Mainstream – Page 26

Clean Bandit feat. Zara Larsson – Symphony

“I’m not convinced.”

Tim: I’ll be honest with you, Tom: I’ve not been much of a fan of Zara’s music since (and I’m aware of how hipster wankerish this’ll make me sound) she got big. That’s mostly because there was a slight genre shift, little more heavy, almost drum & bass-y; Clean Bandit, on the other hand, is typically very much not that.

Tom: True, but I’ll be honest, I’ve not been a fan of Clean Bandit. Rockabye left me entirely cold — despite managing to be number one for a spectacularly long time.

Tim: Fair enough. But the question is: what would that combination, along with a track called Symphony, do for me?

Tim: Quite a bit, it seems.

Tom: Synchronising the orchestral video with the definitely not orchestral audio is a clever touch — although I do now want to hear what it sounded like in that concert hall. I’m not convinced by the track itself, though: like a lot of Clean Bandit’s stuff, it’s well put together but doesn’t contain anything that makes me… well, anything that makes me like it.

Tim: I disagree – he’s pulling Zara in a bit, and so we’ve got some melody, we’ve got some instruments, all of the bits that have been missing from recent tracks, and all of which combine with her lovely vocal to make everything I want in a Zara Larsson track, from before she got corrupted by the evil American music scene.

Tom: Harsh.

Tim: True. Artists change, I know that, and I know I need to accept it. But sometimes, I really really wish they wouldn’t, you know?

RuPaul – American

“How long before it gets annoying?”

Tim: RuPaul, best known latterly for his show RuPaul’s Drag Race, but still with one hell of a recording career which I was previously unaware of, and I bring this to you with one question: how long before it gets annoying?

Tom: About two seconds, although admittedly that’s because you primed me with “how long”, so I immediately figured out just how often I’d be hearing that hook.

Tim: See, that’s what I thought I’d think, once I realised “ah, yes, this is going to be around a lot.”

Tom: Without that? I’d dislike it on the first verse, but wouldn’t find it annoying until the first chorus.

Tim: Hmm, roughly what I figured. But here’s the thing: I never actually got there. Despite being that one single hook, very short, and repeated many many times, I never found it annoying. Its a fairly short song admittedly, but the sheer number of times that’s repeated ought to be enough to put me off it almost immediately. And yet, somehow: it doesn’t.

Tom: Why on Earth not? It sounds like a parody song — someone trying to pull the stereotypical stadium-country “yeah! America!” into another genre.

Actually, that might be what’s going on here, in which case fair play but I still don’t like it.

Tim: My enjoyment might partly be because it reminds me a lot of this 2012 track, or at least the vocal style does, and I still love that; I think it’s also because it’s just a good hook, though, with a good track hanging off it.

Stargate – Waterfall feat. Pink, Sia

“…oh. Really disappointing.”

Tom: Yep, you’re reading that right. Stargate finally decided to get their own credit instead of just producing other people’s songs, so this must be a banger. And they’ve got two of the greatest contemporary female vocalists to perform on it. This is going to be…

Tom: …oh. Really disappointing.

Tim: Isn’t it just? So much potential, and yet I get so little from it.

Tom: I mean, the video’s amazing, freefall dance is something that hasn’t had much exposure, and it’s shot beautifully. But what’s with everything else?

“I’m in your waterfall”. Yes. We get it. We got it by about thirty seconds in, with that bizarre choice to half-sing, half-mutter the last line of the endlessly repetitive chorus, as if no-one could be bothered with it. Stargate featured these incredible singers, and this is what they ask them to perform?

Tim: It’s little short of bizarre, really – not least that Sia and Pink got behind the microphones and thought “yep, I want to sing this”. It’s not terrible, it’s just really, really not using what’s there.

Tom: And as for all the guff behind the vocals: well, can I suggest that Stargate are much better at production than they are at picking songs to release?

Tim: Yes, yes you can. And you should.

Take That – Giants

“Well that’s not a sound I expected.”

Tom: It’s taken me a few days to send this to you, Tim, because for several days I just… well, I saw it, but never clicked on the link. Because it’s a new Take That song. There are only three of them now. Surely it’s just the last dregs now, hanging on?

Tim: Well that’s not a sound I expected.

Tom: Let’s get this out of the way first: Howard Donald looks increasingly like Brian from Spaced.

Tim: There, I will not disagree with you.

Tom: As for the music, though: that’s a promising introduction, rapidly killed by the first verse. It’s like they got M83 in just for one particular sample, and then decided to just chuck some lacklustre lyrics over the top of it.

