Tim: If you recall, these are officially the Sound of 2013 and are now here with, as far as I’m concerned, their best single yet.
Tom: Is… is that a compliment or a slight? Because if their other singles have been dire…
Tim: Oh, a compliment – cast your mind back to January, you’ll remember that we both enjoyed their track Forever from last year.
Tim: And what do you know? Turns out that 2013 is remarkably similar to 1999, or if not then Shania Twain’s fallen through a wormhole (also not a slight, by the way).
Tom: It’s definitely got a touch of pop-country about it. And that final chorus, where everything comes together, is just gorgeous.
Tim: There are some brilliant parts to this – the lead back from the middle eight is particularly great – but all over I’m very hard pressed to fault this. Currently on my fourth repeated listen, and it’s showing no signs of growing tired yet.
Tom: I’m not quite that enthusiastic, but I agree with you that I can’t really fault it.
Tim: I really, really hope this does well, so I’m slightly saddened by my inbuilt pessimism that is almost certain that this won’t be playlisted by Radio 1, might get the odd play elsewhere, and then will just about nudge its way into the top 40. I so, so hope I’m wrong, though, I really do.
Tom: Our regular reader Roger sends in this one. There’s a free festival in the Swedish town where he lives; Beatrice Eli performed and, in his words: “this was my biggest surprise!”
Tom: Hmm. Well, I can be charitable and say “it’s not to my taste”.
Tim: Fair enough. Care to elaborate?
Tom: Bit too slow, bit too dark: those would be OK if it went somewhere, but it really doesn’t. What do you reckon?
Tim: Well, the verses leave me cold – I wasn’t really getting anything much until the chorus, but that I actually rather liked. My main problem is the middle eight, which is just a bit dull – if that was livened up a bit to match the chorus slightly, or just given a little bit of variation, I’d be all for this. As it is, well, five out of ten. Not bad, could do better.
Tim: The Dolly Rockers, for those that don’t know, are a girl band that have been around about seven years now, first appearing in the audition stages of X Factor 2006. A mere three years later, they came out with Je Suis Une Dolly, a lovely track with lines like “we flash our pants when we Can Can” and “I’ll voulez vous you by the Chardonnay”.
Tom: Blimey. I dislike them already.
Tim: Yep, figured. That was quickly followed by Boys Will Be Boys, and four years later, here’s another track.
Tom: Ooh. Okay, perhaps they’re forgiven.
Tim: I know, right?
Tom: That, Tim, sounds like a Vengaboys album track. Listen to it. The woah-oh-ohs, the occasional creak in the main vocals, the theme being about love and alcohol. The odd first half of that middle eight doesn’t match, I’ll grant you, but other than that it’d sit quite nicely next to “Uncle John from Jamaica”.
Tim: Hmm, you’re not far wrong there. But you know what I really reckon? Replace the first half of the middle eight with a copy of the second half, cut the final couple of choruses, maybe stick a key change in there, and you’ve got yourself a bloody fantastic Eurovision song. I don’t know what it is that provides that quality, but I press play, and I start smiling. That’s it.
Tom: Hmm. I don’t think it’d be popular at Eurovision — I’d be surprised if it survived the semi-finals — but I agree with you about the feelgood factor.
Tim: It might be the way it kicks off with a bit of the chorus, Wings-style, which immediately lifts the mood; possibly it’s the contrast between the pre-chorus and the chorus; may also be the intense short and repetitive melody of the chorus. It’s probably all of those things added together, really. It’s great girlband pop. I love it.
Tim: I think we need to face facts: Icona Pop’s release strategy is all over the place. Girlfriend was plugged as their next single to be released in America, but that seems to have been forgotten about now (though the video got put online at the weekend) and they’re back, in America at least, with this one. It’ll probably arrive here sometime this decade, but who knows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NzaKXXlPqw
Tim: I’ve decided I really like Icona Pop now. When I first heard I Love It, I thought it was a bit iffy – maybe too shouty and a bit of a racket. It still is, to some extent, but actually when you put it next to the rest of their output it fits in nicely, just on the heavier end of the scale, and if you’re in the mood (yes, there’s that qualifier) for loud pop they actually fit the bill almost perfectly.
Tom: True: there are some tracks you can only appreciate when you’re in the mood for them. This one’s on the more mainstream side of their output, though — it has a melody — and I’ve got to admit that works for me.
Tim: The songs are well-produced, and they know exactly what they’re doing with them – creating party tracks that are there to be danced to.
Take this, for example. Yes, you could assume that the whole “with love this deep we don’t need no sleep, we could do this all night” is the whole bedtime stuff…
Tom: “Bedtime stuff?” I’m sorry, are you nine years old or something?
Tim: Well, I was trying to keep this family-friendly, but okay: the rumpy-pumpy.
Tom: Anyway, I reckon it’s more about…
Tim: Perhaps partying the night away, throwing your arms all over the place and finally emerging from the club just in time to get a kebab for breakfast? Whichever floats your boat, I guess.
Tom: Personally, I’ll stick with option 1. Particularly if option 2 involves a kebab.
