Kristian Ravelius – Jag Vill Ha Dig

“LADS. Lads lads lads.”

Tim: Kristian: new to the music scene, and he’s fairly keen for you to know that he wants you.

Tom: It’s always weird when a non-English pop song drops an English “oh baby” in the middle.

Tim: Oh, did you not hear? As of 2014, that phrase has been added to every single language on the planet following requests from lyricists.

And speaking of lyrics, with the number of “Jag vill ha dig” repetitions we’ve got going on there that would actually make him come across as fairly desperate; as it turns out, though, he’s not singing that at us but merely repeating what someone said to him in a club the other night. You know, the way that LADS generally do and all that, because he’s proper getting it.

Tom: LADS. Lads lads lads. Thing is, that doesn’t really tie in with the tone of the music, which actually seems calm and pleasant.

Tim: Yeah, and to be honest I don’t know why I’m going down the route of making him sound like a dick, to be honest – maybe he’s a lovely guy, he looks nice enough so let’s ignore the slight douchiness of the lyrics and focus on that music, which is very nice. A happy summery pop song, with a very catchy chorus line, whoever’s mouth it’s coming out of.

Tom: And with an odd, almost Motown-like twinge on the way out of the middle eight. Don’t know where that came from, but I like it.

Tim: Me too. All in all, pretty much I really want for a summery pop song, so I guess it’s all fine.

Samir & Viktor – Fick Feeling

“We’re back, Sweden’s wondering why”

Tim: The follow-up to their Melodifestivalen entry, the lyrics begin “We’re back, Sweden’s wondering why,” so at least they’ve got some self-awareness. The answer to that question, though: they’ve Got The Feeling.

Tim: In fact, in the words of that chorus, “I’ve got the feeling, you’ve got the feeling, we’ve got the feeling, nothing can stop us.” And as a soundtrack to a summer party night, this is pretty good stuff.

Tom: All the way through this, I was thinking “it’s basically the same song as their last one” — but then I listened back, and I was wrong. It is completely different. So why does my brain think I’ve heard it all before? Aside from the fact that it’s basically just shouting about partying.

Tim: It doesn’t matter that it’s closer to shouting than singing, because it should be shouting. Shouting about lying on the beach, bass pounding from the phone; about skipping work and going to a festival instead; about how the sun shines and you don’t feel guilty; and most importantly, about how “everything is better with a saxophone”, because yes, that actually is the lyric and it actually is the case.

Tom: They’ve made that case before, too, and with a bit more swearing. I think this feels familiar to me because, quite simply, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from them.

Tim: The instrumental part gives me a similar feeling to the one in Bada Nakna – not enjoyable on its own, but perfectly well suited. What we have here is a PARTY TRACK that knows it and is advertising itself as exactly that. And it gets the job done very well indeed.

RedOne feat. Enrique Iglesias, R. City, Serayah & Shaggy – Don’t You Need Somebody

“A full basketball team”

Tom: Wait, what? He’s got first billing, not just out a shoutout?

Tim: Indeed – despite being quite possibly second only to Max Martin in terms of people who are Big In Pop but mostly staying behind the scenes, he has for this track stuck himself right on the front, along with quite the supporting cast, and…well, have a listen.

Tim: So let’s start with the obligatory introductions, which I particularly like as we meet RedOne, Enrique, R. City and Seraya by name or initials, and Shaggy as “Mister Lover”.

Tom: Which, oddly, probably makes him the most famous in there. Enrique, despite his worldwide following, still needs both names. Shaggy doesn’t even need his one.

Tim: We’ve got lyrics that immediately go start talking about you-know-what, and then we’ve got a line about “mouth to mouth without speaking” which is fine, because obviously it refers to vigorous kissing, but it’s hardly as though medical mouth to mouth typically involves in depth conversation.

Tom: Trying to talk while you’re making out with someone is basically a recipe for disaster anyway. Or for breaking into laughter, depending on the relationship.

Tim: But anyway: lyrics are all about doing it, and let’s be honest that’s hardly surprising. What is surprising, though, given the line up, is that’s it’s actually a fairly decent and listenable song. I think it’s the sheer variety creating by having a full basketball team in it – bit like Band Aid really, in that if one act ever gets a bit annoying, you know it won’t be long until they’re binned off in favour of someone else.

Tom: It looks like RedOne got the credit because it really is his song: he assembled the group and produced it. This is a song with just featured artists, and that’s fine.

Tim: Yep, and so unlikely as I may have thought originally: I like this.

Alma – We Better Run

“Really quite listenable.”

Tim: Alma, 16 from Sweden, brings us this has her debut, and I’m hoping you’ll agree it’s really quite listenable.

Tim: Well, when the chorus comes along forty seconds in – admittedly the verses don’t have quite so much to them, but for me that’s more than made up for by the intensity and enthusiasm of the chorus.

Tom: Agreed: I got distracted during that first verse, which isn’t usually a good sign, but the chorus did actually pull me back in. Not the best of signs, that, but still.

