Europop – Page 59

Sergey Lazarev – You Are The Only One

“I can’t overstate how much I love this track.”

Tim: Tom, I reckon it’s high time we broke with our standard sort-of tradition and discussed Eurovision tracks. Since it’s the bookies’ favourite, and mine, let’s start with Russia, this year an internal selection.

Tim: Well well well. In a year when even Sweden has almost entirely forgone schlager, with it being noticeably absent in any later rounds of Melodifestivalen, Russia of all countries comes along and pulls this out of the bag, one of the finest examples I’ve heard in years.

Tom: And it’s still clearly influenced by last year’s winner — not just in the obvious interactions with the graphics, but in the structure and general style. Yes, it technically hits the notes of schlager, but there’s a bit of Zelmerlow in here too.

Tim: I’ll be honest: I can’t overstate how much I love this track. Aside from those weird phone noises that are peppered throughout the second verse, I would genuinely go as far as saying I don’t think there’s anything to be done to improve this song. It’s brilliant – those strings in the chorus in particular are wonderfully done, and the soaring vocals after the perfect key change are excellent.

And that video: one of the most fun I’ve seen in a while, and great use of projections.

Tom: It’s very cleverly done: they’ve even changed the mapping perspective to follow the camera moves in a couple of places.

Tim: Would I have preferred it if they’d gone for one continuous shot? Yes, but only because the minute-long shot from 0:40 put that idea there and now I can’t help thinking of it as a missed opportunity. I know there’s a hidden cut when the camera pans over to her, but if they’re doing that there, and when it’s spinning around at 2:06, I cant help thinking it’d be lovely if they could keep it up for the whole thing.

Tom: Will it look like this on stage? If so, it’ll certainly be memorable — and might well clinch victory.

Tim: Oh, yes please – if only because it’ll be the first key change winner in well over a decade.

The Lola O – Rising Sun

“It’d make great background music for some minor-success moments”

Tim: Pair of Swedes for you, one called Freja and one called Fred. Weird name, you might think, but Lola is what a barman misheard Freja’s name as on one night out, and O stands for “one-man orchestra”, as Fred plays all the instruments. Perfectly normal reasoning.

Tim: And that’s an entirely pleasant song.

Tom: But with one of the least promising introductions and first verses I’ve heard in a while. I mean, the word that came to mind was “dull”.

Tim: I wouldn’t go quite that far – admittedly, it’s definitely quieter than it needs to be during the verses, but as I see it the chorus there is absolutely cracking. Annoyingly, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the song enough to make me want to hear it again; on the other hand, if it came on the radio I wouldn’t switch it off, and it’d be a nice addition to a ‘lying on the beach’ playlist, so swings and roundabouts, I guess.

Tom: The chorus just about redeems it each time — just — and it’d make great background music for some minor-success moments in the early rounds of this year’s X Factor. Damning with faint praise, there, I feel.

Tim: Yes. Still, praise is praise, and like I said, it’s perfectly pleasant.

Saturday Reject: Markus Riva – I Can

“If the whole song was as good as that chorus…”

Tim: We had “Eurovision: You Decide”. Sweden has “Melodifestivalen”. Latvia has “SUPERNOVA”. And with songs like this? Not necessarily an overstatement.

Tom: A bit of a lower-budget show, not quite the polished perfection of Sweden’s arena show, but I’m willing to bet it will have been better than our effort.

Tim: Well, as it happens, matey, we had Måns, Katrina off Katrina & The Waves and a tribute to Terry Wogan, so NOPE. This came third in the semi-final televotes (though first in its original heat), so just missed out on the final because the jurors didn’t like it. And what a shame that is, because that’s a great song. It might partly be because it’s called I Can, a title which so far has a 100% success rate for producing great tracks, but mostly it’s because of the lyrics, the music, the lights (which are about as good as you get here, despite the SUPERNOVA branding). Upbeat, fulfilling, inspiring, just excellent.

Tom: It’s a cracking chorus, that’s for sure. If the whole song was as good as that chorus, this’d be looking at a top-10 placing in the final, I reckon. But I’m really not sure about that verse: it’s too slow, too dull, and… ugh.

Tim: Yeah? Because for me, the only downfall is the middle eight, which I’ve a couple of niggles with: there really should be a good few more lyrics there, though I can understand wanting to bring a chantable portion to a non-English speaking audience, and I’d have left the key change until after that last pre-chorus, because those notes sound a bit unpleasant to my ears.

Tom: Agreed about the odd change down, but I do like the rest of it.

Tim: Other than those two bits, though: I think is great, and also that it’s just a shame He Couldn’t.

Tom: Harsh. Fair, but harsh.

Saturday Reject: Krista Siegfrids – Faller

“Sometimes a song comes along destined for fifth place”

Tim: It wasn’t all about the final at this year’s Melodifestivalen, of course – a sizeable of decent tracks got knocked out beforehand, such as this, from Krista – you remember, her who gave you a panic attack three years ago when she wanted to represent Finland. Now she’s dressed sensibly, competing to represent Sweden with some pretty excellent floor lighting. Song title translates as “Falling”, as in “I’m falling for you”.

