Category: Mainstream

Kim Wilde – Pop Don’t Stop

“If that’s not a message for our times then it damn well should be.”

Tim: YES, it’s Kim from way back when, with her first release since 2013’s Christmas album, and oh, has it been worth waiting for.

Tom: There’s a saying I use: “don’t shoot for the moon and miss”. If your green-screen isn’t quite up to full-on pop video standards, perhaps you’d better just film somewhere else without it. I had to watch this in a background tab, because some inverted version of the halo effect meant that I thought the song was worse just because the video was a bit naff.

Tim: Yes, alright, but let’s not focus on the negatives, when there are SO MANY positives to discuss. Some artists feel the need to update their style in accordance with the progression of musical vogue; I’d argue that there are at least two situations where you don’t. One: when you’re Kim Wilde, and two: when your chorus goes “POP POP MUSIC GIVE ME POP POP MUSIC DON’T STOP GIVE ME POP GIVE ME POP POP MUSIC”.

Tom: How convenient and oddly specific. (I know what you mean, though, and you’re right.)

Tim: Pop music brings people together, and keeps them together, and if that’s not a message for our times then it damn well should be. This song is just pure energy – I listened to this about ten minutes after waking up last Friday, and jumped straight out of bed; there’s not a lot that’ll get me doing that.

Tom: Either that or a desperate urge to pee, sure.

Tim: Everything about it is just wonderful: the music, the bright colours in the video, and her bringing her brother Ricky along for the ride, because why not?

We’re only a month and a bit in to 2018 and we’ve already heard a lot of good tracks; nevertheless, I’m fairly sure that come December, this’ll still be in my top 10 of the year. (Also a safe bet: one from the Lithuanian Eurovision selection process that our reader described as “vomit-inducing”; we’ll get to that one in due course.)

Kylie Minogue – Dancing

“Kylo”

Tom: Occasionally we’ll cover Kylie’s tracks here, whenever she’s got something new out. And usually we’re a bit disappointed, because the bar’s been set so high in the past.

Tim: Certainly has.

Tom: Oh, crikey, let’s move on from that. We’re looking for a BANGER, based on past form, and — despite your enthusiasm for that Christmas single — I don’t think it’s quite matched up. This time…

Tom: …MODERATE BANGER. Which I know is a contradiction in terms, but I still stand by it.

Tim: I’d say MODERATE TO STRONG, based on those fast-paced verses, heavy choruses and the whole “screw you, I’m here, plastered and DANCING” look on her face in the middle eight.

Tom: There’s a lot to like here. It sounds like old Kylie, filtered through a lens of Kygo. I’d portmanteau those together, but I’d get “Kylo”, and then it’d be all Star Wars.

Tim: Yes, and if you and I started discussing that we’d be here all day, so best not.

Tom: Full marks for actually including line dancing in the video like it’s the late nineties, though. This is catchy, and at under three minutes it doesn’t outstay its welcome either. This might be the best Kylie track since… 2 Hearts, perhaps?

Tim: Hmm…perhaps – though that Christmas album does take a lot to beat it.

Kygo feat. OneRepublic – Stranger Things

“(a) a good Kygo track and (b) a good OneRepublic track”

Tim: Another one off his EP of duets, which quite pleasantly is (a) a good Kygo track and (b) a good OneRepublic track; hopefully you’ll agree.

Tim: Yes?

Tom: Qualified yes. Odd choice of title: I know that ‘Stranger Things’ comes from an idiom, but given the success of the show it seems a bit weird to use the same title. Or maybe they’re just hoping people will click on the video title in confusion while trying to find clips of the show on YouTube. As for the track…

Tim: Obviously it’s very much more Kygo than OneRepublic, particularly the chorus, but the verses aren’t far off standard OneRepublic fare, and I think the two complement each other very nicely.

Tom: It’s not quite as catchy or as upbeat as I’d expect, but given the title and collaborators that makes sense. Not one for the playlist, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it.

Tim: It’s nice to hear Kygo back doing music that sounds like him, and while this song might not quite be MASSIVE and BANGING and HUGE…I like it. It does what it sets out to, the talent’s all there and on display, and it works. Good stuff.