Tim: We’ve a lovely couple whose circumstances keep holding them back, and so rather than fighting the world they simply better run, run, run, run, run, all the way to seemingly the edge of the solar system with the way she keeps wanging on about it. (62, if you’re wondering.)

Quite where the modal verb that should be in the title is, I’ve no idea – perhaps it just ran faster than everything else in the song.

Tom: Did… did you just grammar-pedant a song title? Mate. “We better” is a perfectly valid, if non-standard, construction.

Tim: To be honest, I’m not particularly bothered – basically, it has a great chorus, semi-decent verses that are there to pull to gaps and tell the story, and some lovely post-middle eight soaring vocals. I’ll take it.

Saturday Flashback: Serena Autieri – All’Alba Sorgerò

Tim: I was watching Hercules the other day, because why not, and then I looked up the cracking theme song Go The Distance, recorded Elton John/Demi Lovato style by Michael Bolton, and discovered that there was also a Spanish version by the wonderful Ricky Martin.

Tom: Hey, there was a Spanish version of Livin’ La Vida Loca, and I reckon it’s better than the English one — and notice how close those two videos are. Don’t knock it.

Tim: Hey, not knocking anything, especially when the video has him wandering around the underworld. At first I thought it was a bit weird and novel, but then I thought: of course they record songs in multiple languages, the films are massive in every country. So here’s the Italian version of Let It Go.

Tim: Now, you may be wondering: why this one? What’s so great about Italian that I picked it out over Sweden’s Slå Dig Fri, Russia’s Otpusti i zabud, Poland’s Mam Tę Moc, or even Thailand’s ปล่อยมันไป? Or the mash-up with all 25 translations? Easy: the lyrics. By and large, they stay as close to a straight translation of the English as possible, given the rhythmic restrictions – if you vary too much, you run the risk of changing the story, or giving the song a completely different meaning. And yet, that’s exactly what they did here.

Tom: There’s a wonderful series of articles about this, including Disney’s decision to use Modern Standard Arabic rather than something more colloquial. It’s worth a read.

Tim: Unlike every other version, there’s no simple translation of “Let It Go” as a chorus line, or even any repeated line at all – the title appears just once, right at the end, where it translates to Dawn Will Rise. Rather than a full celebration of being able to finally let it go, as everywhere else, it starts out just plain resentful; the first chorus she’s still wanging on about how she can’t do what she wants, and at the second she’s only just decided to explore her powers. Come to the end, mind, we’re right where we should be – history is history and the dawn rises over her new kingdom.

I don’t know whether that makes it a better song or not, nor who’s responsible for it, but anyway I wanted to bring the world of foreign Disney songs to the table and this one has a slightly interesting story, so there you go. One other thing: in the past hour and a half, I’ve listened to that damn piano tinkling intro more than fifteen times, and I’m now fairly sure I dedicate way too much time to this site.

Tom: Or possibly too much time to Disney. Here, have a remix.

Tim: I don’t know which possibility would be worse: that you spent actual time searching for a fairly awful remix for a quick hyperlink gag, or that you have this on standby to listen to fairly often. Props to the video maker for the pulsating clouds, though.

KACIA – Bonds

“Yes, all right. For once, I’m convinced.“

Tim: KACIA are a new Swedish duo, citing as their musical heroes Max Martin and ABBA; if I could only pick two musical heroes I’d definitely choose Max for one, and ABBA would be on the shortlist for the other, so I’m all set to love this before I even press play.

Tim: And gosh, I really do like that a lot. Probably not as much as I would a Max Martin-produced ABBA track, mind, but it’s got some great elements to it.

Tom: That’s one of the most promising intros we’ve heard for a while. There are a lot of classic pop notes in there: the percussion that kicks in half way through the first verse, the woah-ohhs.

Tim: It reminds me of a few artists, or at least a mix of some – Robyn’s in there for the vocals, a bit of Alphabeat for the instruments and general sense of fun – so basically it’s a mix of some of the best acts we’ve seen over the past many years.

Tom: I wasn’t sold on it until that proper, old-school exit from the middle eight. Yes, all right. For once, I’m convinced.

Tim: High praise indeed. I really, really like this, and I’m very, very much keeping an eye out for more from them.

Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover)

“Blatantly an Ed Sheeran track”

Tom: Our reader, lempamo, sends this one in with the comment “good song, though it’s not what I expected from an Adele track.”

Tom: That’s because this is blatantly an Ed Sheeran track in the verses, at least based on that guitar work, and a… hmm. Who’s the chorus?

Tim: I don’t know, and to be honest: that’s not so much because I can’t place it, but more because I’m not fussed enough to try. This…this really doesn’t do it for me. It’s a shame, maybe, because obviously being a British pop music fan I’m obliged to love Adele, but here I’m happy to pass this aside.

Tom: I said yesterday that I had two tests for a Really Good Pop Song, and this passes one of the two. Yes, after one play, I can remember part of it — that chorus. But do I want to hit replay? No. No, sadly I don’t.

