Europop – Page 88

HvH – Cause of Your Destruction

“That’s an absolutely brilliant track.”

Tim: Last week, apparently, there was a big album released with tracks from 65 artists in aid of a Swedish human rights group called Feministiskt Initiativ; we got sent this one, from new band HvH, short for Hammer Village Heights. I’d say ‘contains flashing images’, but more accurate would be ‘is a flashing image’.

Tom: That is wonderful. I have absolutely no idea why that’s hit me quite so hard, but it has: that’s an absolutely brilliant track.

Tim: It’s also incredibly downbeat, and despite it being that, I love it.

Tom: I know it’s technically ‘downbeat’, but this is a textbook example of how you can make a song uplifting, rousing, and almost spiritual without needing to go over the top.

Tim: I think it’s the almost military feeling it brings with it – that, combined with the main line of the chorus being “we will be the cause of your destruction”, the bare lyric video and the disconnected slightly robotic voice makes it an almost sinister track, and certainly one that’s keen on getting its message across. It does, however, have a great melody to it, and for me at least it all works brilliantly.

Tom: It reminds me of some of VNV Nation’s recent work — I suspect the band name helps with that — and that’s a sincere compliment. There are a hundred songs like this that I’d dismiss as “plodding” and “slow”, and somehow, I wish I knew how, they’re able to make it brilliant.

Tim: I’m not sure I’d like a whole album of this, but it’s a damn good starting point.

Oscar Zia – Ballare Con Me

“All of the necessary bits for a balearic dance tune”

Tim: Let’s pretend yesterday never happened, and go back to the pleasing sounds of beachy summer summer.

Tim: I know we don’t normally go with live performances, but this one’s good and actually fairly similar to the studio version so it’s fine.

Tom: “Fine”?

Tim: Not only is it fine, in fact, it’s great. It has all of the necessary bits for a balearic dance tune, right down to the foreign in the chorus.

Tom: I was about to call you on using the word ‘foreign’, and then I realised I wasn’t immediately sure what language it was either. It does say something that most of the pop stars from non-English-speaking countries still sing at least partly in English, though.

Tim: Yes, though it’s worth remembering that Oscar is Swedish rather than anywhere Mediterranean. I’m not particularly sold on the slightly grouchy breakdown, which almost breaks the track a little bit, but that aside it’s pretty great. Oh, and since you mentioned it, it’s Italian for ‘Dancing With Me’.

Tom: Italian. Got it.

Ktree feat. Robin Stjernberg & Flo Rida – Thunderbolt

The producer, the talent, and the other bit.

Tim: Typically, when I see a song, I’ll listen to it before deciding whether or not we should review it; it may be dull, awful, or entirely unremarkable. Here, though, with Melodifestivalen winner Robin Stjernberg on the same track as professional musical dick Flo Rida, I’m fairly sure that, whatever we think, it won’t be entirely unremarkable.

Tom: Much like Cher Lloyd and Demi Lovato, that’s an international pairing that I’d never have expected — but which makes sense. Does it sound as good?

Tim: And as it turns out it’s mostly pretty good – we have Ktree (from Germany), the producer. Robin, the talent.

Tom: And what talent — from both of them, too. Robin’s got the voice for a song like that, and Ktree’s production is just incredible: that build is just astonishing. And then…

Tim: Flo Rida, the other bit. And just what is that other bit? Really? Because to be honest, it’s hard to think right now of anything that sounds quite so, well, just wrong (aside from possibly the lack of a chorus in Dark Horse, which gets me every time I hear it).

Tom: Not only that, who puts a camera that expensive into sand?!

Tim: It’s thirteen seconds of almost entirely unintelligible nonsense – I don’t know who wrote it, or what the point of it is. There’s are mumblings about bitches, shawdy and supermodels, which is basically what you’d get if you stuck him in a bingo machine and plucked parts of him out at random. The vast majority of me suspects it was only there to attach a big name to this – in fact, call me cynical, but I’d put quite a bit of money on this being the case.

Tom: Agreed. Note that they couldn’t afford to get him in for the video either: at no point does he actually lipsync. Maybe they just took some of his outtakes and shoved them into a track?

