Category: Europop

Fender Heist feat. Monika May – Move With The Sirens

“That’s an aubergine.”

Tom: Norwegian electropop?

Tim: Yes, yes it is.

Tom: Oh crikey. That pitch-shifting drone in the background of the chorus is rather good, isn’t it?

Tim: The snare drum sounds on that chorus make it sound rather military, and I like that in a dance track because it almost forces movement, especially combining with the various going/moving lyrics in the chorus, and as far as I’m concerned where there’s movement there’s excitement and pleasure (and not just in the world of dance music IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 🍆 ).

Tom: That’s an aubergine, for anyone who’s not got emoji enabled.

Tim: Basically we have a nice melody, a good energetic vocal that doesn’t really want you to stay sitting down, some great beats behind it and an all round good tune. And a perfect opportunity to write 🍆. Everything you need, really.

Magnus Carlsson – Tillsammans

“A truly dedicated soul who’s still at it.”

Tim: I know we don’t normally do live performances of proper songs, because often they’re a bit iffy with the levels and stuff, but there’s no studio version on the internet and it’s the new one from Magnus Carlsson and dammit we need to do it.

Tim: I’m not sure I can think of any other man who’s done more for the noble act of schlager than Magnus.

Tom: That’s a heck of a phrase. I just want everyone reading this to wait a moment, and consider that phrase. Okay, moving on.

Tim: A truly dedicated soul who’s still at it, over half a decade since it stopped being fashionable, with key changes, major chords, thumping but not too thumping beats, and just such much happiness to everything, especially here with the song whose title translates as ‘Together’.

Tom: Yep, there’s not much you can say about this other than, yes, he’s ticked all the boxes, and the result is a pretty damn good schlager song.

Tim: I do hope he never stops. Though I do sort of hope he shows at least some sort of aging at some point, because a forty year old really shouldn’t look that good and I’m starting to get suspicious.

Michael Rune feat. Ragna – Ekko

“Sax-infested.”

Tim: You may remember Michael Rune from the sax-infested Min Indre Stimme, or, if you watched it, Denmark’s Melodi Grand Prix where he competed with the sax-infested Wanna Be Loved. Care to take a guess at one of the instruments in this track?

Tom: Is it the tuba? We’re long overdue a tuba revival.

Tim: And gosh that’s wonderfully lovely isn’t it? Quite a bit more toned down than both previous offerings, with nothing particularly big or brash about it.

Tom: Well, yes, but that meant I stopped paying it attention about half way through. The flip side of being toned down and lovely is that sometimes it just isn’t all that interesting.

Tim: The quick string movements in the second half of the chorus are particularly enjoyable for me, along with the gentle sax which is, ooh, the word smooth springs to mind, though I’m not really sure what that means in terms of music. Either way, it’s a very enjoyable listen.

Elouiz – 10

“Astonishing voice, good melody, steady build with the guitar.”

Tim: DROP.

Tom: That’s one of the best first verses I’ve heard in a while. Astonishing voice, good melody, steady build with the guitar.

Tim: I don’t mean this in quite as harsh a manner as it’ll sound, but I’d sort of forgotten I was meant to be paying attention to this track by about ten seconds in, though maybe I’m just in a distractable state of mind right now.

Tom: It’s the opposite for me, oddly enough: this caught my attention right from the start. That’s unusual for me.

Tim: Regardless, that chorus sure as hell brought the song right back to the forefront, and right now I’m having trouble thinking of a track that has such a massive disparity between pre- and post-drop volumes. Certainly demonstrates powerful singing capabilities, which is always handy in a debut single, and with its big emotional hook it’ll fit nicely as a song to play over the closing scenes of a TV episode, where you get tender feelings and heavy drama all being interwoven.

Tom: That seems a bit harsh: it’s a good song on its own, both verse and chorus. There aren’t many pop songs you can say that for.

Tim: Not sure why that example came to me, but there it is. It’s certainly not meant to be harsh, because it works, for me anyway.

ZeroGravity – Make You Mine

“Perhaps they’ve time travelled from the past.”

Somehow, we’ve not yet reached boyband saturation point, so here are two Swedes and three Americans who presumably looked photogenic enough to be worth putting together, visas be damned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AsSSVd0oJU

Oh heavens, they’ve even put the names on there to introduce them, like they’re in a dodgy sitcom or something.

I’m going to stick my neck out: not going to happen. With no disrespect meant to the guys involved, there’s not really anything special about this song.

Yep. And the video could have come straight out of the 90s – the half-assed dancing, the leaning forward into the camera.

It is, in fact, a tad tedious with the way it loses all its momentum in the pre-chorus, then with the drum beats building up into a chorus that doesn’t deserve it. The middle eight is exactly twice as long as it should be – either drop the first half or the first and third quarters, either would work – and a repeat to fade? Really?

Perhaps they’ve time travelled from the past. There’s nothing actively wrong with this — it’s just about twenty years too late.

Come on, record people. We’re running out of room for boybands, so if you’re pushing out a new one and least make it vaguely worthwhile.

Hanna Sørvaag – Rain Checks

“Okay guys let’s not get ridiculous here, it’s time to take a break”

Tim: Tom, it’s a gloriously sunny day, let’s have a nice weather-themed (ish) happy track to go with it, such as this, which has been sent our way.

Tom: If it wasn’t called “Rain Checks”, that’d almost be a sensible introduction.

Tim: Yes, it would, wouldn’t it? Dammit.

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=R9K4DAmc8EI

Tom: The first line of the chorus — that “no more rainchecks”? For some reason, that grates. Just the first line. I can’t think why: is there something odd or special about it?

