Europop – Page 64

Mariette – The Next Generation Calls

“I’m tempted to call this a bit of a waste.”

Tom: “Hello? Oh, hi Captain Picard, how’s it going?” No?

Tim: No. Instead, Tom, we have a Song With A Message. It a companion song to the Children’s Climate Conference, which is apparently a thing, where kids who don’t have faith in the grown-ups in Paris next month are going “to have their own climate conference, and put pressure on the world’s adults.” Yep.

Tom: Or in other words, do absolutely nothing but get some good PR for someone and have something on the CV.

Tim: Yeah, sounds about right Also, advance warning for you: kids backing choir in the chorus.

Tim: And the thing is, regardless of how sickening (albeit theoretically admirable) that intro spiel was: I quite like this song. Take away the kids, alter the lyrics so they’re not so patronising, and we could really have a decent tune on our hands.

Tom: Hmm. There are some interesting bits in there (that glissando on “calls”, for one). Yep, given a bit of a makeover, perhaps this could be OK.

Tim: I’m tempted, then, to call this a bit of a waste. Sure, a charity single is worthwhile and all that, but when a song has so much potential but is dragged down by self-imposed necessities, it’s a real shame.

Tom: And by a kids’ choir. Seriously, there’s no need.

Ambition 17 – Fem Steg Från Rätt

“What a fabulous direction.”

Tim: “Five Steps From Right”, apparently, but after a while you won’t care what this Swedish girlband are singing about.

Tim: I mean BLIMEY. I entirely was not expecting that chorus. What a change of direction, and what a fabulous direction.

Tom: If you listen carefully, the build for that chorus starts a full four lines earlier, right at the start of the pre-chorus. Well done.

Tim: They’ve gone full on Swedish House Mafia style with their dance bits, and as in almost all places it just works very very well – the vocals fit very well so they don’t just sound like a featured layer on top of the dance backing.

Tom: Ooh, that’s where I’d disagree: I don’t think the mix is quite right. The vocals are, if anything, a bit too prominent, and not quite in the right style to fit that backing. Or, rather, they are for a few years ago, it’s just that if we had a full-on Modern Big Pop Producer here, there’d be a lot more time spent juggling all the frequencies and instrumentation so it works perfectly.

Tim: You could be right, but then it’s be more a dance track than a pop track, and I’m guessing that’s not where this is meant to be – particularly evident when the middle eight drops back to the level of the first verse. It’s a risky move as it is, and I’m not entirely sure it works completely, but then when the strings come along and the energy jumps back up, well, all is forgiven really.

Tom: I think that’s a problem that could be solved, again, with a slightly different producer: but as we both know, I’m a sucker for a string section, so I love that final part.

Tim: Indeed. A WONDERFUL track.

Saturday Flashback: Suite 16 – I Don’t Think So

“That’s one they actually nailed!”

Tom: It’s taken me three songs to realise that “Suite 16” is a pun on “Sweet 16”. I have no idea how I failed to notice this. I guess I never said it out loud.

Tim: Well, if it’s any consolation I didn’t get it the first time round. But first up here, an admission of error: on Wednesday I said that Who I Wanna Be was Suite 16’s second single; in fact, this one was, which came out about six months ago and completes the trio of boyband songs: we’ve had the pop-punk and we’ve got the melty ballad coming later, but now the summer pop banger.

Tim: And (along with a lot of the girls in that video, quite probably) that’s one they actually nailed!

Tom: It is, but bloody hell those are some very close camera shots. I physically recoiled from my screen at one point. The five of them all next to each other, staring at a retreating camera? That’s got some full-on Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibes about it. Anyway: what works about it for you?

Tim: You’ve got your summer whistling, your easily discerned lyrics about how great the girl their singing to is, and speaking of lyrics, “A little bit of me, a little bit of you, a little bit of awesome when we are two” is simultaneously a godawful cheesy line to repeat forever and a brilliant cheesy line to repeat forever.

Tom: There’s an incredible amount of autotune in that middle eight, mind, and I’m not convinced it’s entirely for stylistic reasons.

Tim: You could very well be right there; on the other hand, though, the backing is such that it’s easy to click or clap along to, that harmony at the close of the middle eight is from page one of the boyband manual (which now I’ve dreamt it up is a book I really want someone to write), and you can never go wrong with a pile of “na na na na” and “ah ah ah ah”. Conclusion: it’s a great track, so if we keep up the almost good/great/almost good pattern, we could actually be successful here. Nice work.

