Europop – Page 62

LEA – Mitt Läppstift

“These lyrics have been pulled straight out of Tumblr about six months ago.”

Tim: I’ll be honest upfront: there are so, so many things wrong with this; we’ll discuss them all in a bit, but to start with be aware we’ve a sizeable number of f-bombs (Swedish, but it’s not exactly the most challenging translation), right from the off.

Tom: Oh, there’s a linguistics paper on code-switching and loan words to be had, there. That’s amazing.

Tim: The initial tone and lyric got me wanting to switch it off after less than ten seconds. The lyrics talk about ‘Netflix and chill’ and while I’m never normally one to get offended by bad language, the sheer intensity of it gets me thinking “alright love, calm down”.

Tom: I generally dislike songs that’ll date this badly — and let’s face it, parts of these lyrics have been pulled straight out of Tumblr about six months ago and are already placing this song somewhere in the middle of 2015.

But here’s the thing: I enjoyed the whole song.

Tim: Whuh?

Tom: I’ve previously said there aren’t enough songs in the genre of “this isn’t love, but you’re good in bed and that’ll do”. And come on, for that chorus, “you fuck up my lipstick, but not my mascara” is a bloody brilliant bit of lyric writing in any language. The video backs that up: this is not about pining for anyone, and I’m all in favour of that.

Tim: The video gets that point across, yes, but I still just find it plain unpleasant. And yet, and yet – that chorus almost makes up for it. Only almost, mind, because it would need to be a Queen Of My Heart-level chorus to make up for it fully, but it’s still a really nice chorus.

Tom: I’ll assume that’s in quality rather than style, because a sudden gear-shift into Westlife ballad would be odd here.

Tim: Well, obviously – though she can clearly sing when she wants to, so hopefully a slightly more pleasant follow-up isn’t too far off; as it is, though, for me it’s a terrible song, almost redeemed.

Janikke – Seven Emotions

“A message that I’m not sure I can ever remember hearing before.”

Tim: Jannike, a Finn who brings us this, a fairly upbeat ballad. For those that aren’t aware, as I wasn’t until I looked them up: the ‘seven emotions’ are nothing to do with Brad Pitt but are anger, fear, disgust, contempt, joy, sadness and surprise; with that knowledge, enjoy.

Tim: Now, wanting to see that makes for a song with a message that, to be honest, I’m not sure I can ever remember hearing before: not liking that a relationship’s all good, and wanting to bring out the negativities just to test it. “I know it’s crazy but it’s true” – perhaps, yes, but I suppose there’s a decent case to be made, which she’s going for.

Tom: I’m all for unconventional messages in songs, as long as they vaguely make sense. And I guess this does.

Tim: I think so. It’s got to be said, as well, that she’s doing a decent job of making that case – vocals are all on point, and there’s some wonderful instrumentation going on in the background: piano, drums, cello, guitar, it’s all there, and sounding absolutely lovely.

Tom: The composition here’s pretty damn good, too. It almost seems to be taking some cues from the country-music Standard Songbook, wonderfully backed up by some unexpected strings and a proper band rather than just synths.

Tim: So, the emotions this brings out in me? A bit of surprise, small amount of sadness, maybe, but mostly a whole lot of joy. WINNING.

Otto Knows feat. Lindsey Stirling & Alex Aris – Dying For You

“It’s rare for me to immediately sit up and pay attention in the first verse.”

Tim: Otto, the guy who had that “eh-eh-eh-eh-eh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” hit Million Voices a few years back; Lindsey, a violinist who had that dubstep thing going on for a while; Alex, a guy who according to Google is a Burmese civil rights campaigner so that’s probably a different one.

Tom: Well, that was a heck of a paragraph. Still sort of hoping he’s the civil rights campaigner.

Tim: You, though, a self-confessed “sucker for a string section,” so have a listen.

Tim: And that there would be a fairly enjoyable pop track if it wasn’t for the excellent idea of having all that violining on there; as it is, though, it has all that violining on there, so it’s a really enjoyable pop track.

Tom: That’s a good-sounding introduction — it’s rare for me to immediately sit up and pay attention in the first verse. I think that the pre-chorus — or, maybe the vocal chorus? I don’t know what you call it with a structure like this — is actually the weakest point.

Tim: Hmm, perhaps – I’d say it doesn’t help that the song is clearly keen to get to that post-chorus that it’s not so bothered about what happens first; hell, the verses are better, vocal-wise. And speaking of vocals, Alex, it turns out, is a very competent vocalist; Otto has also shown previously that he knows what he’s doing on the production side of things – basically, we’ve got a load of people who are good at what they do, all working together to make an almost entirely very good song. Nice work.

