Europop – Page 56

Maria & Erica – I Love You Baby

It’s a marvellous audience reaction.

Tim: So here’s one that got entered for Melodifestivalen this year but was rejected; you’ll hear why.

Tom: It’s not because of the crushingly unoriginal title, then?

Tim: Nope, not that. It’s by the lead singers of two Swedish dansbands that we’ve covered previously – Drifters and Titanix respectively. Those two links, incidentally, are to wonderful tracks that entirely deserve a revisit; hear this first though.

Tom: Oh bloody hell, even the crowd can’t be bothered with that! Why would you put them in the audience like that? Why?

Tim: Oh, it’s a marvellous audience reaction. I think the fairly prominent old woman in the pale blue dress is my absolute favourite, particularly when she starts admiring the scenery at 1:45…

Tom: I think my favourite moment is at about 0:47 and 1:25, when two different parts of the crowd are clearly clapping at different times or in completely different tempos, each missing different beats slightly. Or at 1:37 when the camera just loses focus and wanders off for a bit. Sorry, you were saying?

Tim: …that’s a delightful track.

Tom: Ugh. The thing is, you’re right. It’s a textbook meaningless schlager track, and if you take it out of that bizarre audience situation, it ticks all the right boxes.

Tim: I started smiling from that very first note, because I immediately knew exactly what to expect, and I wasn’t remotely disappointed. Well, slightly disappointed – the way the key change came quite early on got my hopes up for a second one – but that aside I’m not sure I could complain about this even if I wanted to. So of course it got rejected, but damn I’m glad it finally saw the light of day.

ENCA – DREQ

“Cleavage warning.”

Tom: “I don’t quite know what I expected from Albanian pop music,” writes our reader, Sam, “but this defied any expectations I might have had.”

Tim: Hmm. My main memory of Albanian pop is being at Eurovision 2013 and suddenly remembering that Albania was where Voldemort went into hiding, but I’ll keep an open mind.

Tom: Sam adds what I can only describe as a cleavage warning.

Tim: Hmm.

Tom: Maybe there’s some context here I’m missing, but… I can’t say there’s much about this that I like. The melody and backing is by-the-numbers, but they’re pretty terrible numbers. The autotune is applied with a trowel.

Tim: Yeah – it’s not quite Death Eater territory, but it’s sure as hell not really something I want to here again. All your criticisms stand up – I find it just unpleasant.

Tom: And while it’s possible to pull off a video like this with either irony or enthusiasm, this seems to dither between the two and end up with neither.

Tim: I think they’re going for genuine; just, not enthusiastically enough for it to work properly.

Tom: That said, seven million views. Clearly it works for someone.

Tim: Especially impressive given that Albania has a population of less than 3 million.

Nova Miller – So Good

“A great fun chorus with clapability and singalongability”

Tim: Do you fancy three and a bit minutes of compliments?

Tom: There’s a joke about my love life somewhere there.

Tim: Well then we should probably leave it there. Have a listen to this instead.

Tim: First thing to note: someone needs to tell Nova that since The Weeknd came along with their anti-autocorrect protest of a name, “listening to the weekend” is no longer a lyric that can be used.

Tom: Yep, if it wasn’t for the lyric video, I’d have assumed that’s who she was talking about. That said, not the most accurate lyric video ever.

Tim: Yes, which brings us to the second thing to note: is there a job that just involves spotting typos in lyric videos? I feel I’d be quite good at it. HOWEVER, niggles aside, that’s a great fun chorus with clapability and singalongability all built right in there.

Tom: I’m sure I’ve heard that chorus instrumental somewhere before. A DJ Fresh track? Emeli Sande’s Heaven? It’s an amalgamation of many things, but I like it.

Tim: Would I listen to it regularly? Nope. But it is a good track to listen to as you’re getting ready to go out for a Saturday evening? Yeah, I’d say so. Good work everyone.

Tom: Sometimes, that’s all you need from a pop song. That, and that fantastic whistle-register high note in the last chorus.

Kristian Ravelius – Jag Vill Ha Dig

“LADS. Lads lads lads.”

Tim: Kristian: new to the music scene, and he’s fairly keen for you to know that he wants you.

Tom: It’s always weird when a non-English pop song drops an English “oh baby” in the middle.