Tom: By the way, the Boyband Manual might not be real, but you should definitely track down The Manual, by the KLF, if you haven’t already.

Tim: Hmm, well I do currently have about eighteen inches of unread books on my shelf; might bump that up the list though.

Sara Sangfelt – Tattoo

“Dark and loud and exciting”

Tim: I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched a lot of Adele being a bit of a stalker recently but by the end of the first verse I was all ready to stay “here’s a Swedish Adele”.

Tom: Ådele?

Tim: Yeah, could work. Have a listen.

Tim: Obviously that went flying out the window upon arrival of the chorus when it went all dark and loud and exciting, because that’s not something I’m expecting the Skyfall hitmaker to be coming out with any time soon.

Tom: I sort of wish she did, though? I’d love to hear something like this on the new album. ANYWAY. Sara Sangfelt.

Tim: It’s a great track, this – as already stated, the chorus is dark and loud and exciting which provides a good contrast to the verse. I was all ready to say “how precisely does wearing someone like a tattoo work exactly” —

Tom: Permanently?

Tim: Yes, or until you attack them with lasers — but then the lyrics come along with the “under my skin, getting deeper and deeper”, and not being able to get rid of it, and it actually seems fairly clever. Nice lyrics, top music, fine vocals, ALL GOOD.

Suite 16 – Who I Wanna Be

“I don’t know who they’ve got on writing duties, but they really should be doing better.”

Tim: Previously, you reckoned that their debut sounded “like someone’s tried to take the pop-punk sound and hasn’t quite made it.” Well, as is standard with any new boyband’s second single, we’ve got a ballad.

Tim: And at the risk of making the majority of this review just a repeat of last time, I’m struggling to give this much more credence than “roughly just above average”.

Tom: Yep. To riff on what I said last time: it’s like someone’s tried to take Westlife’s sound and hasn’t quite made it.

Tim: Nice ending, decent comeback into the final chorus, can’t fault the vocals, especially not of the one who did the middle eight – the problem, as we entirely failed to identify last time, is just the song. I don’t know who they’ve got on writing duties, but for a boyband created via a fairly high profile TV series they really should be doing better.

Tom: That’s fair: the vocal performances are great, and the production — while perhaps a little dated in style — is still top quality.

Tim: Still, they have their Suitehearts (yep) to keep them going, so who know where they’ll end up.

Saturday Flashback: Alexander Vasiliou – Illusion

“What is happening two minutes into the video please?”

Tim: On Monday we had a track by Alexander that was for the most part very good but in some parts just awful. Today, we’ll have a track without that last bit.

Tim: Right, first thing first: what is happening two minutes into the video please? Because I know it’s choreography and everything, and they want the dancers to turn around, but does the guy really have to move his hand around so it looks exactly like he’s preparing to do a wee?

Tom: Oh blimey, I didn’t notice that at first, then I went back, and you’re right: it looks like they’re about to win the Nordic Synchronised Peeing contest, which I assume is a thing.

Tim: Well if not we should trademark it, because it could have potential. I don’t know why that leapt out at me, but anyway. Aurally, pretty good. Slightly egregious use of autotune, I’d say, but top marks for final chorus howling.

Tom: Come on, that’s a five-out-of-ten howl at best. It’s a solid track: Children of Tomorrow’s much better, were it not for that guitar.

Tim: You’re right – lose the guitar and that one’s a better track. This on its own, though: good enough as a decent dance track, and so let’s just hope that Children of Tomorrow is just a slight blip.

Alexander Vasiliou – Children of Tomorrow

Tim: Alexander: part Greek, part Swedish, former child TV person, former Sweden’s Got Talent contestant, current music singer. Got all that? Here’s a tune that’s part dance, part straight pop and part…well, have a listen.

Tim: And I love most of that very, very much.

Tom: Agreed: when the first verse makes me sit up and pay attention, it bodes well for the song. Bit confused by the chorus not kicking in until much later than it “should”, but the eventual drop made up for it. But then…

Tim: But, that, thing, in there as a post-chorus is just plain unpleasant, compared to everything else – particularly when it’s followed immediately by that gorgeous second verse. It’s unusual for a verse to be my favourite part in the song, but with its introducing those fantastic strings it sounds just wonderful. The chorus on its own is decent enough, but then comes that bit again.

