Mainstream – Page 27

ZAYN & Taylor Swift – I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)

Tim: The first film gave us Love Me Like You Do and that dodgy version of Crazy in Love.

Tom: Dodgy? It was absolutely brilliant. Anyway.

Tim: The sequel brings us both Taylor Swift’s first new music in over two years. Would you like a music video which absolutely definitely was filmed with the two of them together at the same time?

Tom: Astonishingly, it actually was, although heaven knows why they bothered.

Tim: Huh, weird. But also there, amongst other things, is Zayn Malik showing us exactly what sort of vocal range One Direction missed out on when he wandered off, and it’s quite impressive.

Tom: That’s some impressive falsetto there – particularly for what’s usually the masculine role in a song like this. I can’t help feeling that I actually want him to hit some notes in a lower register at some point. Surely he’ll knacker his voice?

Tim: I don’t know, he’s been doing it a while now.

Tom: Anyway, I don’t know whether the song was written for them, or whether it was tailored afterwards, but it really does match both their vocal styles.

Tim: There are a lot of other bits in there that are good as well – right from the start, that backing vocal is great, and I’m also a fan of how the drums pretty much leading the instrumental throughout.

Tom: It’s also a good chorus, by which I mean I can sing it after one listen and it’s not irritating. Those are my main requirements for a good chorus.

Tim: And so much as I didn’t think I would like it the first time I heard it, I’ve really grown to like this. Doesn’t mean I’ll see the film, though.

Loïc Nottet – Million Eyes

We’ve found a male Mopey Yet Trying To Be Anthemic.

Tim: Last word on the matter for now, as I don’t want us to get stuck in a rut, but: this got sent in by our reader, Jacko, and I think we’ve found a male Mopey Yet Trying To Be Anthemic.

Tom: Well, it certainly starts out mopey, that’s for sure. That’s quite an androgynous voice — a brilliant one, though.

Tim: Loïc performed for Belgium in Eurovision 2015 and did fairly well, but it was nothing like this. Contrary to my beliefs the other day, this actually works very well, on a similar level.

Tom: Mm. The choruses are decent, I’ll grant you, but I was so numbed by the verse that they actually startled me when they kicked in. Why do you think it works so well?

Tim: Pushes the same buttons, triggers the same reflexes, or certainly goes for it. I don’t think it’s quite as successful, but that’s more down to the music underneath – I’ll always respond better to a complex synth bases than a lone piano with a few drum beats. It’s nice, though, and at least it shows it can work well either way. Nice stuff.

Saturday Flashback: Broods – Couldn’t Believe

“I was actually startled when that introduction kicked in.”

Tim: Broods, a fairly successful New Zealand duo, and this, a track that got used on a recent episode of Teen Wolf, which I rather liked.

Tom: I was actually startled when that introduction kicked in. Wasn’t expecting that.

Tim: And so often, that style of music – the breathy female vocal, light synthy backing – is downbeat and, as you said yesterday, a bit Mopey, and when this started I was fairly sure it’d be another of the same.

Tom: Now you phrase it like that, I wonder if that’s me being a bit sexist? If that was a gravelly male voice, would I be labelling it “emotional” rather than “mopey”? I’d like to think not, but then I also can’t think of a male equivalent.

Tim: Well, I wouldn’t rush to call yourself sexist – there’s a thing about the vocal that I can’t describe – see also Elsa & Emilie – that generates that sensation, and that doesn’t tend to come with a guy singing. Mopey may not have been a perfect word, but it’s more descriptive than just ’emotional’ and it certainly fits. Particularly here in those first few lines – “I burnt my fingers”, “hid under blankets of ignorance” – which all seem to play into that stereotype, so I couldn’t help but break out into a big smile when the true message revealed itself.

Tom: And the chorus revealed itself as well. Finally, something in our recent run that seems like it’s actually uplifting.

Tim: Isn’t it great? And not only was that a lovely surprise – to quote the song, I couldn’t believe my ears – but the music kept on being lovely as well.

Tom: It suffers, as usual, from “middle eight more interesting than the actual song syndrome”, an unfortunately common problem, but hey: it’s still not bad.

Tim: Oh, it’s more than that, it’s wonderful. Upbeat, chirpy, joyous, and great music that, well, certainly borders on anthemic. Love it.

Smith & Thell – February

“ENJOY!”

Tim: Says Ms Smith, about last February: “All we could see around us were hollow-eyed people on the subway walking into each other and stepping on each other’s feet, drowsy from too little sleep and too much darkness. We said ‘let’s just be honest with ourselves that life sucks for the moment.’… Sometimes you want a song to pick you up – but sometimes, at least for us, we just want to rest in our feelings and embrace the lows for a while.” So ENJOY!