Tim: Oh, did you not hear? As of 2014, that phrase has been added to every single language on the planet following requests from lyricists.

And speaking of lyrics, with the number of “Jag vill ha dig” repetitions we’ve got going on there that would actually make him come across as fairly desperate; as it turns out, though, he’s not singing that at us but merely repeating what someone said to him in a club the other night. You know, the way that LADS generally do and all that, because he’s proper getting it.

Tom: LADS. Lads lads lads. Thing is, that doesn’t really tie in with the tone of the music, which actually seems calm and pleasant.

Tim: Yeah, and to be honest I don’t know why I’m going down the route of making him sound like a dick, to be honest – maybe he’s a lovely guy, he looks nice enough so let’s ignore the slight douchiness of the lyrics and focus on that music, which is very nice. A happy summery pop song, with a very catchy chorus line, whoever’s mouth it’s coming out of.

Tom: And with an odd, almost Motown-like twinge on the way out of the middle eight. Don’t know where that came from, but I like it.

Tim: Me too. All in all, pretty much I really want for a summery pop song, so I guess it’s all fine.

Samir & Viktor – Fick Feeling

“We’re back, Sweden’s wondering why”

Tim: The follow-up to their Melodifestivalen entry, the lyrics begin “We’re back, Sweden’s wondering why,” so at least they’ve got some self-awareness. The answer to that question, though: they’ve Got The Feeling.

Tim: In fact, in the words of that chorus, “I’ve got the feeling, you’ve got the feeling, we’ve got the feeling, nothing can stop us.” And as a soundtrack to a summer party night, this is pretty good stuff.

Tom: All the way through this, I was thinking “it’s basically the same song as their last one” — but then I listened back, and I was wrong. It is completely different. So why does my brain think I’ve heard it all before? Aside from the fact that it’s basically just shouting about partying.

Tim: It doesn’t matter that it’s closer to shouting than singing, because it should be shouting. Shouting about lying on the beach, bass pounding from the phone; about skipping work and going to a festival instead; about how the sun shines and you don’t feel guilty; and most importantly, about how “everything is better with a saxophone”, because yes, that actually is the lyric and it actually is the case.

Tom: They’ve made that case before, too, and with a bit more swearing. I think this feels familiar to me because, quite simply, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from them.

Tim: The instrumental part gives me a similar feeling to the one in Bada Nakna – not enjoyable on its own, but perfectly well suited. What we have here is a PARTY TRACK that knows it and is advertising itself as exactly that. And it gets the job done very well indeed.

Alma – We Better Run

“Really quite listenable.”

Tim: Alma, 16 from Sweden, brings us this has her debut, and I’m hoping you’ll agree it’s really quite listenable.

Tim: Well, when the chorus comes along forty seconds in – admittedly the verses don’t have quite so much to them, but for me that’s more than made up for by the intensity and enthusiasm of the chorus.

Tom: Agreed: I got distracted during that first verse, which isn’t usually a good sign, but the chorus did actually pull me back in. Not the best of signs, that, but still.

Tim: We’ve a lovely couple whose circumstances keep holding them back, and so rather than fighting the world they simply better run, run, run, run, run, all the way to seemingly the edge of the solar system with the way she keeps wanging on about it. (62, if you’re wondering.)

Quite where the modal verb that should be in the title is, I’ve no idea – perhaps it just ran faster than everything else in the song.

Tom: Did… did you just grammar-pedant a song title? Mate. “We better” is a perfectly valid, if non-standard, construction.

Tim: To be honest, I’m not particularly bothered – basically, it has a great chorus, semi-decent verses that are there to pull to gaps and tell the story, and some lovely post-middle eight soaring vocals. I’ll take it.

KACIA – Bonds

“Yes, all right. For once, I’m convinced.“

Tim: KACIA are a new Swedish duo, citing as their musical heroes Max Martin and ABBA; if I could only pick two musical heroes I’d definitely choose Max for one, and ABBA would be on the shortlist for the other, so I’m all set to love this before I even press play.

Tim: And gosh, I really do like that a lot. Probably not as much as I would a Max Martin-produced ABBA track, mind, but it’s got some great elements to it.

Tom: That’s one of the most promising intros we’ve heard for a while. There are a lot of classic pop notes in there: the percussion that kicks in half way through the first verse, the woah-ohhs.

