Europop – Page 57

Jürgen Drews – Das ist der Moment

“Formulas may be all well and good, but…”

Tim: Let’s jump across the border from yesterday’s Austria to today’s Germany, and also: remember a few weeks ago when I posted the track that was every europop fan’s nightmare, being entirely stereotypical and entirely awful? Well, here’s another entirely stereotypical one.

Tom: I notice you say “stereotypical” there, but not necessarily “awful”. I don’t rate it that highly: do you?

Tim: Oh, absolutely – those two in combination show just how formulas may be all well and good, but they sure as hell can’t predict the enjoyability of any song they produce. You can probably guess the title translation; the full line is “This is the moment when the sky will burn, when everything turns, when you see the stars”, and that’s one hell of a moment definitely deserving of a song like this.

Tom: Hmm. I’m not sure I feel it: those flashback clips in the video just seem a little cringeworthy to me; that repeating synth melody doesn’t work for me; and the chorus just seems a little… well, dull.

Tim: No, it’s EXCITING – Just listen to how excited by it he is coming into the middle eight, and how many times he’s sings that one line (ten).

Tom: Ten! Ten is too many.

Tim: I don’t know, we’ve seen considerably more previously. A big moment, and a big song to go with it. Admittedly, any europop-sceptic still wouldn’t be remotely impressed by it, but I don’t care. I think it’s great.

Incidentally, both this song and yesterday’s came off Apple Music’s playlist of new German pop music, and I can’t currently recommend a better one to get you out of bed in the morning. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Nik P. – Da oben

“It’s like a warm mug of cocoa. Predictable and comforting.”

Tim: We first met the Austrian Nik P. a couple of weeks ago when we looked at DJ Ötzi’s rework of a 2014 track of his; here’s his current track.

Tom: Is that schlager? That feels like schlager. If it were Scandinavian, I’d file it under schlager.

Tim: Well, given that schlager is originally a German word for pop music, it very much counts, and I think in both senses. And I love it. It subscribes to a formula that I will never, ever tire of – light major key synth work, gentle vocals which (probably) aren’t remotely deep or meaningful, with “Da Oben” translating to “Up There”, a decent beat to dance to, and then that key change is just a beautiful bow on top of the present.

Tom: Right! I had a massive grin on my face. It’s… it’s like a warm mug of cocoa. Predictable and comforting. I’m not sure that analogy works, but you know what I mean.

Tim: Yeah, that holds up. It’s not going to win any awards any time soon – let’s face it, there’d be something wrong with the award system if it did – but damn, it hits every single button of mine, and I just want it on repeat many, many times over.

Hilda – Smashing Hearts

“Good chorus, good urgent percussion.”

Tom: Our reader, Luca, sends this in, with the comment “released in March, for some reason it’s been growing upon me.”

Tom: First, let’s deal with that YouTube title. “Offical Audio Video”? That… that would be a music video. Unless they mean “low-budget not quite a lyric video”. Baffling.

Tim: Well, ‘Official Audio’ these days can mean lyric video before the main one, so maybe they’re just covering all their bases with a proper video that contains some of the lyrics as well?

Tom: Aside from that: good chorus, good urgent percussion. And a good choice to go for the quiet middle eight back into a final chorus that… well, it could be bigger, but it’s not bad.

Tim: Not bad, no, although it didn’t stop me getting slightly bored halfway through the last part.

Tom: Oddly, the only bit that doesn’t really work for me is one particular note: that high bit on ‘hearts’. I know it’s an odd thing to nitpick, but the harmony almost sounds discordant to me for some reason.

Tim: Really? I’ve no problem with this musically at all – not hugely exciting for me right now, but for the song and genre it’s going for, it does it very well, I think.

Tom: But overall: good track.

Kent – Egoist

“I was too busy singing ‘In Too Deep’ over the top”

Tim: So here’s a funny one – title translates to roughly “Selfish”, as far as I can discern, and the song is all about how we should live life to the max. Except…well, the vocals don’t really pump out that message.

Tom: To be honest, I was too busy singing “In Too Deep” over the top of that introduction. Seriously, I got to the fifth line before the vocals kicked in.

Tim: Thing is – it’s a bit dull, or at least the vocals are. The chorus translates to “we should live life…we train, we’re driven, we should live life”. That’s an admirable message, sure – but with the way you’re singing? Hell, there are lines in there that are direct from With Or Without You, and that’s not an optimistic song you want to be taking your cues from.

