Tim: According to Google, Sommarbarn either means ‘in summer’, ‘summer beach’ or ‘summer child’, but I’m not sure which it is here.
Tom: Well, that’s helpful.
Tim: You’re welcome. And Tom, I’d advise you skip the first eight seconds.
Tom: Kids’ choir, I guess?
Tim: Gosh, that’s enjoyable. Or irritating, I can see why some people might find it irritating if they’re not keen on the whistling, or find the kids backing up the chorus distracting. In fact to be honest I’ve heard it just twice and both of those things are starting to grate on me now I’ve thought about them that way.
Tom: Ah, see you’re just one listen behind me there.
Tim: The first time I heard it, though, I really liked it, so I suppose what we have here is a song that we can all hear once and then never really want to hear again.
Tim: — even if Brazil might not be ready for it, the music world certainly is, with a whole album out. We’ve already covered the Ricky Martin track, and we won’t be going anywhere near the main track, because it’s by Pitbull and is not even worth linking to, but this track by notable Norwegian Adelén is worth a listen or two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpl-YFHUw4k
Tim: Well let’s dissect this then. Intro: very promising indeed.
Tom: That’s just because they’re using “na na na hey hey”, like dozens of tracks before them — and like a lot of football chants.
Tim: Verses: rather disappointing. Pre-chorus with the ‘my name is Adelén’: likewise. Actual chorus: really very good indeed with its euphoric backing and proper singing.
Tom: Right! Because, again, it’s an old and popular track. Everything else about the track is just a ‘meh’, sadly.
Tim: I don’t know – post-chorus is also excellent, with a lovely melody and a nice chantable bit. And the middle-eight: once again very good, especially once the build starts to come in halfway through. From that point on, it’s all just wonderful, and vastly, vastly better than that Pitbull tripe that somehow is leading the pack.
Tom: Oh, completely agreed — it’s just, you know, a not-particularly-good remix of an old track.
Tom: Him off the 2007 Swedish Eurovision entry! Good start.
Tim: Also Kleerup, a producer who we’ve not featured previously. Together, the official Stockholm Pride 2014 song.
Tim: It starts out as a bit of a racket, but soon becomes really very good indeed.
Tom: Bit of a racket? That’s a brilliant start: it’s got a bit of late-90s-Matrix-electronica about it, and I’d say it’s a damn sight better than that first verse.
Tim: Well yes, because if I’m be honest: the verses somewhat washed over me, partly because there’s not much to them and partly because whilst trying to listen to it I got distracted and started trying to find somewhere I could buy this GLORIOUS cover of Let It Go.
Tom: It is a good cover. But let me guess…
Tim: Regardless of how distracted I got, that chorus kept permeating my brain, because it’s just great.
Tom: Agreed. That is everything you want from a chorus in a song like this: the melody line is gorgeous, and the rest of the instrumentation — and that voice — back it up well.
Tim: Great in itself, and great as a message for a Pride festival. It’s raucous, it’s powerful, it’s a clear statement, and it’s just marvellous.
“Nearly two minutes is a heck of a long time for what is, essentially, an introduction.”
Tom: CB writes in with this, and simply adds “Amazing”.
Tim: I don’t think I’d disagree too much with that.
Tom: Now, I’m a sucker for an Americana music video, as I’ve mentioned before — but the build on this, both in terms of music and picture, was slow enough and repetitive enough that it started to lose me. Nearly two minutes is a heck of a long time for what is, essentially, an introduction.
Tim: I don’t know, I was thinking that coming up to a minute in, but when the pre-chorus hit I was reassured it was building enough and that it’d likely be worth waiting for. Turns out: I was right.
Tom: So I wouldn’t go so far as ‘amazing’. There are moments in here where it promises to be amazing — that return from the chorus, for a start — but at four minutes it just overstays its welcome. Production’s great, her voice is great… but the old saying “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” is still true.
Tim: Hmm…yes, alright. I would appreciate a bit more, say jumping in halfway through the verse. From that point on, though, I’m very happy with this indeed.
