Matilda – Forever

“It feels a bit like it’s floating in time somewhere between 1985 and 2005.”

Tim: We have featured Matilda precisely once before, and it was three and a bit years ago, so I won’t hold it against you if you’ve forgotten. She’s from Norway, and here’s her latest.

Tim: Quite nice, that, isn’t it?

Tom: The word that comes to mind is “lovely”. It feels a bit like it’s floating in time somewhere between 1985 and 2005.

Tim: Calm, gentle, synthy music; lyrics that are entirely lovely and wonderful and, not gonna lie, I can imagine getting me quite emotional if I were a few sheets to the wind; and a video that puts all that together very nicely.

Tom: I also want to give credit to the video director and camera op, for what is basically “two people hanging around in Santa Monica” that looks spectacular. There’s a few shots around 2:48 that are somehow exposed for both the sunset and the people simultaneously, which requires a very delicate touch and very expensive equipment: and yet it still “feels” almost like a home movie from the past.

Tim: This is a story of two people that have found each other and are feeling just wonderful, and I love that. Will it last? Who knows. Right now, everything’s perfect. Just perfect.

Ronan Keating feat. Emeli Sandé – One Of A Kind

“Aiming straight at the Radio 2 playlist.”

Tom: It’s not a comeback: he’s never really been away. And just to set your expectations: it’s a ballad with a backing choir, aiming straight at the Radio 2 playlist.

Tim: That is exactly what I am expecting from a Ronan Keating feat. Emeli Sandé track. Bring it.

Tom: And I think it’s lovely.

Tim: Me too.

Tom: I did not expect to be charmed by this, because if I try to be objective there’s not much to say for it. I don’t think there’s a single risk taken anywhere in production, and this could have come out at any point in the last thirty years, albeit with different vocalists.

Tim: For me it’s the choir that does it – whenever it comes out I get an “ooh, that’s nice” feeling, the same sort of thing I get from a well placed key change.

Tom: But there’s something about that melody, performed with those voices. It’s a really good match of artist and track. And the lyrics aren’t a common theme, either: the canonical sentimental song about two people growing old together is Prettiest Eyes, and while this isn’t Prettiest Eyes, it’s not bad either.

Tim: It’s not. It’s very satisfying, in fact.

DJ Ötzi – Der hellste Stern (Böhmischer Traum)

“Care to start the week with something utterly bizarre?”

Tim: Care to start the week with something utterly bizarre?

Tom: New Ötzi and it’s “utterly bizarre”. This is going to be good.

Tom: …is that a Christmas song? It sounds a bit like a Christmas song.

Tim: No, just a standard “you’re brilliant” one, although…well. See, I had a number of thoughts while watching this. I started out with a “this doesn’t sound like DJ Ötzi, why doesn’t it sound like DJ Ötzi”, then moved on to giggling like an idiot when those kids appeared, and then just ended up staring at my screen, utterly baffled by what I’d just watched.

Tom: I think what we have here is an Ötzi album track. This isn’t out of character for him — it’s just out of character for the version of him that makes it to the English-speaking world.

Tim: Hmm, could be. It just seems so…odd, though. Like I said, it’s a very standard “you’re brilliant” type song – title translates to The Brightest Star (Bohemian Dream), sample lyrics are “When I dream at night I always dream of you, you are the brightest star”, yet both the sound and the video play like he’s doing something big and special with it.

Tom: Which implies that the video should be a bit more than holding a really awkward party in a tiny cabin.

Tim: Hmm, maybe so. But no, just plain weird.

Saturday Reject: Edgars Kreilis – Tridymite

“Someone on the internet has to pay attention to the song that came seventh in Latvia’s national selection.”

Tim: Tom, IT IS TIME.

Tom: Time you got a watch?

Tim: Bought one yesterday. No, Eurovision is three months away, many countries have their search to find their entries well underway, and, well, someone on the internet has to pay attention to the song that came seventh in Latvia’s national selection.

Tim: Now, my geological knowledge is patchy at best, but according to Wikipedia tridymite is a crystal that is notable for typically occurring as three crystals linked together (hence the tri- in the name) and there being quite a lot of it on Mars; arguably, therefore, the song is about him liking the girl either because she’s into threesomes or because she’s an astronaut.

Tom: “Arguably” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, but sure.

Tim: Either way, I’d imagine a lot of that would go over the head of a primarily Latvian-speaking audience, so we’re left to judge the music really, and it’s…varied. That’s absolutely not a bad thing in a normal song, though – but the way it switches so often between dark brooding synth stuff and upbeat dance pop could, I guess, have also put a lot of people off voting for it.

Tom: Yep: this isn’t a particularly bad song (those backing vocals, in particular, are quite nice, and those arpeggios in the final chorus work so well), but I can see why it came seventh.

Tim: It’s a shame, because I really like the song as it is – guess it’s just not a song for Eurovision, though.

Smith & Thell – Goliath

“Here for your delectation, an excellent song and a video that largely misses the point.”

Tim: Here for your delectation, an excellent song and a video that largely misses the point.

Tim: Oh, isn’t that just lovely?

Tom: What a spectacular introduction! That set the mood for me: I think the track is brilliant, and I think that’s mostly due to that introduction making me go “oh, wow”.

Tim: We have Of Monsters and Men level brass, and not far off that level of excitement, enthusiasm and encouragement to say YES, I am AMAZING, I can DO ANYTHING, I can BEAT THE WORLD and sod anybody who says otherwise.

Tom: It takes confidence and style to pull something like this off, and they’ve got both.

Tim: And so what if the video misses the point, showing nothing except them having been tiny all along and the giant that they theoretically are looking entirely miserable?

Tom: To be fair, the lyrics don’t make sense: Goliath was the giant. But never mind.

Tim: This is all about the music, and the music here is absolutely fantastic.