Ida LaFontaine – Go Again

“The chorus kicked in and utterly distracted me”

Tim: Do you really know where we’re going, Tom? Do you really care where it ends? Because Ida doesn’t, and to be honest this song kind of makes me want to agree with her.

Tom: Ah, we’ve finally come full circle: a lyric video that actually just features the artist singing the son– oh. Sorry, the chorus kicked in and utterly distracted me there.

Tim: I’m not surprised, because what a song, or at the very least what a chorus. It’s not much of a dance track – starts out more as a vibrant country number, really – but that first chorus got my hands involuntarily slapping the desk, and then when the song returned for the closing section, BAM my head started moving and I DID NOT WANT TO STOP.

Tom: Are you sure that’s not just caffeine? Because it’s not a bad chorus, but it’s not that good, surely?

Tim: Well, I pushed play again, and not long after my hands were clapping and it was all I could do not to jump around the room.

Tom: Let me put it this way: if this were a Eurovision track, and we were back in the stadium, I’d be dancing like crazy to it. In a club, yes, I can see how it works. But it’s still got a lot of slow bits in there, and sitting in my desk — it didn’t quite make it. Nearly did on that last chorus. But not quite.

Tim: Am I just in a very excitable mood? Perhaps. But is this a great track regardless of that? Definitely.

Medina – We Survive

“It’s competent, it’s danceable.”

Tim: Notable Dane Medina is back after a couple of years away, with the lead and title track off her sixth album (and her third English one), out next month, so feast your ears on this.

Tim: Fairly decent helping of electropop, I’d say – how’s it for you?

Tom: Are we just in the middle of a January of mediocre songs, Tim, or am I just in one of those funks where everything sounds “meh”?

Tim: Hmm, possibly the standard mid-winter blues? Mind you, I say ‘fairly decent’ – beyond that, there’s not a huge amount to say about it, really.

Tom: Right: it’s competent, it’s danceable. I know I’ve got high standards — I’m hoping for every song to be a Blank Space, and statistically that’s just not going to happen. This is good. It’s… it’s nice.

Tim: Yeah – strong beat, good vocal, great production; I’d play it at a party and would dance to it at a club, and that’s all I need from a track like this, really. Nice work.

Darin – Lagom

“A lovely number to start your week.”

Tim: Latest track to come from his Swedish album Fjärilar i Magen, and it’s a lovely number to start your week.

Tim: You see? Lovely, and we have another track where, once again, I must face up to the fact that I’m basically useless at getting anything that requires effort done if it isn’t absolutely necessary, as I still haven’t got anywhere learning Swedish and I’d love to know what this is all about.

Tom: To be fair, I think “learning an entire new language” is a pretty high bar to clear. to make it worse, my brain is convinced that pre-chorus is actually just English played backwards: there’s something weird about the cadence that reminds me of backmasking. It’s probably just autotune.

Tim: Really? It’s sounds fine to me, but in any case Google Translate isn’t particularly legible, and even the title seems off – apparently Lagom means Moderate, but that’s a really weird name for a song. However, so what if we can’t judge the lyrics – everything else is there to be heard, and bloody marvellous it really is.

Tom: Hmm, I wouldn’t agree. I thought “ah, that’s the final chorus” at about two minutes in, and then was surprised when I realised we hadn’t even hit the middle eight yet. It just seems to drag — which is strange for something that’s so upbeat. What works for you?

Tim: Well, we’ve got on point vocals, top strumming action that’s busy and accompanied enough to not be annoying, with some great strings coming along in the back – all in all, top tune.

KITTY – Reach No Higher

“I really wish it didn’t take quite so long to happen.”

Tim: Family and friends know her as Kitty, the rest of the world knows her as KITTY, and she’s Swedish with this as her debut.

Tim: Now, here’s a thing. First off, it takes a long time to get going, with verses that, along with the middle eight, I’ll generously describe as existent.

Tom: I rather like that middle eight: it’s a brave choice to go with just simple instrumentation, let alone just a string section — but I think it works extremely well, and possibly better than that chorus.

Tim: Really? See, for me its the chorus that totally makes it, or at least it sort of does – for me it’s not until the second chorus when it all goes orange that it actually does anything.

Tom: You’re right, that’s the cue: for some reason, it comes together there.

Tim: I don’t quite know how this is possible – the two are identical – but throughout that extended chorus and towards the end of the song, it all just rolls along beautifully, and I have no complaints at all (except for that double negative). I love them, in fact – I just really wish it didn’t take quite so long to happen.