Tom: Not if you want to be uplifting, certainly.

Tim: Decent song and music, absolutely, as I’ve no complaints there, but really, get your lyrics and your music lined up. Yes, the chorus comes along and displays an amount of energy and slight optimism, but as for the rest of it? Well, at least don’t jump into the middle eight talking about terrorism. Please.

Hera Björk – Queen of Effing Everything

“Hera’s launching a one-woman musical.”

Tim: Hera’s launching a one-woman musical.

Tom: That is bold. A one-woman show, maybe. But one person trying to do a musical show? I don’t know, I think that could be just awkward.

Tim: And I’ll leave it up to the promo blurb to describe how amazing it will probably be: “Hera Björk has a lot of titles; wife, mother, Eurovision diva, exceptional lover, teacher, go-getter and many more. She has so many titles that the only way to accurately describe her is to say that she´s the Queen of ‘Effing’ Everything.”

Tim: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: WHAT A WOMAN. Out being a talented diva every evening, in being a dutiful mother every day. She knows it, she wants the world to know it, and she’s put together a two hour show to make sure everyone does.

Tom: Maybe I’m being a bit too British and reserved — and I’m aware this is a bit hypocritical coming from someone with a YouTube channel — but I feel like a two-hour show about yourself is, perhaps, a bit much.

Tim: I’m not sure where this fits in the show – presumably at the beginning or the end – but whichever it is, it’s a great track to feature, and it’s clearly up there with all the musical greats. You’re The One That I Want, Singin’ In The Rain, I Dreamed A Dream, Queen of Effing Everything.

Tom: The thing is: it is actually a good pop song. I’ve got very few complaints about it.

Tim: Tom, tickets are less than £30 for a meet and greet after the show, and it’s this weekend, so can we go please please please? LOOK HOW MUCH FUN IT’LL BE.

Tom: You’re on your own for this one.

Saturday Reject: Linda Bengtzing – Killer Girl

“The end of an era for Melodifestivalen.”

Tim: Some, including me, were commenting on the Twitters at the end of heat 4 whether this year finally marked the end of an era for Melodifestivalen.

Tom: Given that name, I’m guessing you mean the era of schlager?

Tim: Indeed – there were three notable entries, unashamedly pop. One of those ended up not performing; then we had After Dark, coming seventh in the third heat, and then we had this. I won’t say where it came, because I think it would break my heart to actually type it.

Tom: Blimey, she’s shaved her head! And it suits her. As for the music… well, you can add all the heavy beats you want, that’s clearly schlager.

Tim: Admittedly, it could be said that it’s time to move on – this music was beginning to sound dated probably five years ago, even for Eurovision; key changes have been decreasing in number for several years.

Tom: And they haven’t won in… well, a good few years now.

Tim: Nope – you’ve got to go back to 2007, and before then 2001. 2007 an interesting winner, actually – not only the only song in 15 years to have won with a key change, also the only non-English song to have won since 1998, and all that despite being a bit rubbish.

Despite that, for many people, key changes and schlager are what defines Melodifestivalen. The bright purple and yellow. The outstanding spark fountains. The…well, it’s almost hard to put into words, because no singular components really define it, but we all know it when we see it, and love it. And yet we also realise that it’s not suitable for a Eurovision entry, and so is apparently not suitable for a Eurovision selection program. A big, big shame, even if the signs have been on the walls for a while now.

Tom: I can’t disagree with you. I don’t think it deserved to be last, though.

Tim: No. No, it didn’t.

DJ Ötzi & Nik P. – Geboren um dich zu lieben

“The most ‘awwwww’ song I’ve heard in ages”

Tom: Wait, really?!

Tim: Yes, DJ Ötzi – despite being just a two (or possibly three) hit wonder in most places, he’s had dozens of hits in Germany and Austria, and here’s his first track after a few years off. I say ‘his’, its actually a beefed-up reworking of Nik P.’s 2014 hit, but it’s a good beefed-up.

Tim: Oh, it’s lovely.

Tom: Take some else’s track! Add a beat and some extra vocals! Shift it up a key! Make sure there’s a bit the crowd can sing along to! It’s a good recipe and it bloody works.

Tim: It’s very, very cheesy, mind – the title translates to ‘Born To Love You’ and the lyrics are in exactly the vein you’d imagine given the title and that video. But I don’t care. Sometimes I’m in the mood for cheesy songs, and this delivers it in spades. The original has considerably less instrumentation underneath, and lacks the amount of energy that this brings, which for me lessens the impact somewhat.

