Mainstream – Page 64

Dido – No Freedom

This is Dido, doing what she does best.

Tm: So last week was pretty much the week that music came back in its entirety. First there was Bowie, then Justin Timberlake, and then Destiny’s Child. Cascada put out a track she’s hoping to represent Germany with, of which we’ll naturally have more in due course. And then, to close the week, there was this.

Tom: My word, that’s lovely. And it sounds, well, exactly like Dido used to. Like Bowie’s comeback, this could easily have been a track from Dido’s glory years.

Tim: Of course, since you’re launching on a Friday evening, you’ll want it to be a track to get people ready for the weekend, a big dance ban– no? Oh, fair enough then. But this is Dido, doing what she does best. And it’s…well, it’s alright.

Tom: I absolutely loved this on first listen – particularly when combined with the odd, ephemal-Americana video – but I suspect this may be one of those tracks that I grow to dislike the more I hear it.

Tim: You think? For me it was…okay, and then kept being okay. I was joking about the dance-ness of it (believe it or not), but I still wouldn’t mind something with a little more impact. You know, something like Hunter or White Flag – great tracks with energy, a drumbeat, something you can really get into.

Tom: See, I really got into this – but then I managed to predict the rest of the chorus based on the first line, and even air-drummed along with a drum fill that I didn’t know was coming. It’s very nice on first listen because it sounds so familiar, but it’s also so trite that I don’t really want to hear it again.

Tim: Hmm, fair enough. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s bad – it’s tranquil and lovely – and I don’t dislike it at all. It’s just, it’s the sort of Dido track that may well be improved by having an angry white rapper on top of it, and that’s not the style that I’d want to come back with.

Saturday Flashback: Swirl 360 – Candy In The Sun

“Nice.”

Tom: In the middle of winter, as the rain pours down and the cold keeps us indoors, I reckon it’s the perfect time for some late-90s moderately-successful movie-soundtrack pop-rock.

Tim: Yeah, sounds good.

Tim: Nice.

Tom: I’ve got not much more to add to this, really. The lyrics are mostly meaningless, the tune is your standard bubblegum-rock… but there’s something about that chorus that’s meant it’s stuck in my head over the past… wow. The past thirteen years or so.

Tim: A good length of time, and not a bad song to have stuck in your head for a gloomy winter day.

Tom: Roll on the summer.

Lawson – Learn To Love Again

When you said “boyband”, this isn’t what I had in mind.

Tom: Who?

Tim: Lawson, the UK boyband that somehow always get overlooked when One Direction and The Wanted are mentioned. Even though they have proper guitars.

Tim: I say ‘somehow’, it’s because Radio 1 have never ever playlisted them, and that is obviously definitely not because they’re managed by the owner of direct competitor Capital FM.

Tom: Interesting how that works, isn’t it? If only INJU5TICE had gotten themselves a slot at the Jingle Bell Ball.

Tim: Two and a half years on, and we’re still talking about them. That’s got to count for something, surely?

Tom: Whoever said “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” had never heard INJU5TICE.

Tim: Aaanyway, despite Radio 1’s best efforts, Lawson have still got three out of three singles in the top 10, and are presumably hoping to keep that up. And this will probably manage it.

I say that – it’s good and I like it, but I’ve listened to it five times in a row and still I can’t really think of much to say about it. Which is a shame, given the point of this site, but it’s probably just sort of the whole ‘more of the same’ that comes around every now and again.

Tom: Now, see, I disagree – when you said “boyband”, this isn’t what I had in mind. It’s heavier than most tracks of its kind, and while – yes – it is basically just “The Wanted Only Playing Their Own Instruments”, it’s still pretty damn good.

Tim: Oh yes – ‘more of the same’ isn’t a bad thing. And while they’re marketed as a boyband they’re quite a way from One Direction in terms of, well, pretty much everything. This has got a nice ‘woooahh-ooahh’ bit in the middle eight that seems to be everywhere (including, now I think about it, most One Direction tracks), and it’s generally quite enthusiastic, and there’s fire in the video and all that which is fun, and, oh, well it seems I have got stuff to say. Hooray.

David Bowie – Where Are We Now

Tom: Years of silence, and then – out of nowhere – BOOM. New album, new single, from one of the few British artists who can legitimately be called a legend without hyperbole. Surprise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyDTy9DtHQ

Tim: Um. Right. Okay. It has guitars, that’s good.

Tom: Heaven knows what that video’s about, but still: that’s not a bad track at all. Comebacks are meant to be lousy versions of the original, and this really isn’t.

Tim: That is true. It doesn’t really grab me, though – at least not in the way I thought it might, given the way people raved about it all day on Twitter. Which is a bit of a shame. But why on Earth’s he going on about Berlin all the time? Aren’t we about 23 years too late for that?