Coeur de Pirate – Prémonition

“Not every pop song has to be happy, and I’m okay with that.”

Tom: “Pirate Heart”? I’m sceptical.

Tim: Weird name, yes, but you don’t need to be. Tip of the hat to Rob who sent this in; she’s Canadian —

Tom: Who, Rob? Oh, wait, I see what you mean. Never mind.

Tim: — but does most of her singing in French, such as this, where (to give advance warning for the video) she sings about ‘the cycle of toxic relationships’, as she puts it in this interview.

Tim: Not the nicest video in the world, with two people in a horrible relationship but who can’t give each other up.

Tom: It reminded me a lot of Pink’s video for Try — this is a bit less abstract, but as a result it’s more emotionally raw. It’s rare for dance, as an art form, to reach my heart; this managed it.

Tim: Also fairly melancholy is the music and vocals, at least until the chorus comes along, which is curious: it’s there that the lyrics take a downturn, but where the mood of the music gives a hopeful vibe – maybe not wholly upbeat, but it does give a sense of things being better.

Tom: “We’re not going to change” is definitely a downturn, but it’s one that seems to match everything else. Not every pop song has to be happy, and I’m okay with that.

Tim: I don’t know if I’m reading too much into this – all in all, listening to this, I like it a lot. Sure, the lyrics are downbeat, but that chorus is one I can completely and totally get behind. Love it.

Tom: Agreed.

George Ezra – Paradise

“He’s the one with the weirdly deep and resonant voice that sets me on edge a little.”

Tim: Today, in “interchangeable middle class British white solo males”: George Ezra!

Tom: Oh, yeah, he was the one who… no, that was… wait, didn’t he… yeah, no, they’re all interchangeable, carry on.

Tom: I remember! He’s the one with the weirdly deep and resonant voice that sets me on edge a little. Seriously, I had to check whether the unofficial upload you’ve linked to there had been pitched downwards to avoid copyright detection.

Tim: Nope, that’s just his voice.

Tom: Also, I thought there were two singers for a bit. There aren’t, he just changes register really quickly. Anyway. Yes. The song.

Tim: Decent launch track for a second album, I’d say – it’s up and off right from the get go, a shout and call back to get the audience involved, and most importantly of all, a chorus I’m still humming well after the track’s finished.

Tom: I despise that chorus. I’ll agree with all the points that you have above, but I still despise that chorus just for the line “your bloody veins”. First: ew. Second: what do you even mean by that, that’s an accurate adjective but it’s got horrendous subtext. Come to think of it, a lot of the lyrics here seem a bit… off, but it’s “bloody veins” that really grates on me.

Tim: Yeah, that lyric does put me off quite a bit, most because ‘bloody’ is comparatively rarely used to mean ‘full of blood’, so it just sounds confusing if nothing else. Everything else, though, I’ve no issue with (and I don’t mind his voice). So sure, the resurgence of guitar pop may have been and gone a couple of years back, but when it’s a rocking and basically just plain BANGING as this, I can always find room for it.

Tom: Sadly it turns out that, for me at least, they aren’t all interchangeable. If they were, I’d probably be OK with this too.

Example – The Answer

“So far, so standard Example”

Tom: Today, in “artists you remember from a few years ago and are surprised they’re still going”: Example!

Tom: Great verses, although that’s admittedly partly because it sounds a bit like a couple of Chainsmokers tracks.

Tim: YES, that’s why it sounds good – I was thinking “yep, so far, so standard Example”, without realising it was Chainsmokers I was thinking of.

Tom: That first verse and build is a really promising opening to the track.

Tim: Hmm, in the sense that “something interesting could happen”, though I wouldn’t say ‘really’.

Tom: Shame about the chorus and middle eight, really.

Tim: Really really.

Strobe! feat. KIDDO – Feeling Good

“Change those synths a little and it’d be full 2015.”

Tim: Miserable Monday, middle of January, and so I’d like to share this, as Strobe! (a.k.a. two guys called Petter & Isak) and KIDDO have a way of dealing with sadness.

Tom: That’s a promising intro there. I didn’t expect it to be almost-tropical though. (Almost. Change those synths a little and it’d be full 2015.)