Tim: Monsieur Adi, a French DJ who likes his synths with a big helping of strings, as heard on this remix of Pompeii. A*M*E, a London-based singer who pretty much all pop music blogs have been championing and who is best known for being on Duke Dumont’s Need U (100%). Together, this.
Tim: A bit of backstory: the vocals are a cover (ish, sort of, vaguely) of Soul II Soul’s Back To Life (However Do You Want Me); that got significantly remixed by Monsieur Adi a few years back into something similar to this, and that’s now been re-fiddled with and tidied up a bit, given new vocals and will shortly be released as an actual single.
Tom: Familiar enough that the audience will like it; not familiar enough that this’ll be called sacrilege. It helps, of course, that’s it’s a damn good remix.
Tim: It is good; I’d go so far as to say very good, in fact. The strings work very well for me – under the verses they’re almost what makes the song, and their near ever-presence provides something to hang onto as the rest of the song mutates around them. From the beginning of the singing we go from high-pitched keyboards synths, a basic drum beat, then a combination of the both in what would be called the chorus if there was any semblance of a regular structure to this. For the later instrumental section we pay a brief visit to the Tron soundtrack, and then coming back for the closing part we get everything thrown in at once.
Tom: When the sixteenth-note drumbeats kicked in — the Tron bit, I think, by your definition — I actually muttered “bloody hell” under my breath.
Tim: It’s all rather brilliant, and while the vocals are perfectly good, it’s the production which really makes this, and on those terms it’s one of the best we’ve heard all year, I reckon. This deserves to be huge; I really hope it is.
Nicely executed ballad, whatever way you look at it.
Tim: Another day, another pop act going…
Tom: Rock? Really?
Tim: No – actually in completely the other direction and bringing us a nice ballad instead to calm us down.
Tom: Whew. So, One Phone Call. Is this about heading to jail, by any chance?
Tim: And that’s quite nice, isn’t it?
Tom: Well, yes. Yes it is.
Tim: Nice message, until you consider the deeper implications – you’re the one person I’d call if I ever got in trouble, fine, but also you’re the one person I know who’s dedicated enough to put in the work to sort me out. Less of a statement of my love than that I recognise that you care for me, though I suppose that’s quite nice as well. Oh, I don’t know. Nicely executed ballad, whatever way you look at it, and a nice demonstration that they’re not just back here to jump on the back of One Direction’s sound.
Tom: Backstreet Boys are now, to an extent, Something for the Mums (and some Dads). And this’ll probably go down rather well for them.
Tim: Quite why they’ve put this out now is beyond me, because they’ve only just released In A World Like This to radio stations in America, but never mind – in the end Icona Pop’s strategy paid off, so what do I know.
Tim: Another day, another pop act going vaguely rock, another great lyric: “I don’t care if I’m a misfit, I like it better than the hipster bullshit.”
Tim: Lots of very rock n roll stuff going on here: musically we’ve got plenty of drums and extended guitar solos, and lyrically it’s CRAZY: ripped clothes, sticking middle fingers up, getting wasted – gosh, such raunchiness and clear proof that she is definitely rock n roll.
Tom: Do I detect a little bit of sarcasm there, Tim?
Tim: Me, sarcastic? Eh, possibly. Rock n roll or not, however, this is clearly still pop enough to be a recognisable Avril Lavigne track, and actually a fairly good one.
Tom: Yep: but a modern one in terms of production.
Tim: Indeed, and I say well done to everybody involved – even the lyricist, because I still like that hipster line.
Tom: Given that one of the credited lyricists is Avril Lavigne herself, and another is her husband Chad Nickelback – no, seriously – that’s a bit of a surprise.
Tim: UPDATE of a few weeks later: the proper video’s out. It is, quite frankly, incredible. A joy to behold.
Tim: It’s an ambitious title for the new album’s lead single and film theme; are they genuinely claiming to be this good? (Spoiler: no.)
Tim: So, a song called Best Song Ever, and a video that may well make the shortlist for Worst Video Ever.
Tom: Crikey, that’s a video for the fans and no mistake. The actual track kicks in more than two minutes in. And, well, Zayn in drag is just confusing me.
Tim: Oh, well, what isn’t confusing about that? I will say, though, that they did a good make up job on Louis and Niall, so well done there. But as for the rest of it, man, what a group of utter arseholes they come across as.
Tom: I know, right? You ain’t Nirvana, and that ain’t your guitar.
Tim: OH, LOOK AT ME, I’M LIAM. I’M GOING TO KNOCK OVER A STATUE FOR NO REASON. OOH, LET’S ALL BE ROCK AND ROLL, LET’S CAUSE MEANINGLESS DESTRUCTION JUST BECAUSE WE CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. Spare a thought for the poor people whose desks you kicked over, possibly, or whose paperwork you threw all over the place? No, of course you didn’t. You’re too busy being SELFISH and FAMOUS and FRIENDS WITH JAMES CORDEN and TOTAL UTTER BELLENDS and now you’ve FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE. You BIG GROUP OF DICKS.
Tom: As for the music…
Tim: Okay, I can calm down for the music. It’s a bit different, isn’t it?