Tom: It’s slow and soulful Bowie, not upbeat and poppy Bowie, and… well, his style’s not changed. This could, with a touch less age in the voice – not a complaint, it’s aged wonderfully – be a single from any one of this earlier albums.

Tim: Hmm. You’re certainly right about that, I must agree.

Tom: I was about to worry that it went nowhere, that it never built – and then, bloody hell, that final chorus and instrumental outro. Bit of a shame about the fade-out ending, but then, that’s how it always used to be.

Bastille – Pompeii

This one’s got guitars as well.

Tim: As the risk of dragging this out too far: this one’s got guitars as well. Although they don’t come in for a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQPSQ1EpLDI

Tim: I know, and have found out, next to nothing about this band.

Tom: We’re dedicated to research here, folks.

Tim: Hey, I tried – there are at least two of them, because two is how many were being boringly interviewed on the radio last week, and they speak with English accents; that’s all I could get, apart from that they enjoy doing odd mashups at their live gigs.

Tom: I can’t even work out where that odd pronunciation of ‘close’ comes from.

Tim: Well, let’s just enjoy it, because I think there’s a lot to enjoy.

Tom: Yep, this is a cracking track, although I’m generally a sucker for fake-Latin chanting put into pop songs.

Tim: In which case, check out the first and last tracks on the first Hurts album. But back to here, instruments: starts out with some basic synth-work, add in the drum beats and it quickly speeds up. Get to the chorus, and that slightly epic chanting from the beginning makes a nice return, and the (ever-important) guitars jump in for a bit. The vocals are good as well – along with the aforementioned chanting, we have nicely paced verses and then some high energy choruses which all work very well.

Tom: Yep: all the little touches are there, and it’s bloody marvellous. And how about that middle eight? It’s not often you get a good drumline going on in pop.

Tim: It is indeed very good. There is, unfortunately, a disappointing as ever fade-out ending, but that’s nothing we cope with by pushing the ‘skip track’ button a few seconds early. So, good.

I also know there’s an album out in March. But I don’t know what it’s called.

Tom: “Bad Blood”. I bothered to look that up. And if it sounds like this, then I may well be getting a copy of it.

Hurts – Miracle

“That sounds very much like Coldplay.”

Tim: First single off the upcoming second album. Have a listen, why don’t you?

Tom: Two things: first, that’s really very good, and second, that sounds very much like Coldplay.

Tim: As mentioned on Saturday, Radio 1’s boss has declared that guitars are coming back. There’s good reason for this – we’re all aware that having a guitar immediately makes you a very authentic musician. But, sarcasm aside (yes, I know), this here may provide something to (a) back him up, and (b) make us formerly horrified pop people merely somewhat alarmed.

Tom: See, I’ve no problem with guitars in pop at all – but then, I didn’t have a problem with the brief return of the saxophone solo either.

Tim: Because this is pretty good, really. It’s recognisably Hurts, but quite a bit heavier than anything on their first first album. Bits of it are Coldplay-esque, sure, but others, particularly the pre-chorus lines and all the closing section, are very Hurts indeed.

Tom: It is: I’m not sure how I feel about that change, but I can’t deny it’s a good track.

Tim: I like that a lot, and am now looking forward more than ever for their album Exile, due in a couple of months.

Saturday Flashback: Haim – Forever

“It is indeed guitar-heavy.”

Tim: George Ergatoudis, big boss of Radio 1, recently said that guitars are coming back this year.

Tom: I didn’t know they’d been away. Isn’t that like saying “drums, they’re the new thing”?

Tim: I think there’s a sort of “I’m bored with pop, I want to bring back Kasabian and that lot” which is a tad upsetting, especially when you recall that there were a few guitars in this track.

But still, to prove his point, this group of three Californian sisters have been chosen by him and many other ‘influential’ music people as the Sound of 2013. (This is a great honour, and definitely a sign of good things to come for them – after all, I barely went a single week without hearing something by Michael Kiwanuka last year.)

Tom: To be fair, their original Sounds of 2003 did rather well.

Tim: True, although I am reminded of this time last year, when I suggested that the shortlisted Niki & The Dove would have a worse year than 2011’s worst-farer, then considered myself a bit harsh, but then went on to be proved disappointingly correct. But still! We’re in 2013 now, so let’s find out what it will sound like.

Tim: I’ll be honest – this is quite good. Their most recent single, Don’t Save Me, is somewhat dull, but the same can’t be said for this. It is indeed guitar-heavy, especially the beginning of that middle eight, which is in a good way, but the synth breakdown that follows that is also a good thing.

Tom: Guitar-heavy? Really? It’s got guitars in it, sure, but if this qualifies as guitar-heavy then I’d like your opinion on, say, Muse.

Tim: A fair point.