Tom: Five years ago, I’d have complained about a dubstep drop there, complaining it sounded just as discordant and odd. Now, is this a new trend that’s just starting, or is it just a producer making a bizarre decision to drop in a weird guitar riff?

Tim: I’d be more inclined to give it a pass if it was only after the first chorus and for middle eight, but then it closes off the song, and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I don’t know, maybe it’d be like the dubstep bit in Amazing and would get okay with repeated listening…but I don’t want to listen to it repeatedly. Massive shame, I think.

Tom: It is: because the rest of this is wonderful.

Raise – Find U

“For the third time in a row, we have a cameo from a cow.”

Tim: His mum knows him as Rasmuss Bjornson, his target audience as Raise, a Swedish house producer who’s fairly new on the scene; here’s his second track.

Tim: And that’s quite lovely, isn’t it? Right from the off with the pleasant (albeit slightly disconcerting, at least initially) tone of whatever that is – it seems to vary between sounding like a saxophone and a stained vocal – it’s a very enjoyable piece of music to hear.

Tom: I was unconvinced for the first minute or so, until that build started — that’s where it started to come together. Although you’re right, I can’t quite worth out what that synth is either.

Tim: The chorus isn’t one that’ll get a dancefloor pounding – there’s not enough of a MASSIVE DRUMBEAT for that – but nonetheless (or perhaps it’s because of that) it makes lovely listening.

Tom: Agreed. I really wasn’t expecting to like this, but the instrumentation is pleasantly weird. And for the third time in a row, we have a cameo from a cow to take us into the chorus.

Tim: Yeah, what’s going on with those? Anyway, the rest of the vocal on there can confidently be described as sublime, so we can forgive it. Ideal scene for this, I reckon: getting ready to go out to. Not too loud, but more than enough of a beat to get you in the mood. Perfect.

Rebecca & Fiona – Sayonara

“Sod it, it’s not gonna work, let’s ditch it now”

Tim: With strong language from the start, the new one off Rebecca & Fiona has a decidedly downbeat message, so buckle up, we’re going in.

Tom: Oh, full marks for whoever did the design for that lyric video. That’s really, really well done, and that’s coming from someone who makes this sort of thing.

Tim: For those unaware, as I was, ‘sayonara’ is a Japanese word meaning a very final goodbye (and also Spanish for flip-flop, though that’s probably not what they’re going for).

Tom: Wait, how have you made it this far through life without knowing that? I thought that was common knowledge. Huh. Yes, that’s what it means.

Tim: Well used here, with a song that’s basically “sod it, it’s not gonna work, let’s ditch it now”, and to be honest that makes me very glad they work in a recording studio and not my local A&E. There’s not even any indication there’s anything wrong with the relationship – just “probably not gonna happen, bye!” What a very bleak outlook on life they must have.

Tom: I don’t know, I think it’s quite a pragmatic outlook myself. Nothing lasts forever, enjoy it while it’s here, accept that people move on. There’s a bit of Lee Marvin about that.

Tim: Hmm, perhaps. At least the music’s good – catchy, beat-heavy and weirdly feeling rather upbeat, so despite giving me some depressing going round in my head, that’s reason enough for me to hang around. Maybe at some point I’ll work out what the video’s meant to be all about.

Benjamin Ingrosso – Fall In Love

“All of the music, albeit less of the dance”

Tim: Cousin of the more notable Sebastian Ingrosso of Swedish House Mafia and Axwell Λ Ingrosso fame, Benjamin brings all of the music, albeit less of the dance; have a listen.

Tim: And, that’ll do me very well indeed, right out of the gates with the piano start. Throw in the FABULOUS use of a string section, then add that drumming section in, there’s really not a lot to criticise about this track’s production. His vocal line is very much on point.

Tom: Suspiciously so: he’s either got an exceptional ability for switching between notes accurately and instantly, or there’s a bit too much autotune on here. But despite that, there’s that bizarre “pffft” plosive on every “for us” that should really have been fixed.

I mean, the production’s good, but almost mechanically so: instruments turn on and off rather like someone’s flicked a light switch.

Tim: And with that rabble rousing chorus with his multiple simultaneous vocals (always an impressive skill), I’d go so far as to say there’s really not a lot to criticise about this track at all. Is there?

Tom: Apparently I’m slightly more cynical than you. But we knew that already.