Tom: Um. Not really? It sounds like most other One Direction tracks to me. And yet again, we’ve got someone ripping off Baba O’Riley for their intro! That’s more blatant than most.
Tim: Strange, isn’t it? I make that the third time we’ve seen that in barely a year. But if I were feeling charitable (a challenge, given the video), I’d say it’s less a rip-off but more an indicator of what’s coming up: we’ve (fortunately) left the intense boringness of Little Things far behind us, and instead have this, probably the most convincing sign yet that guitar music is on its way back. One Direction are going ROCK, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.
Tom: I mean, theoretically there’s a great number of ways, but most of them will end up with jail time.
Tim: True, so let’s leave that thought there and move on. It’s apparently Harry’s favourite of all they’ve done, although on Radio 1 he was clear to point out that they’re not yet Slipknot, which probably doesn’t really need saying but there you go.
Tom: Oh, now that I want to see. One Direction putting on masks and shouting into mics. Yes please. I imagine it’d sound something like this. Or maybe this.
Tim: That Justin Bieber one is apparently not available to view on mobile devices, which makes me incredibly glad I’ve only got my phone with me right now. To aid One Direction in their journey, they’ve pulled together songwriters behind such rock and roll masterpieces as Westlife’s Flying Without Wings and Queen Of My Heart, and Kate Winslet’s What If, who have in fact done a rather good job with this.
Tom: As they should: One Direction’s management have their pick of tracks and songwriters right now. If they put out a dud, something’s gone very, very wrong.
Tim: The lyrics display a slight lack of memory – “I think it went oh-oh-oh, I think it went yeah-yeah-yeah” when clearly it doesn’t – but we can just put that down to how much fun can be had when dancing, and otherwise the lyrics are first rate – “her daddy was a dentist, said I had a dirty mouth”.
Tom: We have a completely different definition of “first rate”. And that autotune on “Georgia Rose” – 3:28 in the video – is abysmal.
Tim: Really? I can’t hear that. But anyway, combining those lyrics with the aforementioned rather good tune (and ignoring the abhorrent video), I’m all for this.
Here’s a shock: it doesn’t have a plinky-plonky piano.
Tom: Oh my word, they’re still bloody going.
Tim: You’re surprised? Eight years isn’t a particularly long time for a band like this.
Tom: I just kind of assumed they’d slowly fallen into oblivion. Only they’ve not: they’ve got a greatest hits album, which is a bold move for a band that’s only had three actual albums. And, of course, the greatest album has an optimistically-placed new track on it.
But here’s a shock: it doesn’t have a plinky-plonky piano. Instead… it’s got a ukulele.
Tom: At least my normal criticism — that all their tracks sound the same — doesn’t apply here. It’s proper Radio 2 playlist material, this, though; if it got any more middle-of-the-road it’d hit the central reservation.
Tim: Nicely put; sometimes, though, middle of the road is alright, and I quite like this, in a pleasant and entirely inoffensive manner.
Tom: With one exception, of course: what is with the sudden bizarre electronic pitch-shift before the final chorus? It’s the one bit of the song that stands out to me, and I actually rather like it: I wonder what they could do when paired up with a producer that was less… well, generic?
Tim: Probably, and I sort of hate myself for saying this, come out with something that’s ‘relevant’ and likely to be Radio 1 playlisted. Still, this’ll do.
Tim: Quick heads up for you: if you find Icona Pop a little too brash and aggressive, you might not be a fan of this next track. But, I’m in the mood for brash, aggressive girl bands, and so this is what you’re getting.
Tom: I noticed that the album’s not out until the 1st September, and thought ‘crikey, that’s a long way away’. Six and a bit weeks. This year’s moving fast.
Tim: Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way: the stupid amount of random rubbish near the end of the video in very irritating, the ‘rap’ bit in the middle is horrible and that ‘acting’ at the start is enough to make me want to move to Florida and claim that they were threatening me.
Tom: Crikey, Tim, too soon. Way too soon.
Tim: Ehh, maybe, but justified? Also maybe.
Tom: You’re right, the rap is awful — not Gazza awful, but pretty awful, and they’ve gone way too overboard on the “don’t let people nick this from YouTube” button.
Tim: It’s very loud, not even particularly musical and most days I’d probably hate this and I wouldn’t blame anybody for switching off after thirty seconds. But like I said, I’m in the mood for loud stuff right now and this satisfies that mood, which I suppose means I’m in a perfectly good position to judge this for what it’s probably meant to be, and for that I like it.
Tom: The thing is, Icona Pop’s big track is like this, but positive: more harmony and more happiness, despite the crashing cars. It’s pleasant to listen to, while this… this just isn’t.
Tim: It’s worth noting that this is absolutely, massively, completely not what The Saturdays, Little Mix or MKS are doing right now, so presumably they’re hoping there’s a gap in the market for this. Is there? I have no idea. All I know is that tomorrow I’ll probably be amazed I wrote anything positive about this track.
Tom: I’m pretty amazed right now.
Tim: Right. Passage of time, twelve hours later, three thoughts: what a racket, you’re probably right about it being too soon, and wow, what a racket.