Tim: Wouldn’t actually surprise me. All that aside, though, this is a pretty great track – great vocals, the howling of which is becoming of a trademark for Robin, and a decent production underneath. It’s all good, really, with the exception of those thirteen seconds.

Darin feat. Prophet of 7Lions – Mamma Mia

“It feels a bit like a dodgy summer track from ten years ago.”

Tim: There are a lot of football songs doing the rounds at the moment (apparently there’s some competition or thing happening soon); this isn’t one of them, but it does sound like it could be one.

Tom: “7Lions?” Huh. Three ought to be enough for anyone.

Tim: Not bad that, is it?

Tom: It’s not bad, but it’s not good.

Tim: Oh.

Tom: Why’s it a football song?

Tim: Well, it just seems to have a fairly summery, active, sporty vibe to it. Kicks off (ha) fairly early, calms down for some not particularly inspiring verses, but then comes back with a nice pairing of pre-chorus and proper chorus, carrying a decent hook and all in all being a fairly decent track.

Tom: It’s good enough, I suppose, but it feels a bit like a dodgy summer track from ten years ago — even down to the dodgy rap bridge.

Tim: It’s not a Nobody Knows or (obviously) a Lovekiller, but it’s very enjoyable, nice and summery and would be a pretty great soundtrack to some sort of sporting activity. I think.

Anna Abreu – Ra-ta ta-ta

“That is a stunningly bad first verse.”

Tim: Imagine someone singing a snare drum. That’s basically the chorus of Anna’s latest.

Tom: That is a stunningly bad first verse. “This is my update two point oh” would have been dated ten years ago, but now? Eugh.

Tim: Yes, a distinctly uneasy first verse (and second, but it’s okay then because you know what’s coming), but then there’s a pre-chorus that’s totally great —

Tom: Oh heavens yes. That pre-chorus is easily the best part of the song.

Tim: — and a chorus that’s unusual and possibly gimmicky the first time out, growing on you the second time and then when it’s back at the end with the electric guitar underneath? Well that’s just wonderful. PLAY IT AGAIN PLEASE. Oh, there’s a button that does that already.

Tom: Mm. I’ll admit that it did grow on me, and with a few more listens I’d probably get over the gimmick. If someone could build a song just out of that pre-chorus I’d be very happy indeed.

Tim: If only there was a button that chopped the last quarter out of the middle eight. Because we could go STRAIGHT BACK TO THAT CHORUS.

Hannis – Time Has Come

“This appears to be the “farting samples” genre.”

Tim: This song, from newly-arrived Finn Hannis, is described to us a mixture of dubstep and chillstep, to which my respective thoughts were ‘hmm…’ and ‘wut?’. So, open-minded as ever, let’s have a gander.

Tim: Right, so chillstep seems to be all well and good, and the dubstep is, well, as dubstep does.

Tom: This appears to be the “farting samples” genre of dubstep. A brave choice.

Tim: Recently I was wondering whether dubstep breakdowns have gone away just as I was beginning to enjoy them, because they really don’t seem to be around much any more. This is, well, let’s be frank I’m in no position to really review dubstep aside from saying that this is alright and I don’t find it too bad at all.

Tom: It’s a sign of how much my ears have adapted to dubstep that it counts as “okay” to me too. It’s just… well, I’m not really sure what it’s doing at any point.

Tim: With the two bits of the song mixed together, though, it seems a bit off, mainly because they’re not really mixed much. There’s a chillstep section, then switch to dubstep, then switch back to chillstep, then back, and only really at the end do the two blend, and I can’t help wondering if that might alienate about 50% of listeners for 90% of the time. Maybe a bit more consistency might help, or at the very least a bit of mixing.

Tom: Yes – that’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s awkwardly straddling genres, and I’m not sure it works.

Tim: Listenable throughout, though, definitely.

Carina Dahl – It Gets Better

“They almost (but only almost) feel a tad forced.”

Tim: The title might give you the impression that this is a somewhat chirpy song. That is appropriate, because it really is.

Tim: This song is lovely, in particular the bouncy strings that are especially noticeable in the middle eight, and of course the chorus lyrics that are so in your face that they almost (but only almost) feel a tad forced.

