Mainstream – Page 20

Maja Francis – Saved By The Summer

“Disgraceful behaviour.”

Tim: There’s a couple of lines here that remind me of Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human, but I promise it’s a lot more upbeat than that was.

Tim: Well, first off, since when was it acceptable to pull multiple petals off at once when you’re doing the loves me/loves me not thing? Disgraceful behaviour.

Tom: Any time you know the result you want, can see how many petals there are, and can calculate quickly. I’m more worried about when it’s become acceptable to apply a VHS filter to a vertical video.

Tim: Other than that, though, I’ve not really got any problems with this. Sure, there could be a bit more melody in the post-chorus (if indeed there can really be described to be any in the first place), but the actual sound of it is good enough that I really don’t care.

Tom: I am wondering why you described it as “upbeat”, at least until it got to the middle eight and final chorus. It takes a while to get there, but yeah, sure. It’s not an immediate replay, but it’s certainly not bad.

Tim: Though I do wish it was a little less Rag’n’Bone Man-y.

Alex Alexander – Never Back Down

“Here’s a fun little track for you.”

Tim: Not sure if his his parents were feeling incredibly lazy and/or cruel, or if that’s just his stage name, but never mind – here’s a fun little track for you.

Tim: I was onside with that from the beginning with the guitar over the slightly swooshy backing, and it never really did anything to lose me. You can probably guess my biggest gripe with it, what with it finishing a full one middle eight and chorus sooner than it should be doing, but what there is is pretty enjoyable all round.

Tom: You’re right: at three minutes, this is about the right length, but it could still do with a bit of variety.

Tim: It’s a slightly unusual blend, with what sound like actual guitars rather than just the usual vocals or synth noises being twiddled around with in the post chorus.

Tom: Yep, and that’s some expressive guitar work — it almost sounds a bit like the Clangers, a musical instrument being used to generate something that could, from a long way away, be interpreted as vocals.

Tim: I’ll try anything once, and this works well. Nice.

Taylor Swift – Gorgeous

“It has an enjoyable chorus”

Tim: I described Look What You Made Me Do as ‘bloody awful’; you weren’t as down on it but did express hope that further stuff wouldn’t be quite so dark. With due trepidation, then…

Tim: And, well, it’s still not as happy and upbeat as previously (as, of course, we must remember that that Taylor is DEAD), but, surprisingly, I actually quite like that.

Tom: Wait, really? It’s okay, I guess — and to be fair, Look What You Made Me Do has been a grower for me — but apart from the pre-chorus, this didn’t connect with me at all. Why do you like it?

Tim: Partly because right now there’s a slight personal connection – someone at work recently demonstrated a complete lack of etiquette in the ‘buying a drink’ department and now it’s over before it started – but also because the melody’s not unpleasant, it has an enjoyable chorus and she’s actually displaying her vocal talents.

Tom: Yes, she’s got a recognisable voice — one that couldn’t be replaced with just any session singer — but it’s still not as good as… well, basically anything off the last album.

Tim: Oh, that’s very very true – but given that previously described limit, this is actually pretty good. Surprisingly.

Rita Ora – Anywhere

“That chorus melody makes it all so good.“

Tim: First up, a look at the parish notice board, where we see that three lovely Christmas songs came out last Friday, of varying quality, and I would dearly love nothing more than to write about them right now. However, Tom, since you’re in sunny California as I write this…

Tom: Close enough.

Tim: …it’s probably best if we leave those for a while. We’ll have this instead, then, Rita’s new one, as it too is really rather good.

Tom: From the line “over the hills” and onwards, that is excellent. Blimey. And then it goes and does a second good thing, going all Alan Walker-knockoff.

Tim: Hmm, ish – yes, most of it is bloody brilliant, but it’s that Alan Walker knock-off that stops me loving it unconditionally. I’d much prefer it there if the post-chorus was toned down just to an instrumental, or at the very least had been assaulted with a slightly less unwieldy vocoder.

Tom: Yes, to be fair, they clearly didn’t get Alan Walker for this. But ah, that chorus melody makes it all so good.

Tim: Doesn’t it? I don’t have a single gripe whatsoever with any other part of the song – it’s just fantastic, and I absolutely love it. So even with my one complaint, I think this song is excellent, and wonderful, and glorious. Super super duper.

Rachel Platten – Perfect For You

“That’s… that’s an album track.”

Tom: Fight Song became an anthem. Stand By You was one of the best pop songs of last year (at least, I reckon so; the world disagrees). Lead track off the second album: is she going to keep up the Big Powerful Inspirational Singles?

Tim: Please – please – tell me this isn’t a Betteridge.

Tim: Oh.

Tom: Oh. No. No she’s not. That’s… that’s an album track. The half-spoken pre-chorus is poor, the chorus itself is anaemic, and while that bassline and percussion underneath often threatens to become interesting, it never actually does.

Tim: Right. That build comes up, and then…nope. Nothing. Nada.

Tom: There’s one bit of greatness in this song: the very last couple of seconds of the middle eight, that build and whoop. That greatness is then squandered immediately by the chorus. Let’s hope for something better soon.

Sia – Rainbow

“Well, that went a bit Mr Tumble.”

Tim: So, the Trolls movie gave us the perfection that is Can’t Stop The Feeling.

Tom: Which was a grower: I remember listening to Justin Timberlake at Eurovision and thinking “aw, man, why did he have to bring the new stuff”? And then.

Tim: And then indeed. Question for today, though: will we get anything as good from the My Little Pony movie?

Tom: The what now.

Tim: You heard.

Tom: Well, that went a bit Mr Tumble. That’s not just a lazy “kids show” joke, genuinely all I can hear in that chorus is the nursery rhyme.