Tim: Fresh from providing us with this year’s best Melodifestivalen entry, she’s following up with this rather great number.
Tom: I still can’t see her last name without thinking of Papa Lazarou out of the League of Gentlemen.
Tim: Oh… 🙁
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-41US89HB0
Tim: What a chorus, really. And what a tune underneath it. And what an everything, really. A song about giving love everything you’ve got, and a song that musically does exactly that.
Tom: Ooh, I’m not sure about that. It is a good chorus, I’ll grant you that, but it’s not going to light up a dance floor — and that verse just lost my attention.
Tim: Probably not light up a dance floor, no – but I reckon it’d do very well as a getting worked up tune, before your night starts BANGING.
Tom: And what’s with that odd “la la la” middle eight? It’s like several different bits of song all glued together.
Tim: I don’t know, I think it works. It’s very much headed back to the dancefloor following the power-pop that was Survivor, is out now in Greece and presumably she’s hoping it’ll be a big dance hit over the summer. I certainly hope it will, so here’s to not holding back, right?
“Utterly lovely and pretty much entirely forgettable.”
Tim: If you’ve not heard of Elin Lanto, she’s been off for three years so that may be why. Anyway, she’s back now with this lovely sort of dancey pop type ballady thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKcFx0eSv0
Tim: This here has the unfortunate combination of being both utterly lovely and pretty much entirely forgettable.
Tom: Oh, thank heavens, it’s not just me. It’s like waking up after a dream. There was… there was that bit that sounded a bit like the start of “I Want It That Way”? I think? And then an “aah-aah-aah-aah” bit.
Tim: Having heard it now four times, all I can really remember, aside from the “Sky-y-y-y-y-y-ylight” hook which is quite nice, is that she has a great gentle voice and that there was some really very enjoyable production underneath it. The main reason that annoys me? Within a couple of months, I’ll probably have Shazammed this a good ten times, and then I’ll feel stupid. If it wasn’t for that, I’d very happy listening to this over and over again.
Tom: I still think Shazam should just insult you if you tag the same song twice.
“One of the loveliest chorus lyrics I’ve heard in quite a while.”
Tim: Eric is in severe danger of being overtaken by Pitbull as the most written about artist on this site, and since nobody at all wants that, let’s write about this charity single. The title? ‘You Are Never Alone’.
Tim: And by charity, I mean Unicef, who are doing lots of work for all the kids Eric is playing football with and standing awkwardly next to in that video.
Tom: We’ve always said, in the past, that we’ll treat charity singles like regular ones — based mainly on the music.
Tim: It’s a cover of an old song (I say old, 1999) by Swede Mauro Scocco, and the chorus is there to reassure: “I can go all night, take a train or plane, it doesn’t matter where you are, I’ll be there anyway” which to be honest is one of the loveliest chorus lyrics I’ve heard in quite a while.
Tom: I’ll grant you that. And this is definitely a Big Ballad, so I’ll try not to be too disappointed that it isn’t more exciting.
Tim: Well that’s the question – as a ballad, is it a bit boring? Possibly, as it falls into the trap of the interminable second verse – we can cope with a dull first verse in the knowledge that there’s a chorus coming, but the chorus, while enough to sustain itself, doesn’t really bring any momentum to carry us through the next thirty seconds, which it really does need.
Tom: Agreed: it’s just a bit too slow and a bit too plodding to justify waiting on it. That said, full marks for an interesting build to the chorus: that abrupt stuttering sound works very well, far better than I’d have expected if it’d been just described to me.
Tim: On the other hand, it is a lovely chorus, lyrically and musically, and if we could just have a key change at 3:30, I’d not complain at all.
Tim: Well, here we are, with Saturday night’s victor, a drag queen from Gmunden in Austria, performing for the second time.
Tom: And we were there. We have the photos to prove it. But enough bragging: let’s see the show.