Tim: I wouldn’t go with just that one part – you mention M83, and in fact the whole thing seems to be kind of like Shot At The Night, as far as in comparison to the normal output.

Tom: Which seems to be the pattern here: there’s a heck of a lot of good stuff, along with some questionable counterpoints that seem to kill the mood.

Tim: I don’t know, I’d say it’s just about kept afloat, and I think it works. I’ll take this.

Tom: It’s no “Shine”, but then it’s rare that anything is.

Steps – Scared Of The Dark

“They’re BACK.”

Tim: Item ONE: Steps were originally conceived just to be a one-hit wonder act, because the writers of 5, 6, 7, 8 wanted to get it released. Item TWO: that plan changed somewhat. Item THREE: twenty years later, here’s THIS because they’re BACK.

Tim: GOD, that’s good.

Tom: You’re not wrong. Comeback hits aren’t meant to be this good, surely?

Tim: That’s “listen to it several times to appreciate all of it” good. Right from the start, the string line there is signifying that while you don’t know what it is, something damn good is coming along soon. And, in due course, it sure as hell does: that chorus could be a lead single from Alcazar at their very, very highest, and boy is that a compliment I can’t imagine paying to many other acts. Throw in that delightful key change, and you’ve got a perfectly-packaged piece of disco.

Tom: It is, as well, that percussion could have come straight out of a Donna Summer track. In fact, this is a combination of decades of pop music. There’s even occasional 80s white-noise-sweeps in there. It’s not quite orchestral, but those strings make it feel… well, more grown-up, perhaps?

Tim: Here is what I love most about it: this is Steps. Actual, full-on, Steps. No compromises, no modern synth beats trying to be current, but just plain, unapologetic “this is what we do, and we love it”. Six weeks until the album and I CAN’T WAIT.

Lorde – Green Light

“Really just a whole lot of good Lorde.”

Tim: Lorde’s back! And sounding very good!

Tim: Funnily enough, just as I started writing this it got sent to us by our reader, who described it as “very Robyn-esque”; not sure I entirely see the resemblance, although maybe if Robyn actually PUT OUT ANY PROPER MUSIC AT SOME POINT GET ON WITH IT PLEASE then it might be.

Tom: Specifically, that introduction verse sounds a bit like the chorus of Dancing On My Own.

Tim: Absent any new Robyn stuff, though, it’s still very enjoyable – elements of a whole lot of good things, such as a toned down Icona Pop and a very on point Ellie Goulding, and really just a whole lot of good Lorde.

Tom: I see what you did there. You’re right, though: she’s got a unique voice that means she couldn’t be replaced by just another session singer, and while the production stays in comfortable territory, that’s not really a problem.

Tim: Great vocals, great chorus, great everything, really. Great track.

Dua Lipa – Be The One

“I genuinely have no idea.”

Tim: Writing yesterday’s intro gave me a nudge to actively check out what’s currently going around Radio 1, and I discovered this, press play and then thought “oh, Dua Lipa’s the one who did this one, I do know it”.

Tim: It’s tricky to review, because I’ve almost certainly heard it subconsciously so many many times before actually thinking about it properly, so I know exactly where it’s going, and exactly how it should sound.

Tom: Well, it’s new to me — I’ve been travelling around so much right now that I’ve no idea what’s on any playlists — and I’m not convinced by it.

Tim: It all sounds right for me, though, and really quite enjoyable – but is that because it’s a good track, or because it’s been drummed into my brain my unconscious listenings? Would I like it if I was listening to the first time? Or would I skip it, think “nope, next please”? I genuinely have no idea.

Tom: This is one of the downsides of our reviewing songs on first-listen, Tim: we ignore the growers. And here’s a strange thing: I’m sure I’ve heard that chorus somewhere before. Is it just because I’ve heard this in the background, or is it because it’s a riff on some older song? I’ve no idea.

Tim: Well, what I do know, despite this growing existential breakdown, is: having possibly heard it multiple times a week for the past month or so, I do quite like it.

Kygo & Selena Gomez – It Ain’t Me

“It’s just a shame about Kygo’s bit.”

Tim: For me, Selena Gomez fits in with a number of artists like Dua Lipa, Fifth Harmony and The 1975: artists that are around a lot, mainstays of the Radio 1 playlist, and that I know I’ll probably like if I started consciously exploring them, but never actually do. Fortunately, this one has Kygo on it as well, so I picked it out and listened to it.

Tom: I did much the same a few days ago, Tim, and then decided it was a bit too dull to send you. Listening to this again, I disagree with my original opinion, because there’s a lot going on.

