comes to my mind definitely isn’t decent singing talent.

Tim: Oh, you’re one of those. God knows the X Factor, and its brethren. aren’t without their flaws, but you don’t get far without at least some musical talent. Well, most of the time.

Adam: Trying too hard however…

Tim: Yes there is that – less good points include the aforementioned desperation, because blimey we are in no doubt of how much she WANTS IT.

Adam: Well she was a competitor on Swedish Idol so maybe that’s where she gets it from.

Tim: And also the discovery that she still relies on her mum for emotional support, but then completely ignores the advice she’s given, is also a tad jarring.

Adam: I never relied on my mum for emotional support. I turned out alright, right? Look at me writing reviews on pop stars and their music. And not an ounce of bitterness about me!

Tim: Hmm, well, let’s focus on the track shall we? Musically: for a LET’S GET SHOUTY track, I don’t think I can fault it.

Adam: Oh yeah, I love a good Bond Theme.

Lisa Ajax – Love Me Wicked

“I’m starting to regret suggesting that Fridays be Tropical Fridays”

Tim: Friday’s here, so grab yourself a pineapple for today’s TROPICAL TUNE.

Tim: Hmm. To be honest I’m starting to regret suggesting that Fridays be Tropical Fridays, because let’s face it there is basically nothing notable about this and there are better tracks we can feature. However, four weeks ago Tom said it’d only last a month and I am entirely determined to prove him wrong, so let’s do our best with what we’ve got. And it’s, okay, I guess?

Adam: I’d say you’ve timed it perfectly because the weather’s been pretty tropical lately.

Tim: Oh that’s certainly true – it’s just the one a week thing might have been pushing it, as there’s really not a lot to say here. The melody’s decent enough, the tropicalness is all there as it should be, and she’s got a decent singing voice.

Adam: Another jittery chorus here to haunt you Tim! I’m not a big fan of it this time round. I think the fade effect on Lisa’s vocal does a bit of a disservice to her voice. The beat has enough of a bounce without artificially introducing more. One time is fine but it’s a bit overkill to do it over and over again.

Tim: I suppose it’ll fit fine on a “flight to Hawaii” playlist, but in future can we have less of a “this’ll do” attitude please.

Adam: It does a good job of transporting me to another place. That place is a dark club with sticky floors, sweaty dancers, and Malibu & pineapple juice/Sambuca shots.

Tim: Eurgh. Given they were probably going for summery beach resort, that’s probably not a compliment.

Adam: I guess it could be in Hawaii. Maybe it’s the song or maybe it’s just this heat!

Laila Samuels – Last Day Of Our Lives

“That video makes it incredibly difficult for me to like this song.”

Tim: Still just me, which may be for the best – we all know how Tom in particular feels about kids choirs in songs, and its no safe bet that anyone else would like them either. Basically, if you’ve got a thing about them, you’ll want to switch off at about the 3:20 mark.

Tim: And I’m left wondering what on Earth Laila is doing there? Positioning herself as some sort of second coming, surrounding herself with people who love her as a miracle worker and then viciously eject people who disagree with them. Good thing we don’t do politics on this site, or I could draw all sorts of comparisons that might lose me some friends.

To be honest, that video makes it incredibly difficult for me to like this song. Sometimes gentle and brooding is a good thing, and sometimes it’s just dull. Sometimes kids choirs can be inspirational, and sometimes they can be mediocre. On both those counts, this song seems to be on the borderline, and that video just pushes her right into negative territory. Sorry, Laila – be a bit less self-infatuated next time, and I might be on your side, but right now: nope.

Galavant feat. Clara Mae – Parachute

I really don’t think I could dance to that at all.

Tim: Readers, Tom is currently off swanning around in the arctic circle, because that’s the sort of thing he does; in the meantime, temporary recruit Adam is here to fill in. Say hello Adam!

Adam: Hello Adam!

Okay, now I’ve got that seriously bad dad joke out of the way–

Tim: I’d be disappointed if you hadn’t made it, to be honest.

Adam: –we can actually get to know each other.

My name’s Adam, I’m 27 years old and I’m a serial underachiever. Basically I’m no Tom Scott, so go easy on me.

My only exposure to Europop has been (drunkenly) watching Eurovision. I do like to call myself a musician though so maybe I can bring something to the table.

Tim: Adam, you won’t know this, but we featured Galavant just a couple of weeks ago; They’re a pair of Swedish producers who’ve now roped in the similarly Swedish Clara Mae, who presumably has a surname but it seems we’re not destined to know it,

Adam: I’ve done my research!!! I listened to Make Me Feel and I definitely think this has more on offer.

Never heard of Clara Mae before.

Tim: Me neither, as it happens, and I can’t find out much about her, sorry.

I feel like you need to be a bonafide star to be known on first-name basis.

Tim: Oh, you’d be surprised. I’m not sure how much I like that. Last time Tom criticised Galavant a bit for going nuts on the volume slider, with the instrumental chorus line going up/down/up/down/up/down several times a second.