Tim: Big question, though: what won it? Because, let’s be honest, while it’s a good song, it’s not amazing. It’d certainly make the shortlist for a new Bond theme, and she’s definitely got a great voice, but outside that, the music’s not that special.
Tom: That’s true, but we know that Eurovision isn’t just about the song. It was a fairly weak field this year, there was full-on politics involved — particularly given the boos for Russia — and yes, perhaps the best song didn’t win, but the best performance did.
Tim: Absolutely: her as a singer and the message it provides (complete with that phoenix wing camera shot), combined with all the issues going on in eastern Europe at the moment, bring together one hell of a performance. You and I were there in the stadium, Tom, and the massive, massive amounts of cheering were arguably far more for that than for the sound.
Tom: Agreed. That said: it’s not a bad song. If it were a bad song, no amount of politics could have saved her.
Tim: True. And let’s be honest: that’s a great thing, for Eurovision fans. Because it’s finally become political. When the most Catholic country in Europe gave twelve points to a drag queen, and even Russia (Russia!) gave it five points, this is a time that we fans can point at and say: this is the liberalisation of Europe. What a great moment.
“MUSIC THAT SETS COMPUTERS ON FIRE. YOU MUST DANCE.”
Tim: Tina Cousins, off the late 90s, used to do dance pop, solo and working with Sash! on a couple of tracks, (and she also did Thank ABBA For The Music).
Tom: Crikey. That’s a pretty good pop CV, actually. What’ve we got?
Tim: Back then, the dance and the pop were combined nicely. Here…
Tim: It’s pop. It’s DANCE. It’s pop. It’s DANCE. DANCE. DANCE YOU BASTARDS OR YOU’LL DIE BECAUSE THIS IS HARDCORE DANCE. MUSIC THAT SETS COMPUTERS ON FIRE. YOU MUST DANCE.
Tom: I’m not sure it’s quite as two-sided as all that: rather than see it as a mash of genres, see it as a non-vocal chorus. It’s not four-on-the-floor pop, but it’s got personality to it.
Tim: Yes, I suppose you’re right. But even given that, what strikes me about it is that I can’t imagine it ever being played out – Tina’s bits are entirely unsuited to a heavy dance floor, and the dance bits are entirely unsuited to the ears of most people who like the rest.
Tom: Ooh, now that’s where I think you’re wrong. Remember all those brostep fans who were all about the DROP, and the light-and-dark contrast? This has a hell of a DROP.
Tim: It does, yes, there is that – I suppose it’s more the second group I’m thinking of, belonging to it as I do. On the other hand, I said ‘mostly’ up there – I quite like it, though, so I’ll take it.
Tim: You may or may not remember Robin, who’s featured on these pages a few times previously; you most likely won’t remember Lord Est, who hasn’t.
Tom: “Robin” is a bold name in a market already saturated with various Robins and Robyns. Still, let’s see what he’s got.
Tim: A warning: audibly, the middle eight is awful. Visually, it’s rather special, so stay with the video for it.
Tim: “Look! I know I’m overweight and in my mid-forties, but I can be cool! Really! Look! I’ve got sunglasses! And a leather jacket! I’m waving my hands out to kids who are street do! I say ‘street’ and everything! I’m SO COOL.”
Tom: “Lord Est”, huh? I assume he’s the Finnish Daz Sampson, with a similarly lengthy musical pedigree.
Tim: Blimey, yes. That part aside, though, I like this track. Now summer’s approaching (he writes, as it pours down with rain outside), the summer tracks seem to be out in force, and I for am happy with that. Yes, they tend to bring with them inevitably awful rap middle eights (actually, has there ever been a good one? Aside from Wannabe, obviously.), but they’re manageable.
Tom: Mmf. It’s an okay track, I guess, but I’d file it under “well produced” then actually “good”.
Tim: Possibly – the backing and his vocals are all fairly competent and largely enjoyable, and if you’re wondering the conversation in the video’s about him asking her who she was, her responding by telling him to follow her on Instagram (obvs), and then at the end her inviting him to a beach party. BEACH PARTY! FUN! YAY!