Tim: There is indeed really quite a lot to dissect here: from the opening light guitar and gentle vocal, through to the more aggressive piano and chanting, the instrumental breakdown where it gets a bit messy and then the combination of parts (b) and (c) to form part (d), before going right back to the start.

Tom: Right, and here’s the thing that I’m realising on a second listen: the messy instrumental bits are the dull bits. The Selena Gomez bits are beautiful — and I know that chord progression under “when you’re drunk and all alone” is a cliché, but it’s one that still has an affect on me. It’s just a shame about Kygo’s bit.

Tim: You’re not wrong there, and in fact to be honest, I do question the wisdom of putting them all in the same song – I think there’s a reason they only go back to the first bit once. My favourite area’s unquestionably the second, with it being easily singable and energetic, so I’m a tad disappointed it got relegated to minor pre-chorus status; on the other hand, I won’t hold that too much against it, because like I said – the rest is good as well.

Tom: And a song that’s entirely about “you know all those things about love? sod ’em” is a song with a message I can get behind. I just want to hear it before Kygo got his hands on it.

The Magnettes – Sad Girls Club

“One of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard.”

Tim: With advance warning of a few f-bombs from this pair of Swedes, Rebeka and Sanna, HAPPY FRIDAY!

Tim: Now, I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Tom: I am: the intro’s shouty and repetitive in a grating way. The verse keeps reminding me of the verses from Little Mix’s Black Magic, in a really irritating way. “Go get cancer” is one of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard. In short: I do not like this song.

Tim: All of that is fine, particularly the lyric part. But I want to discuss the feeling and emotion of it. Apparently, the Sad Girls Club is ‘not something [the Magnettes] invented, but the idea of a sanctuary where you’re allowed to be sad, different or plain hostile. To counteract a world that tells you to smile when everything systematically sucks.’ And I guess that’s fair enough – why shouldn’t we accept shittiness when we find it and identify with it, or when we really, really don’t feel good?

Except, this is a party tune.

Tom: Right. And despite my strong dislike of the rest of it, I have to admit that this has a brilliant chorus. Seriously, this is one of the best choruses I’ve heard all this year. It’s Icona Pop on a good day, it’s incredibly well produced, it’s even good when it gets stripped down for the middle eight.

Tim: It is – it’s a great dance chorus, and like you said: it’s an Icona Pop style song, so much that if you were DJing somewhere you could go straight from I Love It to this and a lot of people wouldn’t even realise the song has changed. So the big question is, how is it counteracting a world that tells you to smile, when it is so clearly telling you to jump around and have the fun that, allegedly, they don’t want? Add to that the whole ‘mentally fucked up’ lyric – I just think this song is so horribly inappropriate.

Tom: Yep. There is so much potential here, and once the verses get out of the way, it’s not bad at all. But the rest of it just torpedoes it for me.

Tim: Obviously, depression songs shouldn’t start and end with Radiohead, but this? It’s way too far the other way, and for that I’ll take Nizlopi any day, please.

Tom: Do we have to? I’d forgotten about them.

Tim: Oh, I rather liked that one. But if not, and if we want a party tune, then strike out the lyrics, and I’m fine. AAARGH.

Saturday Flashback: Kelly Rowland feat. Wiz Khalifa – Gone

“Who needs the artistic bit?”

Tom: I reckon, Tim, that your thoughts on this will be very much coloured by whether you recognise the track it’s sampling.

Tim: Ooh, is it Basshunter’s Now You’re Gone?

Tim: Oh, it isn’t. But yes, yes I do.

Tom: Because I do. And it’s a folk music classic. Or a slightly more modern pop classic. Or… well, yes, Counting Crows covered it too.

Here’s my problem with this: it never resolves the chorus. Yes, fine, occasionally you’ve got the “got ’til it’s gone” line in there, but the actual resolution is the next line, “they paved paradise” and so on. That’s important. And it’s just not here.

Tim: That’s a very, very good point you’re making, but there’s the question you’re bypassing here which is: why include the sample?Just reusing it because they can? Because the lyrics fit? Or to give it a recognisable hook to hand an otherwise fairly dull track on? Because if it’s the latter: you’ve got the recognisable bit. Who needs the artistic bit?

Tom: Well, apparently no-one. And sure, you could say they’re doing something original and new. I don’t know, you could use a word like ‘recontextualising’ or something. Fine. Except Janet Jackson did the same thing twenty years ago, and that didn’t resolve either.

Tim: Bastards, all of them.

Tom: Harsh.

Tim: Fair.