Adam: Nowadays you can’t complain when an artist tries to make things a little more dynamic.

Tim: Oh, he wasn’t – that styles’s almost a cliché now – but to be honest I’ve come round to in a lot. Here, in contrast, they’re just on/off/on/off, and I really don’t think that works at all. It’s just way too staccato, and I really don’t think I could dance to that at all.

Adam: I’ve seen you dance. What did we say? “It’s like having a seizure in time to the music”.

Tim: Yes, but it just stops too much. A shame, because the rest of it’s good – she’s got a perfectly decent vocal, the melody’s fine – just that chorus production.

Adam: Nooo! I think the chorus is it’s redeeming factor. There’s no real hook but at least the chorus has some movement to it.

Tim: First track, first disagreement. I think we’ll got on just fine.

STEELE – Deep Water

“I expected there to be some sort of earthshattering kaboom.”

Tim: You may remember STEELE from her previous single Follow, or at the very least the description that came with it, including amongst other wonders “a musical maze that’s full of emotion and passion”. That metaphor clearly worked for her, because here we have “a dark maze of large soundscapes and dreamy melodies”.

Tom: I’m not sure “maze” is a good metaphor for songs. After all, surely you don’t want to get stuck listening to it forever?

Tim: Well…

Tim: So here’s the thing: STEELE (capitals apparently obligatory) goes on to say that “at first it strikes you as this mystical song and you’re not quite sure where it will take you, but once the beat comes in it brings a smile to my face and makes me wanna dance”. The first half of that, absolutely – mystical, not a clue what’s happening.

Tom: And it’s a really successful introduction and first verse: it builds wonderfully, the production is interesting and novel in a good way.

Tim: Right. But then, smiling and dancing? Really, really not (and not just because I had to wait until the song’s halfway point before the beat came in).

Tom: Agreed. Perhaps I’ve just listened to too much EDM likely, but there was no moment where this actually kicked in. It was a slow, steady, constant build, and while that can work if it’s what the audience is expecting (for all I know, her fans might be expecting just that), I expected, at some point, there to be some sort of earthshattering kaboom. Or at least a drop.

Tim: Isn’t it weird? I picked that moment because there is a slight increase in energy there, but to be honest I felt like I had to check I was listening to the right track a couple of times. This is just, well, a tad depressing really, and very much doesn’t fit with the line “the energy and vibe that builds throughout is so uplifting and enchanting”. Is it just me that doesn’t get this?

Tom: It’s not just you. The end of it is just plain unpleasant.

Tim: Good – in that case I think we can confirm this is the most misguided PR piece we’ve ever received.

Saturday Flashback: Runaway Zoo – Youngwildblood

“There’s nothing I want from this song that isn’t already there.”

Tim: Concluding our review of this lot’s Mess Without You on Tuesday, I remarked I wanted to hear more. Well, here’s more – their previous track, from back in May.

Tim: And, to quote that wonderful Saturdays song, I just can’t get enough.

Tom: That’s wasn’t… you know what, their version was better, I can live with it.

Tim: It so was.

Tom: I can also live with this song: that’s one of the best introductions and first verses I’ve heard in a long while.

Tim: Isn’t it? Admittedly, lyrically it could be describe as a bit wanting, but on the other hand that single call and refrain repeated so many times is so effective with the build underneath it up to the thumping, beating chorus. We get so many songs of the “we’re young, we can do anything we want” variety, yet I can’t remember it ever being drilled in so definitively or maturely – a weird description perhaps, especially as I’m not quite sure how I mean it, but it’s one that springs to mind.

Tom: It is a really, really effective build. We’re seeing more and more songs that effectively have two choruses, and this is one of them.

Tim: And returning to that thumping, beating chorus: I like it a lot. It teeters on the edge of the boom-wherp thing–

Tom: “Overcompression” is the term, but yes. It’s close, but not quite enough to hurt. I can live with it.

Tim: Me too, because here the song knows exactly how not to do it badly, and how to make it sound good instead. On Tuesday, I had just one complaint, which wasn’t even really a complaint. Today: I got nothing. There is nothing I want from this song that isn’t already there.

Oh, and also, nothing to do with the music, but at the bottom of the video description: “Youngwildblood by Runaway Zoo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” How often does that happen?

Tom: For anything that isn’t stock music? Very, very rarely.

Dolly Style – Unicorns & Ice Cream

“Prepare to have your expectations missed.”

Tim: Dolly Style have a come quite a way since their Melodifestivalen debut last year – for a start they’ve had three follow up singles, which is a good three times as many as I’d have originally predicted.

Tom: Given my initial reaction to seeing their name was “oh, not again”, that’s an encouraging first line.

Tim: As for what to expect: well, see the title, but prepare to have your expectations missed.

Tim: And that’s really about as bubblegum as bubblegum pop gets, isn’t it? Right from the opening Looney Tunes reference, the jumping around, the pastel colours and the actual unicorns in the video.