Tom: That side look and slight twitch-wink to camera in the first verse still startled me though.

Tim: Sometimes a song comes along destined for fifth place – easily good enough not to be kicked out in the bottom two, but when compared with the others in the top five, not quite strong enough to make it through to the next round. A few weeks back we had Mimi Werner, and we can add Krista to that list.

Tom: Yep, that’s what I was going to say. It’s a bit too monotone, a bit too all-the-same. Even some great steadicam shots and projection-mapping floor designs can’t save that.

Tim: No – it is a very good pop song being well performed with excellent visual production – but apparently nothing quite special enough for Melodifestivalen. A shame, because I do think this is very good – easily good enough to make its way onto my playlist of rejects – but it’s just that sort of ruthless competition.

Red Sleeping Beauty – Mi Amor

“With a view of the Mediterranean, she can’t appreciate the things Scandinavian.”

Tim: Red Sleeping Beauty, a band from the early 90s that named themselves after a 1986 British protest song. They’ve been quiet for 19 years, but are now officially back, with an album out in a few months time and this as the lead single.

Tim: As much as it may sound like a terrible idea for anything, this is a case of title first, then song. Says lead singer Niklas, “I knew I wanted the song to be called ‘Mi Amor’. A quick Google search made it clear that ‘tu calor’ is the standard rhyme in most Spanish songs. For the words in-between, we got help from Spanish speaking friends.”

Tom: Amazing work. Lyricists over the globe are applauding.

Tim: Well, quite. It ended up being about a long distance relationship (‘long’ being in this case 1500 miles, the distance between him in Sweden and her in Spain). He’s refusing to move to Spain (he’d rather put up with the rain), and she doesn’t want to go to Sweden (despite it looking like the Garden of Eden). On top of that, with a view of the Mediterranean, she can’t appreciate the things Scandinavian – not even the Northern Lights, girl, they’re the perfect scene for a fights, girl.

Tom: My jaw dropped open when I heard that. It’s a terrible, terrible lyric. It’s the kind of clunker that’s made to parody clunkers.

Tim: You may wonder why I’m just typing out the lyrics – it’s because I love them. I don’t know if they’re meant to be funny, or if I’m just in a slightly silly mood, but either way I’m very annoyed I don’t know enough Spanish to find out the conclusion to their dilemma that is no doubt present in the chorus. Do they half and half it and move to Stuttgart? Probably best not to, but the other option to choose is being possibly the first couple in history to break up for meteorological reasons. Which is it? I WANT TO KNOW.

Tom: We should probably talk about the music at some point, Tim. Because oddly, I like it.

Tim: Yeah – it is odd, but I like it as well. Like yesterday, we’ve got instruments that don’t normally sit together (synths and a calypso guitar, really?), and yet they don’t sound anywhere near as disjointed as you’d think. Nice track, even if I can’t shake the feeling that with its tale to tell, it’s not far off being a novelty track.

Tom: That’s spot on. This is a really, really nice song, perfectly produced despite its dissonant components. It’s just those damned lyrics.

Favorite Child – Just Wanna Belong

Tim: A production team that have previously worked with Tove Lo and Icona Pop, stepping out on their own, with this, a dance number with something I will leave as a surprise for you.

Tim: Now I don’t know if it’s a direct similarity to one track in particular, or just because the vocalist (Erik Rapp, off Swedish Idol 2013) sounds identical to Zayn Malik, but the first almost-a-minute of that sounds very much like something that could come off an early One Direction album.

Tom: It’s reminiscent of a lot: that verse cadence is basically lifted straight from Katy Perry’s Firework, and there’s some Galantis in the chorus backing. And then… then there’s the trumpet. What an odd, strident choice.

Tim: Interesting choice of word, there – obviously it switches things up a lot, but it’s nice that we’re off to a good start, and even nicer is that is doesn’t dip below that at any later time.

Tom: Wait, it works for you?

Tim: Absolutely – I don’t feel as much of a disjoint as I might first have expected. All in, with a brass layer on top of a danced-up good pop sound, you’d struggle to go wrong. And this lot really haven’t done.

Tom: I’ve got to disagree: that trumpet just doesn’t sit well in the mix for me: it’s basically a second vocalist, and not a particularly listenable one. To each their own, I guess.

Yohanna – Revolving Doors

“Let’s have a game of Guess What It Is About The Lyric Video That Annoys Tim Far More Than It Should.”

Tim: Nice ballad here for you, but to keep you interested in case you doze off, let’s have a game of Guess What It Is About The Lyric Video That Annoys Tim Far More Than It Should. GWIIATLVTASTFMTIS for short.

Tom: Is it the “wanna” instead of “want to”?