Tim: Admittedly, it’s not the song I thought it’d be when I saw the title and first pressed play – it’d probably struggle to get on a lot of daytime radio playlists – but it’s still a good listen. Production’s good, melody’s good, and so even if I can’t quite endorse the message I have a lot of time for it.

Tom: It’d sit nicely in the background of one of those chillout playlists you get on Spotify. I suspect that sounds more harsh than I intended.

Tim: I’d even go so far as to say it has some nice Galantis-y elements in there (and Galantis when they’re good), which as regular readers will know is a heck of a compliment. So me? Well, at the risk of sounding predictable: I’m feeling good.

Saturday Flashback: Noisettes – I Want You Back

“Question for you, though.”

Tom: You’ve talked about songs in unusual time signatures: here’s something where — I think — the chord progression is 4/4 in swing time, but the percussion sounds a lot like 2/4. It’s also really, really good:

Tim: Well yes, I mean the underlying bass notes right from the off are basically Doctor Who, so obviously.

Tom: I can hum the chorus after one listen, but I’m not tired of it. I immediately want to hit replay. This passes all my Good Pop Tests. Question for you, though: what decade’s style is this imitating? I can hear some Motown in here, some 80s influences, and some modern indie pop.

Tim: I’m not sure it’s necessarily imitating any particular style – sure, components from all over the time periods, but I’d say it’s just compiling them, stirring them in a pot and seeing what the recipe generates. Works well.

Tom: This is successfully fusing a lot of good music into something that might well be better than the sum of its parts.

Amanda Delara – We Don’t Run From Anyone

Tim: Bit of a weird thing: the music video for this only covers 90 seconds or so of the song; specifically, the second verse/chorus and the beginning of the middle eight. It does, therefore, cover all the most important parts, but you still might want to check out the whole track.

Tom: I wonder if that’s a one-off decision, or a new strategy from record companies to prevent people just ripping stuff off YouTube?

Tim: So here’s the thing: that song’s great – the vocal is great, the production’s great, everything about it is great.

Tom: I’m very surprised you think that — I’ll grant you it’s a great chorus, but the verse is a bit too slow and plodding for me. That said, I found myself automatically singing along with the “we don’t run from anyone” in the post-chorus during the first listen, so that’s a good sign. You think everything about it’s great, though?

Tim: Including that string section that’s beginning to appear at the end of the video (and really kicks on the main song at 2:37), which is just so, so reminiscent of the “your song is on repeat/dancing to on to your heartbeat” melody from Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson’s Symphony that I don’t quite get how no-one noticed it.

Tom: I mean, I didn’t notice it, so… I don’t know, maybe Lana Del Rey has a point.

Tim: Other than that, though: like I said, fantastic track.

Owl City – Lucid Dream

“I’m having trouble believing you’re being serious here.”

Tom: Owl City’s singles tend to be EITHER brilliant bubblegum pop bangers OR dull introspective wishy-washy rubbish. With a title like this, from an album called Cinematic, I’m not hopeful.

Tom: Huh. Turns out he can do both at once.

Tim: You what? Instrospective it may be, but dull and wishy-washy?

Tom: Well, yeah. This needs someone like Avicii or Axwell to just take one pass through it. Give it something to actually make a crowd go off, and and you’d have an absolutely spectacular dance track.

Tim: Are we…are we listening to the same song? That post-chorus is fantastic, and if we were on a dance floor I would absolutely lose my nut to this.

Tom: Would you? Because, yes, it’s not bad, but after one of the most spectacular and promising builds I’ve heard in a while, we just get… well, mush is the word that comes to mind. Or alternatively, you take the verses down a notch, and you’d have a lovely… well, still a dance track, just one for the end of the night.

Tim: See, I’d have the opposite suggestion – turn the verses up, to keep the energy up throughout and not have that dip between the choruses.

Tom: As it is, it occupies a middle ground that – for me – is a bit disappointing.

Tim: I’ll be honest: I’m having trouble believing you’re being serious here. That chorus is just fantastic – yes, there are improvements that could be made, but for the most part this is brilliant.

Tom: Give it those improvements, I’d love it. Right now, it just doesn’t work for me.