Tim: And however grim and depressing you may find the message – thanks to a back injury, I’m in more physical pain as I write this than I can remember having ever been in, so I wouldn’t mind some e.g. Katy Perry Firework joy – you can’t deny that’s a fairly good piece of work.

Tom: An offhand and sudden confession there, Tim, hope you’re OK. And you’re right: the song takes its own time to build, but by the time backing vocals appeared, I was actually starting to get behind it. For a song that is deliberately Not A Banger, that takes some doing.

Tim: If we’re going to have a song dedicated to the most miserable time of the year, you could do a lot worse than this, with its minor key, moody strings and slow piano line all contributing. And those backing vocals towards the end: wonderful. I reckon this can be enjoyed however you’re feeling – to make you feel better, knowing there a whole load of people with you, or to make you feel happier, knowing that you’re doing a whole lot better that most suckers out there. It’s lovely.

Tom Chaplin – Hardened Heart

“Guess The Band The Singer Was The Lead Singer Of From The Solo Output!”

Tim: Via our reader, Matt, this is Tom Chaplin, who until I looked him up I didn’t realise was the lead singer of a not-too-distant fairly prominent UK band. So let’s play…Guess The Band The Singer Was The Lead Singer Of From The Solo Output! Or something with a catchier title, I don’t know.

Tim: Any guesses?

Tom: I didn’t know him from the voice. But I knew him from the face.

Tim: My first guess, or at least what I first thought the song sounded like, was Hurts trying a slightly less electro sound – the vocal in the chorus sounds very close indeed, and that backing choir at the end wouldn’t be remotely out of place. The answer, though: ‘Everybody’s Changing’ and ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ hitmakers, KEANE!

Tom: I actually thought the lead singer of Keane was called Tim Rice-Oxley — turns out that’s their other singer. I have no explanation for how my brain remembered that name in the decade or so since the last time I heard it, given that I forget most people’s names in about three seconds.

Tim: Maybe just a particular talent of yours – way back when in a quiz I did, I recall you being the only person in a room of forty knowing the lead singer of Wet Wet Wet.

Tom: But yes, okay, it’s one of the blokes off Keane.

Tim: And I’d never have guessed that, because this is quite the different sound – out with guitars, in with big strings, presenting a much more aggressive, powerful and all round dramatic output than the band’s used to be. And I love it for that.

Tom: For once, I actually agree: I was too busy searching ‘Tim Rice-Oxley’ for the first half of the song, and then I slowly realised that the music in the background was actually quite lovely. This’ll do nicely.

Train – Drink Up

“Elements for a great track are there, but somehow it’s just not right.”

Tim: Presenting, for your enjoyment, the least Train song that Train have ever released.

Tom: I… don’t know if that’s a good thing?

Tim: Well, have a listen and find out.

Tom: That’s a great introduction. Seriously, I was actually disappointed when the first verse dropped everything back to normal.

Tim: You say normal, but really nothing sounds like Train in this. Instrumentation, way out. Shouting in the chorus, nope. The backing woo-oos, what? And even, somehow, the vocal sounds unusual, although they might just be in comparison with the backing.

Tom: Yep: when I listen it’s clearly the same singer, but the recognisable edge to the voice seems to go.

Tim: Maybe there’s a bit at the start of the middle eight that’s familiar, but otherwise it could be a whole other band. I suppose it’s just a shame, then, that it’s not a particularly great song, or at least for me.

Tom: I mean, that’s Train through and through: the song doesn’t really mean anything, there’s no depth to the lyrics, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it either.

Tim: Somehow I struggle to get a hand on it, nothing quite grabs me like I want it to. Elements for a great track are there, but somehow it’s just not right.

Tom: Exemplified, I think, by that middle eight: there’s a lovely melody lurking underneath that shouting. On their own either element might work, but together it’s just confusing. A bit like that video, really: generic stock footage that doesn’t remotely match the video. How strange.

Naughty Boy feat. Kyla & Popcaan – Should’ve Been Me

“There is a good melody line in there, I’m just not sure it’s enough.”

Tim: It caught my attention with the brass, it held my attention with the chorus. Take a listen.

Tom: That is a good chorus, isn’t it?

Tim: It is indeed – unlike almost all of Naughty Boy’s back catalogue, this one kept me listening, and pressing play again once it had ended. The two highlights are the ones I’ve already mentioned – chorus line and brass – which takes care of everything except the two verses, which are acceptable enough to make this an enjoyable listen for me.

Tom: The verses really aren’t great, though — and that chorus is, I suspect, more of a grower than is for the best. There is a good melody line in there, I’m just not sure it’s enough.