Tim: Not that I can tell, no. I think my favourite thing about this is the way it suddenly breaks down after each chorus, as if to say “okay guys let’s not get ridiculous here, it’s time to take a break” like an iPhone if it gets too hot.

Tom: Yes! Normally that doesn’t work, but here it does! It takes a hell of a verse to pull that off, but that country-music guitar under it works perfectly.

Tim: It knows it’s a big excitable chorus and that it can’t really carry on the whole way. To be honest, I wouldn’t remotely mind if it did, but I suppose it might get a bit tiring, especially with all the effort they’re putting in in that video.

Tom: Speaking of which, why are they filming the audition as the music video? Did they just invite a load of dancers in for an “audition”, say they’d call them back, film it, and not pay them?

Tim: I suppose that’s one way of saving money. And even with the pause to calm down, the song’s still great – there’s certainly no lack of energy to those dialled down verses that I can complain of, so I’m very happy with this. Sorted.

Unnur Eggerts – Dansa til að gleyma þér

“Being on your own’s alright, really”

Tim: We got sent this, so I though it only polite to have a listen; I’m quite glad I did, as it happens.

Tim: It’s kind of pretty, isn’t it? If you think I’m going to type all those lyrics in to see what they mean you can properly do one.

Tom: That’s our commitment to serious music journalism, right there.

Tim: But I’ve at least found out that the title means Dancing To Forget You, and the “sjálfa mig” that sounded like it might be meaningful in the middle eight actually means “myself”, so it isn’t really. It’s probably along the same lines as yesterday’s track, actually, with a “being on your own’s alright, really”.

Tom: I reckon that’s a decent message, actually. Better than Robin Thicke’s new album, certainly.

Tim: Erm…hmm…sorry, you’ve got me trying to think of something that’d be worse that that, but I’m not sure I can.

Tom: Musically, this seems to come up a bit short for me — it could be any one of hundreds of tracks, and I couldn’t remember the hook after listening to it.

Tim: Perhaps not, but in the moment I like this – it’s danceable, it can easily be beefed up a bit with a remix or two if you want to celebrate being on your own while you’re out having a proper party, but otherwise it’s pleasantly understated – less yesterday’s “LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M HAVING FUN” and more “look, just sod off would you? And close the door on the way out.” Works well.

Meow – Nobody

“A bit Owl City-ish”

Tim: Remember these guys from a couple of months back? Well, here’s their new one.

https://soundcloud.com/meow-uk/nobody

Tom: Huh. All the arpeggiated noodling-about in the background is a bit Owl City-ish (and the “good time” helps with that too).

Tim: Hmm, you’re not wrong there. Turns out we’ve not moved on from piano dance music like I thought we had, but if it currently sounds like that I’m very happy for it to hang around a bit longer, because it’s just great. The pounding bassline through the chorus stands out as being particularly nice, as does the melody in general.

Tom: You’re right about that, although good grief, is that ever over-compressed. That pounding bassline makes everything else in the track go silent to a ridiculous extent — it’s almost as if everything else keeps dropping out. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that effect so strongly.

Tim: Then let’s have the “I don’t need nobody to have a good time” as a nice and somewhat solitary anthem for the time being. I could jump around to this in my room for a long time, and I’d be happy to. Because I DON’T NEED YOU. LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M HAVING FUN.

Tom: Well, how rude.

3Logy – The Banjo

Just as good as Wake Me Up.

Tim: Let’s pretend we plan this sort of thing in advance and follow up from the past couple of days with this. Much like Wednesday, it’s Norwegian and a tad silly, and like yesterday it features a typically irritating instrument.

Tom: “Play that banjo” and “lose control” are not really phrases that go together.

Tim: The verses are comprised of entirely standard and generic lyrics, and then we hit the chorus and start singing rapturously about the banjo. Because, in this age of farmhouse music, that’s exactly what we’re meant to do. Is it silly? Of course it is. Does that stop it being a decent track? Not really, no.

Tom: It’s a moderately good track, sure, but ‘standard and generic’ still sums it up — apart from that banjo part, which admittedly sets it apart.

Tim: If you get your kicks listening to Avicii’s Wake Me Up, then as far as I can tell this is just as good so you should be fine.

Tom: What the hell? No it’s not. It’s no Wake Me Up. It follows the same formula, but in much the same way as a 1980s Lada follows the same “four wheels and a steering wheel” formula as a Porsche.

Tim: Maybe, but wherever you gets Porsches, you’re going to get Ladas – this is what society gets if it starts embracing genre mix-ups, isn’t it. SLIPPERY SLOPE. You only have yourselves to blame, all of you.

Tim: But anyway, the intro also sounds a bit like Aqua’s My Oh My, and that’s always a bonus.

Kate Havnevik – Micronation

“They’re just SUCH POINTLESS INSTRUMENTS.”

Tim: Sometimes, I would love it if I didn’t hate ukuleles as much as I do. Take this, for example.

Tim: Because, dammit, that’s really quite a lovely track, with the chorus going on about pirates (no idea why) and a lovely string following section.

Tom: Now, that’s where we disagree. Because the ukulele perked me up, but after that it all just sort of descended into a bit of a background mush.

Tim: It seems we do disagree, yes, because the intro with the solo strumming? God, it kills me, and makes me want to skip the entire track. They’re just SUCH POINTLESS INSTRUMENTS.

Tom: There’s someone who’s never listened to Me First and the Gimme Gimmes doing I Believe I Can Fly.

Tim: Oh, fine, yes, they have their uses. But here? No. Coming back to the second verse it’s not so bad, because there are other bits there that I can pay attention to, and like I said everything about the chorus and what follows it is lovely. When it gets going, I love it. I just really, really hate that intro.