Gotthard – Stay With Me

“Something with some genuine instruments in it.”

Tim: No sniggering at the back please – this band are Swiss, coming up on twenty five years together, and here’s the first single from their celebratory anniversary album. A bit rackety, but have a listen.

Tom: Dear video director, whoever you are: I know the FX team probably complained that the moon couldn’t possibly be there with the shadows like that, but you said ‘do it anyway, no-one’ll notice’. I noticed.

Tim: Textbook error.

Tom: Anyway. The music. Yes. I actually muttered “finally” when that chorus kicked in, because it’s been so long since we’ve talked about a song in a genre like this — something with some genuine instruments in it. I didn’t realise I was missing it.

Tim: Now, there are a lot of very recognisable sounds there – the second line in the chorus in particular sounds familiar – but I don’t care, because of that chorus. It’s wonderful. Enormous, passionate, very strong vocal – it does so much for me.

Tom: I thought that ending was a bit questionable on the first listen — surely it’ll end on a big chorus? But no, even that works, I reckon.

Tim: It helps that the rest of the song is very good as well – while it’s not as good, it more than holds the song together until that chorus comes along again, and that’s all I need from it. It’s that good.

V & JIN – It’s Definitely You

“Falling into hell, soul being set on fire.”

Tim: A break from the ordinary here, with a track from the soundtrack of a Korean TV drama series called Hwarang, but it came up on an algorithmically-generated new music playlist, and I happen to like it.

Tom: I love it when the description of a YouTube video says “NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED”. It might not be intended, mate, but it still is.

Tim: My favourite’s “I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THIS” – like, really? There was me thinking that you, Iheartniall99, actually were the sole copyright holder of What Makes You Beautiful.

Tom: Anyway.

Tim: Yes. I don’t know much (well, anything) about the TV show beyond what’s on Wikipedia, but what we seem to have here is your standard love song. I say standard, it’s also remarkably desperate and slightly disconcerting what with the whole falling into hell, soul being set on fire vibe of the lyrics, but hey, why not?

Tom: That’s a classic chorus, isn’t it? I’m sure I’ve heard bits of that melody before, and that chord progression’s definitely familiar, but it’s good.

Tim: The music it’s set to manages to keep everything under control and happy sounding – this version’s actually performed by two members of boyband BTS, perhaps explaining why it sold five times as many copies as any of the other eight songs.

Tom: Do not underestimate the power of K-pop boy bands: imagine if One Direction, but with sub-groups, changing rosters, and… heck, just read some of this. Yes, “BTS” will sell records.

Tim: And hey, they’ve done a good job with it, and that’s all that matters really.

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.

Frans Walfridsson – Emergency Call

“I find myself wanting the rest to be that good.”

Tim: Yes, it’s a Swede called Frans but don’t worry, it isn’t him off that Eurovision dirge. Instead, he’s off Swedish Idol from a couple of years back, and here’s his debut.

Tom: Ah, it’s good to see the 90s design of bright neon colours and multiple fonts coming back. Wait, did I say good? I meant terrible. Anyway, the music.

Tim: Mmm, and I’d say that’s a decent enough first outing. Admittedly, there’s not much going on verse-wise, but the chorus drop was big enough to bring my attention back to it, and then hang around, which is certainly what a chorus ought to do.

Tom: It is a good chorus, isn’t it? Interesting distortion effects (or possibly just deliberate clipping) on the chorus vocals, which for once seem to fit the style rather than immediately making me turn off. I find myself wanting the rest to be that good, although at least the verse doesn’t drop down to nothing.

Tim: Style is good as well, and it’s showing a nice vocal range and talent – I’ll have this for now, with the hope of a proper belter up next.

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.

Future Duper feat. Hilde – Fever

“Takes a turn for the strange at the pre-chorus”

Tim: Certainly a strong attempt a pun from this new Norwegian act; it just about works…

Tom: Pun?

Tim: Off Super Duper, surely, otherwise it means nothing, surely? But even if the pun doesn’t work, does the music?

Tom: Well, that takes a turn for the strange at the pre-chorus, doesn’t it? Sounds almost like a video game, gets really excited, and then drops down again. I think you’re right when you say it “just about works”.

Tim: Sort of, but I’d rather it had a bit more melody in places. In particular, coming out of the middle eight feels like it’s really missing a trick, as there could be something memorable with a decent tune there, rather than a few sentences said at us fairly quickly.

Tom: I think it’ll take a few listens — or, rather, a few tracks like this — before I can actually get the hang of this. Right now, it sounds like a rather more experimental genre than it should.

Tim: To me it feels like a natural progression of the Alan Walker sound – the same squeaks and squeals, but faster and a bit heavier, and that I quite like. Seven a half out of ten, then, or possibly an eight if I’m feeling generous.

Smorgasbord – Let It Go On

Tim: Smorgasbord, because it’s lots of different bits, like the three members of this band, apparently, with “different, but solid, musical backgrounds.” With this debut, they’re providing “an exotic tempting sound, a hybrid with sticky choruses”. How fun. Or gross, something anyway.

Tom: It’s a stock footage music video! I didn’t think those were still a thing! But more importantly: it’s actually a proper dance track. It… it does go on and on a bit, though, doesn’t it?

Tim: I do like a song where they don’t let you, ever, forget what it’s called. Sure, you have your Unchained Melody and your Bohemian Rhapsody, but that’s hard to remember and sometimes you just need it drilling right down into you. Eiffel 65 knew it, Alexandra Burke knew it, and now Smorgasbord know it as well.

Tom: Even the instrumental bit of the chorus follows the same rhythm, so I keep singing it anyway. At some point I’ve got to admire that, but it does get old. I actually said “yes, I get it” out loud at one point.

Tim: I suppose I could take it as part of the song, the forceful nature of the instruction that it must never, ever, under any circumstances be allowed to stop. Or just slightly lazy lyrics, I don’t know.

Tom: I mean, I could at least sing the chorus after one listen. I’m not sure I wanted to, though.

Tim: As for the rest of it: it’s a solid debut as a dance track, with that intense repetition presumably mainly intended to get stuck in your head, wanting to dance and keep dancing to it. And for that, it kind of works, though I can’t help feeling they think it’s going to be bigger and more anthemic than it probably will be. Still a good start, 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.

Maia – Du’ Kærlighed For Mig

“Mopey Yet Trying To Be Anthemic”

Tim: Maia’s Danish, the song’s called “You Are My Love”, and it’s a pretty good one. Despite Maia having been mostly just a writer up until now, she says she “instinctively knew that it would be wrong to give it to another artist because the words came from the bottom of my heart and had its base in my own feelings”.

Tom: You’re recommending a lot of Mopey Yet Trying To Be Anthemic songs lately. You OK?

Tim: Mopey, you think? I don’t know, but I can see the Trying To Be Anthemic. Advance warning, though: tomorrow’s is of a similar genre. But for now, well, first off I wish I could find the lyrics for this, because while I’m almost certain that what she’s singing halfway through the chorus isn’t the obscenity it sounds like, I’d still like confirmation.

Tom: I’ll be honest, it took me a while to work out where the chorus was, but… yes, I’m fairly sure that’s just an unfortunate syllable, there.

Tim: And if I can get past that distraction, this is an absolutely delightful song. A backing line that’s just lovely, a fantastic vocal that gets all emotional at all the necessary points, and a beautiful close piling everything in together.

Tom: As with yesterday’s track, it takes its time to get there — but it does, at least, get there.

Tim: All in all, I might go so far as to call it beautiful – it really is.