Tom: Adding a percussion hit on every syllable is, indeed, forcing it a bit – but it does work. I’m less sure about that “better, better, better” repeat — I don’t think it’s quite as catchy as the producers seem to insist it is.

Tim: Perhaps not as catchy, but I still like it. The one thing that disappoints me, which you might be able to guess, is that there’s no key change back from the middle eight, because as far as I’m concerned it would be a delightful cherry on top of an already good cake, but a cake with a distinctly cherry-sized hole in it.

Tom: Good point: it’s positively begging for one there.

Tim: Few notes on the video: quite a waste of wine there, you’re really going to ruin those trainers and that’s one hell of a lot of chilli peppers. But mostly, just imagine that with a key change: “Feels like WAKING UP!” God, that’d be good.

Frida Sundemo – Drawn To You

“it doesn’t quite hold together as an actual track for me.”

Tim: ‘Lit Up By Neon’, the title of Frida’s on-its-way EP, perhaps explaining the sudden rush of tracks. This here, the second in a month, is a little more upbeat than the previous, so that’s nice.

Tom: Hmm. It might be more upbeat on the whole — that synth-vocal certainly is — but those verses do drag it down a bit.

Tim: Yes – the voice is still her trademark somewhat ethereal voice, that’s hard to really put a mood on (certainly hard to describe as upbeat), but we’ve got here that underlying vocal line that’d be hard to spell so I won’t try, and that brings with it a certain ‘ooh, this is fun and invigorating’ sensation.

Tom: Right! But when the synth line is also the chorus, it doesn’t quite hold together as an actual track for me. It’s nearly there, but it just needs something else to kick it into being a Really Good Song.

Tim: Well, for me that comes with the lovely ‘I’m running at the speed of light in the middle of the night’ melody which appears every now and again and is also excellent. Two favourite parts, then, and for me that’s plenty enough to qualify this as a good track.

Em – Taking Back My Heart

“Here is some generic but very good Eurodance. Sound good?”

Tim: Here is some generic but very good Eurodance. Sound good?

Tom: Always.

Tim: I’ll be honest: that takes me back to the glory days of Cascada and the like.

Tom: In style, possibly, but my word, is that melody ever a dirge. I know there’s a bit of trend for darker Eurodance around, but I’m not sold on it.

Tim: Em (apparently the six syllables of Emelie Appelgren are five too many) is Swedish, and seems to want to fill the void of female vocal-led dance pop that inexplicably seems to be around right now. If this debut’s anything to go by, there’s quite a bit of promise there, and while it’s no Can’t Get Over, neither was La La La (Never Give It Up) (yeah, exactly).

Tom: That’s true: it’s the songwriting I’ve got issues with here, not any other part of it. And by the time of that final chorus, I think my ears were starting to get used to the dark.

Tim: I have high hopes, so let’s keep playing this and hope that it all keeps coming, shall we?

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining

“Grown up country-pop, and done very well at that.”

Tim: Remember this Swedish duo from back in 2012?

Tom: For once, yes I do! I think that’s mostly due to the name though.

Tim: Good, because it’s new album time, and therefore new track time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Fu4lGLUsk

Tim: The sound’s not changed much, which after yesterday’s ridiculousness almost comes as something of a relief.

Tom: Speak for yourself, I could take a whole album of that.

Tim: Oh, so could I, but after forty minutes of that one track on repeat it struck me as time for a change. This is grown up country-pop, and done very well at that.

Tom: Yes, yes it is. She’s got exactly the right voice for that — pitch-perfect cry break included — backed by the right instrumentation and production.

Tim: Mind you, for a song that’s ostensibly named after the good things in life, it’s not exactly a chirpy number, is it? It’s nice, and very good, but it’s hardly a party number, except– ooh! except for that time in every party when all the alcohol’s run out, a few people have started sneaking out in the garden for a spliff and everyone’s just lazing around and a bit weary. That part of a party, it’s great for.

Tom: Well, that’s rather specific. I think it’ll be damn good in a few other situations too, although I can’t quite suggest what they’ll be.

Tim: Oh, I’m sure you’re right, but until the specific moments come to you, should that happen to be anybody’s favourite part of a party, the single’s out now, and the album’ll be with us in a couple of months. SORTED.