Tim: It reminds me of a few artists, or at least a mix of some – Robyn’s in there for the vocals, a bit of Alphabeat for the instruments and general sense of fun – so basically it’s a mix of some of the best acts we’ve seen over the past many years.

Tom: I wasn’t sold on it until that proper, old-school exit from the middle eight. Yes, all right. For once, I’m convinced.

Tim: High praise indeed. I really, really like this, and I’m very, very much keeping an eye out for more from them.

Rbecka – Should Have Surrendered

“That chorus is all sorts of positive adjectives.”

Tim: Rbecka is new from Sweden; her actual name is Rebecka, so I can only assume she dropped the e to be more distinctive. Or possibly just to be annoying for anybody with some form of auto-correct switched on. Anyway, here’s her debut, with quite the chorus.

Tom: As some who does motion graphics for part of my job, that lyric video is… frustrating.

Tim: It is, isn’t it?

Tom: I don’t know why they’ve done it in such a nauseating, early-90s-CGI-camera-moves way, but I wish they hadn’t. Anyway. The music.

Tim: And no matter what she thinks, I’m very glad she didn’t surrender a long time ago, because presumably if she did we wouldn’t have this song to listen to and that would be a massive shame. The verses on their own are decent enough, but that chorus is just fantastic and wonderful and all sorts of other positive adjectives.

Tom: I don’t quite hear it in such a positive light myself: it’s good, yes, but it fails both my tests of being a Really Good Pop Song: do I immediately want to hit replay? And can I remember any part of it after one listen? Sadly… neither of those works for me.

Tim: Oh. See, I’m saying yes to both of those. It is a bit weird the way we have an extra verse coming out of middle eight, as it slightly cuts down on the momentum of the song, but I don’t really mind that; also in the “odd but I’m not too bothered” is the pronunciation of “whisper” in the chorus. Those niggles aside, though, I can’t get enough of this song. MORE PLEASE.

Nina Söderquist – Kärlek

“That… that did not go where I expected it to.”

Tim: I won’t spoil this for you, or bore you with details of Nina’s considerable career so far. Instead, just press play, and listen until the thing happens before reading ahead. You’ll know what the thing is.

Tom: That… that did not go where I expected it to. An 80s heavy-rock guitar riff into… is that schlager?

Tim: So it’s schlager, Tom, but not as we know it. It just about manages to hide its true intentions right up until that building pre-chorus wanders on, giving way to a thumping chorus that knows exactly what it is and wants the whole world to know it. And boy, does the world know it by the end of the song, despite that four second freak out it will give listeners who know there’s a key change coming.

Tom: It’s an interesting choice, to be sure, even down to putting the cowbell in there. But then there’s the weird synth bit pre-chorus, and… I… I’m confused. I’m just confused. It’s… okay? I guess? I don’t know!

Tim: As for the lyrics, oh, something to do with love, because that’s what the title means, but do they really matter? Despite the rock leanings, this is one of the finest schlager tracks I’ve heard in a while (though I’m not sure it totally beats Nik P.’s track from last week), and if this is a genre that’s occurring right now, praise be to the musical overlords and I might even forgive them for Meghan Trainor.

Laleh – Bara få va mig själv

“If she’s going to bring us chorus lines like that, I’m very much in favour”

Tim: In this song, Laleh was us to let her “just be myself”, so let’s have a listen.

Tom: Subtitles! The video has English subtitles! That’s a lovely touch. Well done whoever put that together. Anyway: yes, “just be myself”.

Tim: Truth is, if she’s going to bring us chorus lines like that, I’m very much in favour of doing that.

Tom: Wait, really? This is too slow, too plodding for my tastes.

Tim: Maybe in parts – the verses aren’t always entirely to my taste, as the vocal can get a bit grating for me – but the pre-chorus and chorus are so good that I can entirely and absolutely forgive that. Instrumentation is also very nicely put together – 2nd/4th beat claps can be a bit risky and horribly repetitive, but here they’re used very well indeed.

Tom: It just leaves me cold, alas. I think it’s actually the fault of the melody — or, rather, my brain for just not liking it.

Tim: Well, personally, all in all I’ve few complaints about this. Nice one.