Dagny – Come Over

“This is a better Carly Rae Jepsen track than the new Carly Rae Jepsen track we talked about earlier this week.”

Tom: We’ve talked about her a few times, including Love You Like That — which we thought was a bit like Taylor Swift’s “Out Of The Woods”, and which then got turned into Katy Perry’s “Never Really Over”. (Properly, as well; Dagny’s credited as songwriter on the latter.)

Tim: Then let’s hear her newest, shall we?

Tim: Ooh, that’s very nice, that is – proper energetic pop music, of which there’s a surprising dearth at the moment.

Tom: This is a better Carly Rae Jepsen track than the new Carly Rae Jepsen track we talked about earlier this week. Seriously, wouldn’t this fit right in on… okay, maybe not Emotion, not the Emotion B-sides album?

Tim: Do you know, it entirely would – and it wouldn’t sound out of place on Taylor Swift’s 1989, either, and that’s high praise. 

Tom: It’s not quite a lead single — not yet — but it’s so nearly there.

Ina Wroldsen – Pale Horses

“BBC One’s current Sunday night drama is a fairly good adaptation of the Agatha Christie book The Pale Horse; this song has absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Tim: BBC One’s current Sunday night drama is a fairly good adaptation of the Agatha Christie book The Pale Horse; this song has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Tom: That’s the best intro you’ve written in a long time.

Tim: Because who amongst us hasn’t compared a bit of relationship drama to the actual horsemen of the apocalypse, hmm? That’s my favourite thing about this song, I think.

Tom: Really? There’s a lot to like here. The melody in that pre-chorus is really lovely, and the production does somehow manage to balance a lot of very aggressive elements. (Are those orchestra hit stabs in the chorus? That’s a retro sample that hasn’t come back in a while.)

Tim: Oh, absolutely – I’m not slamming the rest in any way. Like you said, the melody and production are great, and she’s got a strong vocal to add to that.

Tom: I’m not convinced about the middle eight, and I don’t think it’s going to bother the charts, but… it’s not bad.

Tim: Definitely not. And, back to my main point: what’s a good angsty breakup song if it doesn’t have ridiculously overblown biblical references? Nothing, I say, NOTHING.

Carly Rae Jepsen – Let’s Be Friends

“That is, for me, just not a Carly Rae Jepsen track.”

Tom: She played London this weekend; a lot of folks I know went and I couldn’t make it. I’m not sure why I mentioned that, other than to vaguely vent.

Tim: Well, let’s hope you don’t stay too negative then.

Tom: Huh.

Tim: Ah.

Tom: I… I don’t like it. Am I just being really cynical? Because, you know, it’s Carly Rae Jepsen.

Tim: No, you’re not – that is, for me, just not a Carly Rae Jepsen track. There’s nowhere near the energy I associate with her, it’s almost dull.

Tom: The chorus has the cadence of a playground rhyme, and I just don’t think it’s very good. Plus, there’s the breathy “cool” and vocal samples in the chorus, and the talky middle-eight: if this was an unknown artist I’d suggest it almost fits under the damnable banner of “novelty song”.

Tim: Ooh, no, wouldn’t go that far. Certainly very, very disappointing, though.

Tom: Full marks to the animator on that music video, though, it’s lovely.

Tim: True.

The Naked and Famous – Bury Us

“You see the cyclist and you know with absolute certainty what’s about to happen next.”

Tim: “Hey, I remember that band name from ages ago, what was the song they had?” you may well be asking, because that’s exactly what I thought.

Tom: I have no memory of them whatsoever!

Tim: Fair enough, but the answer is the really very good 2010 hit Young Blood. That’s not important right now, though, as here’s one of my favourite music videos in quite some time; watch it fully before continuing.

Tom: I… am not sold on the music video. Although fair play for the “What” subtitle gag, it’s an old one but it still works.

Tim: I don’t know which moment in there is my favourite: when you see the cyclist and you know with absolute certainty what’s about to happen next, or his face after the runner’s had a heart attack with the very definite “right, I guess that happened” look. Either way, that’s a great video, and I would like more like it please. Also nice: the song itself.

Tom: I’ll say this much: I could hum the chorus after one listen. It’s not bad.

Tim: It’s no Young Blood, but it’s in a very similar style and one I’d happily listen to multiple times. Have done, in fact.

Saturday Flashback: Eyþór Ingi – Ég Á Líf

“It’s a builder, so bear with it.”

Tim: I was in ICELAND last weekend, and it was BRILLIANT, and here’s their 2013 Eurovision entry. Word of warning: first time I heard this, I was phenomenally bored for the first ninety seconds, but it’s a builder, so bear with it.

Tom: Crikey, you’re not wrong about it being a builder. That takes a long while to get going. And he says that title a lot.

Tim: So, 2013 was my first live Eurovision, and I was in the audience for the second semi-final when he was singing this, and right up until then I didn’t think much of the song. Too slow, got there in the end but way too late. Afterwards, though, this was the single performance that really stuck with me, and I remember playing the song pretty much on repeat for the next few days.

Tom: Huh. I’ve got to ask: why? There may not be a clear answer to that, of course, sometimes songs just stick with you, particularly when there’s a strong memory associated with them.

Tim: Because yes, it’s a very slow builder indeed, but by the time the second chorus rolls around it’s become worth listening to, and I’m paying attention. Then you’ve got his massive note in the middle eight, using that camera action and the light behind him to make him look vaguely messianic, inspiring the continent to get up and wave their phone flashlights in the air. After that, of course, comes the key change, which may be predictable, but we’ve that and every other trick going to get a big “wow” moment that can be used in all the recaps when the voting starts, and it’s just…right.

Tom: And it stuck with you?

Tim: And yeah, it stuck with me. It’s nice.