Europop – Page 81

Sval – Fasitsvar

“One of the best tracks we’ve covered in weeks.”

Tim: Last time we talked about Sval, you mentioned you were ‘a sucker for a well-placed “heeey” sample’. Assuming the same hold true for a “heeeyo”, this one may well hit the spot.

Tim: And what a horribly abrupt ending that was.

Tom: What? That was a brilliant ending. In fact that was a brilliant track. And an astonishing video. In fact, all of that added up to one of the best tracks we’ve covered in weeks.

Tim: You’ll recall she’s Norwegian; the title means “definitive answer”.

Tom: And the chorus translates, roughly, as “we are in the midst of everything and we are nothing, and we are here without any definitive answer”. I’m not quite sure what that’s about.

Tim: I don’t care, though, because aside from the first verse that sounds too quiet after the hefty intro, and the aforementioned ending, this is a lovely track. She has a lovely voice, the instrumentation underneath is that lovely but not hugely common combination of drum-led and listenable. I’ve said lovely a lot there, but never mind.

Tom: That pretty much sums up my thoughts: more like this, please.

Tim: This is a very, very good track, and one that’s really got me hoping an album’s not far behind.

Nico & Vinz – In Your Arms

“It’s pleasant, it might pop its head into the top 40, but I can’t see this being a Big Tune.”

Tim: I was entirely wrong when I predicted Am I Wrong wouldn’t be a hit in the UK, what with it ending up being one of the biggest tracks of the summer.

Tom: Heavens, I was actually right about that. I still think chart predictions are basically a lottery, though.

Tim: Probably, yes. But here’s their follow-up, actually a re-release of a track from four years ago, because they reckon it’s good.

Tim: Despite my previous failure, and your point that it’s a lottery, I will happily make another prediction: this will have no trouble at all being a hit.

Tom: And again, I’m going to disagree with you: it’s pleasant, it might pop its head into the top 40, but I can’t see this being a Big Tune.

Tim: It’s a great track, even if it does feel broken a bit by the second part of the middle eight. It’s a lovely part, especially if you’re watching the video.

Tom: The video’s just as pretentious and credit-filled, I see.

Tim: Well, it’s a bit of fun. It does at least show they put some effort into this release rather than just “shall we put that one out again?” “yeah”; that middle eight does create a fairly heavy disjoint in the track, though. Unless it’s just one of those bits they stick in a music video that isn’t in the main track, in which case: all great, no problems at all.

Dotter – My Flower

“It’s a song full of good bits”

Tim: Bit of Motown-y track for you today, from a new Swedish singer. Up for it?

Tom: Swedish neo-soul. This should be fun.

Tom: Oh, that intro’s very good, isn’t it?

Tim: It is, and I’d say that there are a number of good bits in there: from the nice stringy intro and outro, the chorus with its enthusiastic and unashamed desperation, the chanting that follows that, and her general singing voice, a perfect fit with the music here.

Tom: Yep, it’s all very good. I have an odd complaint, though. During that chorus, there’s far too much going on in the high frequencies: the strings, the tambourines, her voice, even most of the percussion. There’s almost nothing in the low frequencies. If they’d drop the strings by an octave or so, it’d all sound so much clearer and fuller. But yes: it’s a song full of good bits, particularly that middle eight.

Tim: In fact, there’s very little that couldn’t be described as a good bit – it’s a very enjoyable track, and I look forward to hearing more from her.

World of Girls – Weekend Girl

Tim: Quick bit of fun for a Friday for you, a new Danish girlband, fresh out of the factory, managed by Rene off Aqua. Interested? Because you should be.

Tom: Oh, please tell me at last this week’s got some upbeat and happy music in it.

Tim: Oh yes.

Tim: Loud and enjoyable and a little bit shouty and a bit sweary which comes as a slight shock to the happy fun party vibe, but to be honest that’s the only criticism I can level at this track, because you’d really have to be a bit miserable not to like this. (I’ll just stand back for a bit and let you take the stand.)

Tom: It’s not bad. I’m not going to go full-on miserable, because there’s enough in here that makes me smile: the percussion-heavy pre-chorus, the shouty parts, even the unexpected swearing. I can see myself dancing to this, even if I can’t see it on a regular playlist.

Tim: Of course, it’s slightly spoiled when you listen to the lyrics and realise that they’re actually singing that the weekend girl in question is not something fun to aspire to be but just a bit of a strumpet who the target of the song should ignore, but let’s not do that. Instead let’s party out to the fact that it’s the weekend, and in fact LET’S ALL BE STRUMPETS. Who’s in?