Tom: That’s not a complaint, though, and you’re right about that middle eight – it’s a pretty good track, and reminds me of something that might have come out from one of the 90s girl-power bands that were trying to be more ‘authentic’ than the Spice Girls. Again, not a complaint.

Tim: Disappointingly it’s slightly out of character, because I don’t think any other their others have any nice synthy bits, but then we don’t need to listen to all of them. If the Sound of 2013 is indeed like this, I’ll be able to cope with it just nicely. So that’s that then.

Little Mix – Change Your Life

“Are these four the new Spice Girls?”

Tom: Each single by Little Mix has been rather different from the last. Cannonball: winner’s single cover. Wings: talky-shouty self-help. DNA: obsession dubsteppy love-song. Can they keep that going?

Tom: Hmm. Well, we’re back to the talky self-help lyrics, which I’ll admit I’m not a fan of.

Tim: Possibly not (though I’ve got no issue with them), but the rest of it’s just brilliant. Ish.

Tom: This time they’re backed with strings, and the whole thing seems a bit more… well, traditional. I was almost hoping for a key change.

Tim: You know, I had the exact same-thought, which is why I had to stick an “ish” in there earlier. It’s a shame they’ve gone out of fashion, because my word, one would have fitted there perfectly.

Tom: Still, a connection’s just been made in my head: are these four the new Spice Girls?

Tim: What?

Tom: Manufactured group, wide variety of songs, and – while the phrase itself hasn’t been used in a long time – ‘girl power’.

Tim: Huh. Not a bad argument, actually.

Pet Shop Boys – Memory of the Future

“Where the hell have I heard this before?”

Tom: Where the hell have I heard this before, Tim?

Tom: Because I swear I know this from somewhere.

Tim: You do, or at least you know the intro and chorus bass line. Here. (Go on. Listen to that in full. You know you want to.)

Tom: Hmm. I’m not so sure about that – to me, it sounds like classic Pet Shop Boys. It could be a forgotten single dredged out of their 1980s period. And I mean that as a compliment. Somehow, that introduction melody strikes a connection in my head that I didn’t even know was there, and I don’t think it’s Lady Gaga. Given how much we’ve thought their recent singles were unimpressive… this seems to nail it.

Tim: Well, it’s alright. I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as Winner – the chorus is good, but the verses leave me wanting more, and the fade-out ending’s as much a disappointment as ever. Another part of that may also be because all I want to do now is listen to Bad Romance on repeat, which I might actually go and do now.

Tom: Also, there’s a version with a full orchestra from their BBC Radio 2 concert, which does add a certain something.

Tim: WOAH-OH-OH-OH-OHHH-OH-OH-OH-OHHH OH-OH-OH BORN IN A BAD ROMANCE. RA-RA-RA-A-AHH, ROMA, ROMA-AH.

Matt Cardle – Anyone Else

It’s the Curse, you see.

Tom: We keep covering Credibility Cardle’s singles as if they’ll get anywhere.

Tim: ‘We’ do? I don’t think I’ve ever brought one of his to the table. The only way I know he’s still alive is your consistent posting of every track. You’re not on his mailing list or something, are you?

Tom: Don’t worry, I’ve not gone off the deep end.

Tim: Good, because if there’s one thing I could never forgive you for, it’d be being on Matt Cardle’s mailing list.

Tom: It’s interesting – they’re still tracked by the music business because of his history, but the last three didn’t trouble the top 40; heck, two of them didn’t trouble the top 150. Which seems a shame, because he has that nice-guy look around him.

Tim: Ah, the Cheapest Video Method Ever™. Always a good sign.

Tom: But the singles are only ever sort-of-good. With the exception of his winner’s song – a cover – they’ve all been just OK. He’s talented, he’s got a voice that vaguely reminds me of Bruno Mars, and there’s nothing wrong with the music. He will no doubt maintain a core of dedicated fans for years, tour the country successfully, and attain more than most aspiring stars will.

It’s just that… well, he won the X Factor. Olly Murs didn’t manage that. One Direction didn’t manage that. Shouldn’t he be the one breaking America?

Tim: Absolutely not. It’s the Curse, you see. The Curse of The X Factor Male Winner, which takes the form of a destiny. A destiny in which there is never a second number one, and only very rarely a third top 20 hit. Never a second Syco album, and never a sell-out tour. An arena tour? You must be joking.

You’ll be invited back to the show once, to perform your first ‘proper’ single, already destined for obscurity. And then you’ll be forgotten about, and erased from history, as far as the producers are concerned. Erased and forgotten about, like a bowel movement from the day before yesterday. And about as welcome.

Tom: (Oh, the song? It’s OK, I guess.)

Tim: Doesn’t matter what the song’s like. That’s the tragedy of the Curse.