Tim: It’s not, no – that sort of thing I long ago learned to live with. It is actually: WHY DO THE ‘O’S IN THE ‘DOOR’ CHORUS LINE CLOSE LIKE A NORMAL DOOR AND NOT REVOLVE? This is the WHOLE POINT of the song – if the doors were just regular doors, you’d just go straight through them, be in a happy place, assuming we’re sticking with that metaphor, and there’d be no need for the song. Just plain silly. (Also there’s the ‘Arrangment’ and ‘Keypboard’ in the credits as well, but I can live with that.)

Tom: And, as someone who does this sort of animation, I can tell you it wouldn’t actually be that much more difficult.

Tim: I KNOW. But anyway, as for the actual song – it’s basically exactly what we’d expect from Yohanna, following her previous couple of appearances on these pages. If you’re in the mood for a gentle ballad that’d fit nicely on a Disney soundtrack, it’s a very good gentle ballad to have on standby – the revolving door metaphor stands up fairly well to scrutiny, and she’s got perfectly on point vocal skills, and, when called for at the end, an excellent set of lungs to blast those out with.

Tom: I don’t have enough slow ballad music in my library: it doesn’t tend to get me excited enough to get past my threshold of “I actually want to download this”. This is a great slow ballad: as usual, it doesn’t get past that threshold, but it’s not bad at all.

Tim: Basically, if I hadn’t get annoyed with this lyric video, I’d have no problems at all. It’s probably for the best that the designer didn’t put his name on the credits.

Alfred Hall – Safe & Sound

“Diaphanous wonder and breathy rapture”

Tim: “If you like music that expresses diaphanous wonder and breathy rapture, then you’ll love Norwegian duo Alfred Hall,” says the e-mail, which brings the first time my vocabulary’s been outdone by ludicrously verbose PR guff, and to be honest I’m surprised it’s taken five and a half years.

Tom: Diaphanous wonder? That probably just means the music’s so light and meaningless that we’ll see right through it.

Tim: Well let’s see…

Tim: ..that’s bloody great, so I looked it up and apparently diaphanous means “light, delicate and translucent”; it’s normally used to describe fabric, and I have genuinely no idea what it means when describing wonder. Nor, now I come to think think about it, how “breathy” could define rapture. BUT ANYWAY we’re not here to criticise promoters, as easy as that might be. Let’s do the music, because I love it. The melodies, the vocals (which can be described as breathy), the xylophone bit. Even the whistling – much as I typically loathe anything that could be described as jaunty, that sounds really good and chirpy.

Tom: I was all set to disagree with you, to write a piece about how this was pretty mediocre, and then the final chorus kicked in. It took a while to get there, but yes: this has some good in it. Replace that whistling with the much better instrumentation from the final chorus, and I think I could get behind this.

Tim: Alfred Hall have been going a few years now in Norway, with an album or two under their belt, but this is their first attempt to crack the international market; I do hope they succeed, if all their stuff is this good.

SaRaha – Kizunguzungu

“Spoiler alert: the only key change to have made it through.”

Tim: Our last trip to this year’s Melodifestivalen final, then, with this, the most colourful entry and (spoiler alert) the only key change to have made it through.

Tom: It’s also “Rainmaker“. You should know, Tim, you were in the front row with me getting splashed. Anyway.

Tim: This was written by SaRaha, along with Anderz Wrethov, who seems to get around a bit – he was also behind both David Lindgren and Samir & Victor’s finalist songs. The main influence on the song, both in lyrics and genre, seems to come from her upbringing in Tanzania, with the pre-chorus in Swahili and the title translating to Dizziness. And it’s a good track.

Tom: Damn right: this was one of my absolute favourites, and I’m sad it didn’t do any better.

Tim: Yes, the focus is on that African sound, but you’ve got plenty of modern touches going on through, starting right from the start with that distorted backing vocal.

Tom: Although it’s worth pointing out that under Eurovision rules, that’d have to be performed live. It didn’t work well for our entry last year.

Tim: On top of all of that, well, that combination of key change, catherine wheels and confetti explosion is just excellent. A worthy finalist indeed.

Oscar Zia – Human

“BLIMEY, the power of that.”

Tim: As much as Melodifestivalen is a massive music contest in Sweden, it is at heart still all about Eurovision, and as such there aren’t many songs there that could actually go on for international success. Every year, though, you get a few that you feel really could, with the right contacts made. For example.

Tim: Because BLIMEY, the power of that.

Tom: It’s a shame about the direction: I know they’re going for “edgy” but, for me, they only managed “unsettling”.

Tim: Until Frans’s tripe was unveiled, this was the favourite to win, and I’m not remotely surprised that this is the song that ended up favourite with the international juries. Yes, it’s still straight up pop, but MAN, it’s big and powerful and heartfelt, and so, so, so much more deserving of a win than Frans.

Tom: And that’s why we have the televote: Sweden has always balanced well between “what the world wants” and “what Sweden wants”: and I’d say that’s part of why they’ve won. It’s also arguably another Zelmerlite—

Tim: Zelmerlïte.

Tom: —and in a contest full of them, perhaps Frans will make it. As for this song…

Tim: It is quite entirely outstanding, and I love it.