Tim: Then here we’ll disagree, as I’ll give a thumbs up for the music. The video, on the other hand, is a separate entity, as it doesn’t remotely go with the song.

Tom: A full-on sponsor-logoed music video. Well, I guess that was always going to happen.

Tim: Well it’s actually kind of a charity one, albeit one of the weirder charities out there, the Uganda Skateboard Union. Keeps kids busy by getting them skateboarding, presumably as an alternative to crime and stuff, and spreads awareness about HIV and sanitation while it’s at it. Unusual methods, but fair play to them if it works, I guess.

VÉRITÉ – Phase Me Out

“Both soulful and loud.”

Tim: You might assume, given the name, that Vérité is French; you would be wrong (I think – SoundCloud bio has her based in New York, and none of her tweets are French, so probably not). In any case, here’s something that is both soulful and LOUD.

Tom: That’s a heck of a voice, and that slow start shows it off properly.

Tim: Indeed, and along with that the rest gives a track I’m very much in favour of. Took a while to get going properly, as do many, but then built throughout and became very worth it come the end of the first chorus, and very much more so throughout.

Tom: You know, I think if we were starting this site all over again, Tim, I’d actually have some sort of rating system based on “how much of a banger it is”. Because to me, this just isn’t one: I thought it had actually finished when it did that fake ending at 2:39, and I was mildly disappointed when it started up again.

Tim: Well, there’s always the skip button, but like I promised it’s soulful and loud (and you’re right, I’m not sure this qualifies as a true banger), with her vocal that’s exactly where it should be.

Tom: It is soulful, it is loud… I’m just not enjoying listening to it.

Tim: Oh, shame, because I’d say it’s quite the banger, and very much worth having in this world.

The Chainsmokers – Paris

“Interesting use of what appears to be a 90s vocoder effect there.”

Tim: With their song Closer, The Chainsmokers were responsible for a large quantity of the most awful lyrics in 2016; how will they start 2017?

Tim: Well, parents/terrace doesn’t get stuff off to a great start, but compared to closer/Rover/Boulder/older, it’s award-winning stuff, so I’ll forgive it.

Tom: “If we go down, then we go down together.” Hurr. Anyway, interesting use of what appears to be a 90s vocoder effect there.

Tim: Yes, interesting is the right word, because as for the rest of it, my feelings are very much as they were with their first, although much faster. I could understand why people liked it, it took me a few months, but eventually I started getting with it.

Tom: Strangely, I actually took a liking to this, which given that my default reaction to any new song lately is “meh”, I’d consider quite an achievement.

Tim: Oh, I’m pleased for you. I wasn’t keen at all at the start, partly because of that vocoder, but mostly because of what seemed to be a complete lack of chorus. Once the female vocal hit, though, it started making a bit more sense, and the further along the song got, the more I liked it, and I’m even willing to forgive their rhyming ‘clever’ with ‘together’ and ‘better’.

Tom: And they’ve gone for a traditional melody and harmony line in those vocals, too, which — and I hadn’t realised this — is something I actually miss a bit. And those wonderfully retro drums out of the middle eight don’t go amiss either.

Tim: Guess it’s got to be good, then.

Lady Gaga – Million Reasons

“I have a point to make.”

Tim: I know everyone’s probably heard this already, but I’ve been listening to it a lot lately and I have a point to make. For those that don’t know it, it’s the second release off her latest album, and the music starts about a minute in.

Tom: Believe it or not, I haven’t heard this, or at least I haven’t noticed it. It’s really rather good, isn’t it? Even if it did keep reminding me of Jason Donovan with those “reasons” lyrics.

Tim: Oh, I almost want to give you a prize for the obscurity of that reference, very good. But here’s the thing: Lady Gaga is very good at making music. Perfect Illusion probably wasn’t the best track to kickstart an album, but this is great: soulful music, emotions carried across perfectly in the flawless vocals, with a beautifully doleful backing line underneath it all. And yet the most impressive thing about all of it is this: it’s not remotely what her fans want.

Tom: Yes! This feels like a completely different artist, just one with a similar voice. There’s “managing audience expectations”, and then there’s “not giving a damn about what the audience want”.

Tim: Ever since that largely reviled jazz album, she has, in the eyes of many, been a massive let down. Hand this song to Adele or Sia, people would love it. With Gaga, though, it’s all “yes well it’s no The Edge of Glory is it so get back to the studio and do better stuff.”

Tom: To be fair, she did produce a lot of full-on bangers. And I liked them. More, to be fair, than I liked this. She’s a good Adele. But we already have a good Adele.

Tim: As for me? Well, like I said, it’s a good track. But it really is no The Edge of Glory, is it? So go on, back to the studio please.