Saron – Strong Like A Lion

“It’s not a promising start, but I chose to stick with it regardless and I’m rather glad I did.”

Tim: I think we may have here the shortest ever gap between getting kicked off a TV talent show and releasing a single, by which I mean about three weeks. (Sort of – she never actually made it to the Idol 2014 live shows, so it was probably several months ago, but still.)

Tim: So this has its ups and downs, doesn’t it.

Tom: This is going to be a really negative week of reviews from me, isn’t it? It’s another mediocre track that I just can’t get into.

Tim: No? Sure, it’s not a promising start, but I chose to stick with it regardless and I’m rather glad I did, because the chorus is pretty good, even if that unnamed bloke does keep sticking his autotuned gob in and even if the lyric video doesn’t remotely do it justice.

Tom: See, even the chorus doesn’t work for me. There seems to be this trend, at least in the songs we’re reviewing, towards dark and morose songs — either in mood or in lyrics. If you’re going down that route, you’d better make damn sure your production makes up for that inherently downbeat feel.

Tim: You say that, but I reckon it does. I know there’s a fairly significant amount of alteration that’s been done to her voice to but as with yesterday, somehow that doesn’t bother me here. Maybe it’s because the rest of it’s good enough to forgive that?

Tom: I don’t find the middle eight too objectionable, oddly, but aside from that: it’s a no from me.

Tim: Yeah? I mean, it’s not all great, as there are a lot of components in there I’d normally hate – whatever the synthy line is that sounds like it’s straight from a Flo Rida song, for example – but somehow it all seems to work. Quite nicely, in fact.

Gabrielle feat. Thomas Eriksen – Ti Kniver

“It’s very, very difficult to pull off “morose” in a song like this.”

Tim: We haven’t featured Gabrielle since last August’s (exquisitely reviewed) #SitterHer; let’s fix that.

Tim: That’s quite a lovely track – it’s been a while since we’ve had a decent dance ballad, and though I can’t say I was screaming out for one. I certainly won’t complain about it.

Tom: I will!

Tim: Yeah?

Tom: It’s not dancey enough to be dance, and not ballady enough to be a ballad. It occupies a middle ground, and while that can be fine, the melody and production just aren’t good enough to balance the two.

Tim: Really? Because I reckon the production’s great on it, and the melody of the singing is lovely, albeit morose.

Tom: Morose! That’s the word. That’s why I don’t like it all that much. It’s very, very difficult to pull off “morose” in a song like this.

Tim: Strange, because I think it works well. Ti Knivers means Ten Knives, so to be honest I’m not sure I want to hunt down the lyrics to translate them. I’ll just assume she’s dedicating this song to a really tough steak, and then I can forget about any potential violence issues, as long as I also forget about the rather odd ‘bitch’ that comes out of nowhere.

Tom: It’s always a little unnerving, that. English swearing seems to be powerful in nearly any language.

Tim: The singing itself with the slightly odd variant of autotune it’s got going on strangely doesn’t bother me – in fact, I really rather like it. Basically, as long as we selectively forget certain bits, #lovely.

Tom: Involuntary cringe at that hashtag, there.

Tim: YOU’RE WELCOME.

Miriam Bryant – Dragon

“I haven’t heard a better intro and first verse than that in a very, very long time.”

Tim: Miriam was last seen collaborating with Zedd, but now she’s back with the first single off her second album, and quite a good single it is too.

Tom: That is an AMAZING intro. Seriously, I haven’t heard a better intro and first verse than that in a very, very long time.

Tim: High praise indeed. It’s certainly got a promising intro, with both keyboard lines having potential. Hitting the chorus, that potential goes quite a long way to being realised.

Tom: It’s very much not four-on-the-floor, which confused me through that first chorus: once I learned to expect it, yes, it’s bloody amazing.

Tim: It is: the thumping that the lower piano line brought in is developed with other instruments in a way that quite definitely states I AM HERE, in rather a majestic manner entirely appropriate to the dragon she’s offering to be. Though quite how that fits with “you will never see me on the street” baffles me somewhat.

Tom: And “apple of the corner of my eye” is an interesting lyric, although, again, I’m not entirely sure what it means.

Tim: No. No, me neither. Oddly, unlike many songs with a big chorus like that, I’m not sat during the second verse just waiting for it to come back, which is nice, because it would appear the verse is rather satisfying as well. Perhaps I was hoping for a slightly bigger chorus the first time round after that hefty build, but all in all, this is a very enjoyable track.