Tim: Yeah, there’s not a lot to love, is there? I mean, it’s Sia, so it’s never going to be an entirely bad track, but I can’t help thinking that the ponies prancing around with their “YASS QUEEN” attitude is the most entertaining part of that video. It’s a decent chorus, sure – again, it’s Sia, so anything that makes prominent use of her vocal is going to sound fantastic. But as for what it does with that voice…ehh, not so much, sadly.

Tom: It’s a Generic Movie Song. Very few artists bring their A-game to that, unless it’s a Bond theme. This is not a Bond theme.

Walk The Moon – One Foot

“A spectacular amount of energy.”

Tim: So, with Different Colors and Shut Up And Dance under their belt, it was always going to be tricky for Walk The Moon to come back for their second album. Here’s the first track from it, and, well, there’s more than one moment in here that makes me go OH YES.

Tim: The main one, you can probably guess, was the loss of the instrumental and the shouted “one foot in front of the other” before the first chorus. It’s a cheap trick, and not remotely original, but when it works: man, it really works.

Tom: You’re right about that — and they’ve arguably solved the problem of how to bring the modern two-chorus dance-pop structure into a slightly more credible track, too. What else did you like?

Tim: An opening verse that’s “yeah, this’ll do nicely”…

Tom: And which, arguably, owes at least a tip of the hat to Jason Derulo, but at least they didn’t sing their own name at any point.

Tim: …a pre-chorus that ramps things up well and includes the trademark ‘wooo-oooh’s, and then that single “IT’S HERE” line. As with Friday’s track, I don’t know how much is dependent on my mood before hearing the track – hopefully not too much – but after finishing the track I pressed play again, and when the chorus came round again I had my hands in the air clapping along.

Tom: Yep. There is a spectacular amount of energy in this song, which I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by.

Tim: I’ll be honest: if you told me last week that it was two years since their album dropped, I’d say ‘YOU WHAT’, but yes it has, and now they’re back with this, and HOT DAMN I’m alright with it. Don’t think I’ve ever in my life said HOT DAMN before, but apparently this track requires it.

Alan Walker – The Spectre

“It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and it’s got me properly excited”

Tim: New one off the accountant-named DJ, or rather a newly-released reworking of an older track with added vocals, and I’ve got a favour to ask: can you listen to it without watching the video?

Tom: Totally heard “ice cream” in the lyrics that first verse, until “your name” followed it and my brain worked out what I’d heard.

Tim: Thing is, I reckon this track is great. It’s the first solo material he’s put out for a while, and it’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and it’s got me properly excited. Thing is, though: while I know I do like the music, part of me thinks I might be getting more excited because of the video, which I also love – the mix of crowd footage, flames and lasers, choreographed dancers and all that weird processed bits with the planet and eyes and stuff.

Tom: Well, you’re in luck, because I reckon it’s good too — although it dips a bit too much for the second verse. But I think it’s good because it reminds me of two things: first, the ridiculous synth melodies of 90s and 2000s europop, and second, good chiptune music. (The two are related.) That melody is really, really good, and he knows how to produce a floorfiller.

Tim: Good to know. And even now as I listen to it without the video, I can confirm it is very much still a great track.

Incidentally, in you’re wondering as I was, the whole vigilante and/or criminal mask/hoody vibe came from growing up in online gaming communities, where “anyone can put on a mask”. Makes a vague sort of sense, I guess?

Tom: More like “I’ll keep my face off the internet”. Wise man.

Tim: …says the professional YouTuber.

Niall Horan – Too Much To Ask

“It’s even got some rude language!”

Tim: Track one was a pile of garbage, track two gave us a slight amount of hope for the album, and track three…

Tim: …is actually pretty damn good! And it’s even got some rude language!

Tom: Wait, really? It’s… “competent” is the word that comes to mind, and I think I mean that in the sense of Matt Cardle.

Tim: Matt Cardle’s a decent comparison, yeah, and while I’ll agree that it maybe didn’t deserve the exclamation mark, this is decidedly not the Niall I was thinking of when I said that This Town was exactly the sort of track I’d expect Niall to release. It’s a grown up, developed track rather than some melty pile of poo – it says “hello, I’m actually joining in this music scene that people who don’t just like me for being ‘the cute little nice one’ listen to”.

Tom: And I’m sure they’ll love him for it. But I can’t remember any of this track now it’s over, and I can’t remember having any sort of emotional reaction to it either.

Tim: Fair enough, though for me at least that’s a product of the genre – it’s still light guitar pop, and I don’t think he’ll move on from that at any point soon. At least it’s decent light guitar pop, though. FINALLY, Niall, you’ve done good.

Macklemore feat. Kesha – Good Old Days

“Basically four minutes of musical blueballs.”

Tom: As there’s not much in the way of good European pop music being released at the moment, I thought I’d take us over and have a look at what’s coming out of the US. And I’ve picked this one, not because it’s representative of what we usually talk about…

Tom: …but because it could be so much better if it were a bit more European.

Tim: Oh yes?

Tom: Because I’m listening to it through our pop-music lens, that’s basically four minutes of musical blueballs. Slow start. Great intro verse from a brilliant singer. Military drums starting to build. And then…

Tim: UGH. Kesha’s singing is nice, but by the end of the first verse I wanted something more. Macklemore came on, the drums started, I thought YES, let’s BEGIN…but then nothing. Just a massive anti-climax.

Tom: This could be (should be?) a banger. Instead, it just drops down again for the hook, every time. And I realise that’s a deliberate decision, and it’s all emotional, and it’s probably the point, but in my head this should have CHOIRS and BRASS SECTIONS and VIOLINS and basically a WHOLE DAMN ORCHESTRA.

Tim: Oh God, now I’m imagining this with a massive choir behind it, and DAMN YOU Tom now you’ve made me realise even more how much better it could have been. DARN IT.