Tom: Mm. I’m not sure about that “considerably”: this isn’t the kind of reworking we’ve seen on Sweet Caroline, for example: this was already a fairly high-energy (and let’s be honest, fairly cheesy) track.

Tim: It is slightly let down (and I’m surprised to be saying this in 2016) by the lack of a key change, because my view is that if you’re going for a song like this you really should go all in, or at least provide a decent soaring vocal, and it sure as hell sounds like they’re building to one.

Tom: That would have kicked it into prime Ötzi territory. Maybe he’s calming down a bit.

Tim: That aside, though – this is the most ‘awwwww’ song I’ve heard in ages, and I love it for that.

Veronica Maggio – Den första är alltid gratis

“It just pushes so many wonderful buttons for me.”

Tim: Cat Stevens reckoned the first cut is the deepest; Veronica here thinks in Swedish that ‘The First Is Always Free’.

Tom: That is an incredibly tenuous link, well done.

Tim: Well, I try my best.

Tim: And with ‘first’ here she’s referring to basically everything – first time, first kiss, first dream, even the first betrayal. Over time, though, it becomes expensive, apparently. But that’s all beside the point, because for me here’s it’s all about the music, and that track just pushes so many wonderful buttons for me.

Tom: I wasn’t expecting it to kick in the way it did: mid-first-verse is an odd place to suddenly add percussion. It does work, it just surprised me.

Tim: It doesn’t even bother me that the video’s largely nonsensical – that good vocal, that nice melody, the second half of the middle eight, that string section that builds into him getting slammed into the boot of the car–

Tom: Not technically part of the music there, but I’ll allow it because, hey, string section. It’s a good string section.

Tim: More than anything else at all, though: those backing synths are just utterly glorious. This is plain wonderful, and I won’t have it said any other way.

Kevin Borg – Young At Heart

“It’s not just unremarkable: it’s completely forgettable.”

Tim: The video’s been deleted now, but about a year ago someone worked out what Man of Steel would look like without the ludicrous colour grading they did in post production, and a lot of people quite liked it. Apparently, though, someone didn’t take the hint.

Tim: The song itself is largely unremarkable: uplifting ballad, but as a former Idol winner, Kevin really should know that your standard choruses should be at least at the level that that final chorus is at.

Tom: I can’t even remember that final chorus. It’s in one ear and out the other. It’s not just unremarkable: it’s completely forgettable.

Tim: Everything here, except possibly the first verse and maybe the middle eight, is way too underplayed for this to be the uplifting ballad that this wants to be. The video, on the other hand – well, I’m not sure who’s responsible for those bedroom scenes, but they should take a long hard look in the mirror and consider whether they’re actually in the right job, because (for me at least) that excess of blue genuinely took attention away from the song.

Tom: As someone who’s just had to do a tricky colour grading job: sometimes you do the best with what you’ve got. I think they might be trying for a “day for night” shot there: if so, it hasn’t really worked. Too much blue.

Tim: Yep. Mind you, my attention loss could be partly the song’s fault for not being exciting enough in the first place.

Agnete – Icebreaker

“Bizarre.”

Tim: So here’s Norway’s Eurovision entry; I know we did Eurovision tracks a few weeks back, but two things: first, this has a new video, and second, it’s worth discussing because a part of it is utterly bizarre.

Tom: I just can’t get used to it. I know if you listen to a song enough you’ll get used to it, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Tim: Nor me, really, but let’s start with the video, and it’s nice – plenty of ice, certainly, although disappointingly little breaking. And then there’s the music, which (justly) beat Norwegian Daz. The verses are great – they have a Euphoria-esque quality to them, with the backing underneath sounding very similar and then the standard but effective build in the pre-chorus.

Tom: There’s a few late-90s synth patches in there as well, which surprisingly work well.

Tim: Very true – there’s lots of good stuff there. Except then we go quiet for a bit, and suddenly the chorus comes in with a completely different time signature, dropping from your standard 4/4 down to two step, and it’s entirely weird. The quiet bits each side of the chorus I can only assume have been put there to make that a bit less distracting.

Tom: It’s just such a bizarre choice: everything changes so much, it’s like there are two completely different production teams working on it, and some notes got lost between them.

Tim: All of this doesn’t make it a bad song, of course – it’s a great chorus coupled with very good verses, and the vocals and production are all top notch. I just slightly wish they were verses and choruses from the same song, because this isn’t a song I’d hugely look forward to dancing to.