Tove Lo – Timebomb

“That absolutely gorgeous chorus.”

Tim: Do you fancy rhythm in your verses? If you do, you’re out of luck with this. On the other hand…

Tim: …everything else about the track is bloody wonderful, and even the verse thing is overlookable once you’re expecting it.

Tom: It’s an interesting approach, certainly: it’s been tried before a few times before, and I’m not sure it completely works here — but at least it provides a contrast into that absolutely gorgeous chorus.

Tim: It does, and as for the rest of it: a lovely piano line underneath everything, a nice speedy drumbeat on top of that, and once the pre-chorus comes along, and then gives way to the full-on chorus, that instrumentation is just incredible.

Tom: Yep: the production is fantastic.

Tim: I especially like those noises that sound like a cartoon laser gun being fired, just because I don’t think I’ve heard them in any other song.

Tom: Gnarls Barkley’s Smiley Faces?

Tim: Sort of, but they don’t really have the same “pew! pew!” effect that gives the impression of just moving very very quickly, desperate to move on, that’s demonstrated in so many other parts of the song – the rushed verse, the quick drums, the timebomb in the lyrics.

Even at three and a half minutes, that makes the song seems as though it’s way too short, and I don’t really want it to stop, because dammit we COULD be the best thing ever, so let’s do everything quickly before we explode and do it all as much as possible. ONE TRACK REPEAT PLEASE.

The Main Level – Go Go With You

“Like some comedians are trying to do a boyband parody.”

Tim: Remember the glory days of One Direction, with tracks like Live While We’re Young and What Makes You Beautiful?

Tom: Crikey. Three years ago, that was.

Tim: Yep, and this Norwegian boyband do as well, and they’d also like to demonstrate all the geography they learnt at school.

Tim: That’s really what you get when a boyband doesn’t care about whether or not they’re a boyband, but instead care about MAKING GREAT MUSIC. And music videos with silly ‘plots’ involving a security guard that’s confused by a keypad, but never mind that.

Tom: Oh good grief, they look like a parody of a boy band, like some comedians are trying to do a boyband parody sketch. The cheesy cutaways, the by-the-numbers videography, the constant hands on each other’s shoulders.

Tim: Clap your hands right from the get go, please, because this is a song that knows what it’s doing – lyrics are “yes, you (YOU) are my girlfriend so let’s do stuff together”, music too has no sense of ever sitting down or staying still.

Tom: I just don’t get it: the music sounds like a parody — specifically, a bit like Key and Peele’s LMFAO parody. Those aren’t lyrics: you’re just naming a load of places.

Tim: I have one complaint: those “oh, o-oh”s coming out of the middle eight would be a perfect, a PERFECT, place for a key change. Opportunity considerably missed there, but never mind, because the rest is just great. Very very great.

Tom: Most of the tracks we cover are forgettable–

Tim: Well that’s going on the potential slogan list.

Tom: A few, I want to hear again, and I download them. And a few, I never want to hear again because for some irrational reason they annoy me so much. This is one of the latter.

Tim: Oh, how disappointing.

Saturday Flashback: Martin Stenmarck – Tonight’s The Night

“Since when did the first verse do that?”

Tim: I realised after I wrote it that Wednesday’s post may have given the impression that Melodifestivalen 2014 was Martin’s first outing; hell no, in fact he’s been going a couple of decades. Here’s a particular highlight, from 2011.

Tim: That’s a heck of a first few notes, I think you’ll agree, which is a good start for what’s a very good track.

Tom: I’m DANCING IN MY CHAIR to the first verse, Tim. Maybe it’s late and I’m tired as I write this, maybe I’m just in a suggestible mood, but since when did the first verse do that?

Tim: You think? Because my thought was that the verse wasn’t really the greatest, but then that chorus is very definitely loud and vigorous and enticing.

Tom: Oh! Oh you’re so wrong. The chorus was a bit of a let-down, because it’s a little bit slow and suddenly goes into a minor key at the end. I’m all about the insistent percussion and the synth backing in the verses, and that’s really weird for me.

I’m guessing you’re about the choruses, though?

Tim: Oh yes – the last chorus in particular, back after that shouty then briefly quiet middle eight, could safely be described as enormous. Multiple vocal lines, massive production with big beats behind it…basically everything you need for a terrific dance track. Martin Stenmarck: excellent artist.

Tom: Agreed.