Tom: It’s not bad as these things go, but it still misses the mark. It’s possible to make something like this sound really, really catchy: instead, it comes off as try-hand and a bit irritating.

Tim: Perhaps, maybe – but the thing is, despite their name, history and unicorns: it doesn’t fit too badly in the current scene of pop that encompasses Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen. Lyrics would be laughed out of the radio studio before it got anywhere near airplay, mind, but musically it’s a decent shot – I can actually see myself listening to an album of it.

Tom: It’s definitely not the lead single — or at least, it shouldn’t be — but yes, I can see what you mean.

Tim: And that’s a hell of a development since Hello Hi.

Rod & Ebba – Summer Paradise

“This would have been a bit dull and clichéd twenty years ago, and as it is… no.”

Tom: Been spendin’ most our lives, liv… no?

Tim: Oh, really really not. Elba’s new to us, but we’ve met Rod before – you’ve probably done your best to forget it, though. It’s an improvement on that, by quite some way, though not quite as good as Simple Plan’s song of the same name.

Tim: So, a couple separated and dreaming of where they met. And (by the way, I’m about to do that occasional thing whether I ruthlessly and pointlessly overanalyse the lyrics)…

Tom: …oh boy. Go for it.

Tim: I don’t know whether to be annoyed that they’ve given up reading one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies three quarters of the way through, or disturbed by the fact that she’s singing a song like this whilst simultaneously planning to [spoiler alert] fake her own death. I mean, they’re making a pact to meet up again and everything, and she’s going to pull that on him? That’s just cruel, it really is.

Tom: Right. Romeo and Juliet isn’t a good romantic reference, folks.

Tim: On the other hand, music’s fine.

Tom: It’s really not.

Tim: Well…

Tom: This is such an anaemic mix: it’s like it’s been massively overcompressed, and run through a filter to remove all the bass. I listened to an official version and, no, it’s deliberately mixed like this.

Tim: Okay that much I’ll grant you.

Tom: This is plodding. The first two lines of the chorus barely move from one note.

Tim: Hmm…also a fair point.

Tom: This would have been a bit dull and clichéd twenty years ago, and as it is… no, I just don’t get it as “fine”. It’s not even “meh”. It’s poor. Even the middle eight doesn’t save it, which is saying something.

Tim: Fine, I get it as being largely unimaginative, and basically the sort you’d find two-thirds of the way through a budget compilation dance CD, the ones that can’t afford the likes of Guetta or Tiësto. But I’d dance around to it, and wouldn’t object if I was drunk at a beach party at half one. You’re that taken against it?

Tom: This would get knocked out in the first round of Melodifestivalen, and it’d deserve to be.

Runaway Zoo – Mess Without You

“I want more of it. Much more.”

Tim: These guys are a band from Finland, and, well, I’m not sure if “synthrock” is a genre, but if this is anything to go by I’d like it to be please.

Tim: Couple of brief individual notes – I always find it a bit disconcerting when bands split “fine” over two beats as “fuh-ine”, because there’s the initial possibility that the song could go off in a completely different direction.

Tom: I didn’t understand what that sentence meant until I heard that line. Yep, that’s not how my brain completed that line.

Tim: Also the “baby, your” kicking off the chorus brings What Makes You Beautiful to mind immediately, never a bad thing.

Tom: These are both very specific notes, though.

Tim: Yes, so more generally: I love this track, almost every single part of it. The single part I don’t like is that the opening instrumental part of the middle eight, which is absolutely wonderful, doesn’t also appear as a post-chorus earlier in the song as well. Having nothing there makes the song go too quickly, and when I hear that fantastic instrumental part I just want more.

Tom: It’s odd to hear all your comments being specific rather than wide-ranging. For my part: good instrumentation, lovely arpeggios, and — as you said — surprisingly good and joyously old-school middle-eight synths. The rest of it…

Tim: I don’t often say this about a song, but it’s too short. I want more of it. Much more. MORE OF THAT MIDDLE EIGHT.

Tom: …yep. As is so often, the best part is the bit that isn’t like the rest of the song.

Regina Spektor – Bleeding Heart

“It could be moving and original, if the chorus was entirely different. “

Tom: Our regular reader, Luca, sends this one. He includes a paragraph of text that closes with “this was the most moving and original song released this year”.

Tim: Ooh.

Tim: Erm.

Tom: Nope.

Tim: Well, not entirely nope. It could be moving and original, if the chorus was entirely different.

Tom: Sorry, Luca, but I don’t hear it. Each line of that chorus is just two notes ping-ponging back and forth. Is it catchy? Yes. But I don’t want it to be. That’s a really irritating chorus to have stuck in my head.

But I think I know why you might think that: because that middle eight sounds like it belongs to a completely different song entirely.

Tim: Yeah – and also the verses, which do come across dark and emotional, and could arguably be described as moving, but that chorus undoes all the work they put in.

Tom: Which is a great shame! There are small parts of this that are powerful, that are well-written, that tick all the boxes. The chorus? I need to listen to something else to get it out of my head.