Tom: And at four minutes it doesn’t really need to: you could cut out the first minute or so and it’d work fine.

Tim: There is a remix, mind – after all, there’s always a remix – by Swedish producer mog, that fixes that and gets it going straight off; sadly, in doing so it completely loses the lovely flowingness that makes the later choruses of the original so great. Oh, maybe I’m destined to be unhappy.

Tom: Maybe you’re just starting to approach my position: that 90% of the music we get is just “okay”, and that’s fine.

Steele – Machine

“Somehow less than the sum of its parts.”

Tom: Well that’s an ungooglable name. It’s just going to show you steel machines.

Tim: Indeed, so hopefully I can give you the info you need: a new-ish Swedish act, and the track’s described as “a bitter sweet song about recalled memories and heartbreak”. Quick but obvious f-bomb in the middle, so proceed as appropriate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzUcR6jA0CU

Tim: Decidedly more bitter than sweet, that – I’d struggle to find any sweetness in there at all, really, aside from the (mildly believable) “I’m a laugh machine” lyrics. Interesting collection of machines to be, actually – as well as laugh, we’ve love, that and soul (though the tone of it kind of makes me want to add a -draining to that last one), all of which gives a rather curious insight into the relationship being discussed.

Tom: There are so many good things here. Absolutely cracking intro. Brilliant suddenly rising chords in the chorus. That middle eight is lovely. The vocal performance is excellent. Even the ending — which I initially thought was going to be a massive letdown — is recovered by a bit of synth twiddling. And yet, I don’t actually like the final product: it’s somehow less than the sum of its parts for me.

Tim: I’m feeling the same – in two minds about it, really. It’s obviously incredibly depressing and downbeat, but the production on it is really very good indeed, and I’ve happily pressed replay several times while listening. Hmm.

Tom: I want the instrumental of this, used as the backdrop to some nature documentary. I’m just not sure it’s a decent song on its own.

Saturday Flashback: Nick Borgen – We Are All The Winners

“That flute. That tie.”

Tim: Every other even slightly music related site is right now doing their “20 best” or “50 most underrated” or “2,517 that went under the radar” or whatever of 2015, so let’s not concern ourselves with that sort of stuff. Instead, let’s dig out the ever reliable Best Of Melodifestivalen compilation and pay a trip to this 1993 runner up, with BAGPIPES!

Tom: A brave choice, there, in a production that contains a lot of brave choices. That flute. That tie.

Tim: Oh, that tie. Elephant in the room, quickly: yes, the first lines of the verses here are the same as those of The Best, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Instead, though, I am utterly transfixed by those dancers, and the way that they are just about coordinating with each other, but don’t really mind that it isn’t perfect because they’re just having so much fun.

Tom: It’s a bit different from now, isn’t it? They’d just be hidden in the shadows at the back of the stage and replaced with some projection-mapping.

Tim: And where would be the fun in that? I say most of the time they don’t mind – the expression of the one on the left when she almost does that closing thumbs up one beat too early is a joy to behold, and you wouldn’t get that with a stick drawing. So there’s a lovely message to take into 2016: in real life, WE ARE ALL THE WINNERS, and even if we mess up the dancing a bit we’ll still manage second. I’m happy with that.

Morgan Sulele feat. Mood Melodies – Min Kabin

“Fancy a wintry brass number?”

Tim: Fancy a wintry brass number to kick off the year?

Tom: I… I can’t turn that into a euphemism.

Tim: And there we go – it’s basically “look, it’s cold and empty out there, join me in here my my cabin” which is either dodgy and a bit cultish, the desperate pleading of a lonely man, or just a nice guy who wants to offer comfort and a warm drink, and then presumably get laid at some point in the near future.

Tom: You realise none of those are really good options, right?

Tim: I do, and yet I like it nonetheless – it’s fairly nice and gentle, but with that extra brass lurking around to give a slight party atmosphere to head off the interpretation of “come snuggle on my sofa, I’m very warm you know”.

Tom: And I don’t like it: it’s very possible to make brass sound good in a pop song, but this just seems a bit too strident and out-of-place. And even in a language I don’t understand, I can hear the telltale “sha-la-la-la” that means “I’ve run out of lyrics here”.

Tim: You know, I’ve never thought about sha-la-la-las like that before, and now i’m fairly sure you’ve ruined a lot of music for me. All in all, if this didn’t have a pre-chorus that makes me want to launch right into What Makes You Beautiful, I’d be really enjoying this track, cause innit lovely.

Tom: How did I not notice that? Now you’ve said it, that’s really obvious.