Tim: And today, I very much agree with you.

David Guetta feat. Zara Larsson – This One’s For You

“Not Three Lions.”

Tim: FOOTBALL! Yes, I know, but we have Eurovision and they must have their revenge. This year is Euro 2016, and here’s the official song.

Tim: Oh. That’s a bit of a let down, really. Well, the post-chorus is.

Tom: I think I’ve said this before, Tim: but the trouble with all football songs is that, ultimately, they’re not Three Lions. They’re not something you’re going to get every fan, from more than one nation, singing. Arguably, the closest to that was 1998’s Carnaval de Paris, but that was riffing on an existing chant, so it doesn’t really count: and Vindaloo, of course, worked for England but nowhere else.

Tim: Right, but of course it’s not Three Lions. Because Three Lions wasn’t just a football song. It was Britpop at the very peak of its popularity, it had two of the biggest comedians of the time at its helm, and most importantly it was built less on football another more on a genuine swelling of national pride and belief that England could actually win the competition.

So don’t compare football songs to that, because that situation is unlikely to ever come round again – Frank Skinner even said he regretted re-releasing it in 1998 for that reason. Compare football songs instead to, say, the official Euro 96 song, Simply Red’s notably underwhelming We’re In This Together, or perhaps the official World Cup 98 song, Ricky’s Martin’s The Cup of Life, which actually was a worldwide hit.

Anyway, enough history, back to the present. The vast majority of this song is great, and certainly a whole lot better than Simply Red – good beat, good lyrics, good melody, all round no complaints. That combined total of 36 seconds, though, is entirely and utterly awful.

Tom: Not going to disagree with you. I mean, the rest is mediocre; no-one’d buy it and no-one’d be doing a Big Singalong to it even if that 36 seconds wasn’t there, but… what the hell is that?

Tim: I know unforgivable is a hefty word to chuck around, especially in the direction of basically the world’s biggest DJ, but I just can’t really get past it, however good the rest might be. It completely kicks me out of the song. Sure, by the end of it there’s been enough of the good stuff to more or less push it out of the mind, but I really don’t want to hear it again. Which sucks – like I said, the rest of it’s great, and I would love a cut down version of this.

Tom: Alas, I guess it’s not to be, so I’ll just hope Coke get involved like they did in the 2010 World Cup.

Rbecka – Should Have Surrendered

“That chorus is all sorts of positive adjectives.”

Tim: Rbecka is new from Sweden; her actual name is Rebecka, so I can only assume she dropped the e to be more distinctive. Or possibly just to be annoying for anybody with some form of auto-correct switched on. Anyway, here’s her debut, with quite the chorus.

Tom: As some who does motion graphics for part of my job, that lyric video is… frustrating.

Tim: It is, isn’t it?

Tom: I don’t know why they’ve done it in such a nauseating, early-90s-CGI-camera-moves way, but I wish they hadn’t. Anyway. The music.

Tim: And no matter what she thinks, I’m very glad she didn’t surrender a long time ago, because presumably if she did we wouldn’t have this song to listen to and that would be a massive shame. The verses on their own are decent enough, but that chorus is just fantastic and wonderful and all sorts of other positive adjectives.

Tom: I don’t quite hear it in such a positive light myself: it’s good, yes, but it fails both my tests of being a Really Good Pop Song: do I immediately want to hit replay? And can I remember any part of it after one listen? Sadly… neither of those works for me.

Tim: Oh. See, I’m saying yes to both of those. It is a bit weird the way we have an extra verse coming out of middle eight, as it slightly cuts down on the momentum of the song, but I don’t really mind that; also in the “odd but I’m not too bothered” is the pronunciation of “whisper” in the chorus. Those niggles aside, though, I can’t get enough of this song. MORE PLEASE.

Nina Söderquist – Kärlek

“That… that did not go where I expected it to.”

Tim: I won’t spoil this for you, or bore you with details of Nina’s considerable career so far. Instead, just press play, and listen until the thing happens before reading ahead. You’ll know what the thing is.

Tom: That… that did not go where I expected it to. An 80s heavy-rock guitar riff into… is that schlager?

Tim: So it’s schlager, Tom, but not as we know it. It just about manages to hide its true intentions right up until that building pre-chorus wanders on, giving way to a thumping chorus that knows exactly what it is and wants the whole world to know it. And boy, does the world know it by the end of the song, despite that four second freak out it will give listeners who know there’s a key change coming.

Tom: It’s an interesting choice, to be sure, even down to putting the cowbell in there. But then there’s the weird synth bit pre-chorus, and… I… I’m confused. I’m just confused. It’s… okay? I guess? I don’t know!

Tim: As for the lyrics, oh, something to do with love, because that’s what the title means, but do they really matter? Despite the rock leanings, this is one of the finest schlager tracks I’ve heard in a while (though I’m not sure it totally beats Nik P.’s track from last week), and if this is a genre that’s occurring right now, praise be to the musical overlords and I might even forgive them for Meghan Trainor.