Måns Zelmerlöw – Should’ve Gone Home

“It’s not bad, but it’s not a Eurovision winner.”

Tim: It’s been around a couple of weeks, but here’s the video, in which Måns does a fairly decent job of singing parts of his song backwards.

Tom: Oh hey, it’s one of those Scandinavian lifts that has no inside door on it! I remember those from Helsinki. Sorry. Yes. He’s quite good as singing parts of it backwards, but he’s no Chris Martin.

Tim: You know, I’ve watched that video three times now, and I’m still trying to get the actual storyline figured out. Because he’s drinking his sorrows away etc., but I’d imagine this video (when played the right way round) would finish with him hooking up with whoever it is he shouldn’t been with, except he turns up at her place in his own car. Unless it starts out with him leaving who he’s hooked up with, in the middle of the evening, and he’s getting drunk before he does go home, though that’d be a bit weird.

Tom: You know that bit from Austin Powers 2 where he tries to work out the time travel and goes cross-eyed? That.

Tim: I don’t know – I even played it backwards to see what the woman was saying, but that was in Swedish so I’ve no idea.

Tom: That made me laugh a lot more than it probably should have. Well done there.

Tim: Oh, erm, thanks. RIGHT, music. First track from his next album, and hopefully an indication of what we can expect from that because it’s very good indeed. Strong chorus, slightly separated stylistically from the rest of the track in an excellent manner and…you know, much as I want to write about it I’m still thinking about that video.

Tom: Well, let me fit it in for you: it’s not bad, but it’s not a Eurovision winner. And why they’ve used what sounds like a cheap synthesiser to sample the last word of his chorus like it was a gimmick from the late 80s, I’ve no idea — it sounds so out of place. It’s not bad, but… well, it’s not quite the standard I’d hoped for.

Tim: Ah. Well, I’ve a slightly higher opinion, so I’ll close with: GOOD MUSIC, WELL DONE MÅNS.

Kylie + Garibay feat. Shaggy – Black and White

Tom: Good grief, Shaggy’s actually having a full, proper comeback. Did anyone see that coming? Did even Shaggy see that coming? Because I’m guessing “providing the middle eight for a Kylie single” probably wasn’t in his diary a couple of years ago.

Tom: But what the hell was that? I really hope that high-frequency hiss through those choruses is YouTube compression rather than the actual single, because that’s almost painful to listen to.

Tim: Sorry to disappoint you, Tom, but nope – studio version as well. I don’t find it quite so difficult as you, but you’re right, it’s still a bit jarring.

Tom: Actually, never mind that: the rest of the track, while it’s clearly Kylie’s sound, is an album track at best.

Tim: Yes – the verses are too…suddenly the word ‘damp’ springs to mind, and I suppose that’ll do. It just about picks up for the chorus, but loses it right after. And Shaggy’s bit? Nuh-uh.

Tom: And it’s all paired with a weird, low-budget video where the director’s inexplicably sometimes forgotten to add the dust-and-grain effects, making the whole thing look like it’s been cobbled together in a copy of Windows Movie Maker. What were they thinking?

Tim: Oh, I don’t know. Let’s just pretend it’s not happened.

Rachel Platten – Stand By You

“A stand out BANGER.”

Tim: Following up on her vastly deserved UK number one last month, here’s Rachel’s follow up, and to warn you in advance, this is absolutely not a cover of Girls Aloud’s gentle but lovely ballad.

Tom: I’m not going to rise to that bait, Tim.

Tim: Spoilsport.

Tim: It is, in fact, a stand out BANGER, that gets its foot in the door very early on with its “I’m confident you’ll think this is brilliant” chorus preview and then its standard but effective second/fourth beat “don’t you dare stop listening before that chorus” drumbeat throughout the traditionally quiet first verse.

Tom: Let’s give some credit to whoever wrote the melody for that verse: it’s got enough interesting things going on that it manages to keep me engaged. The “borrow mine so yours can open too” in the chorus is absolute genius.

Tim: The chorus lives very much up to promises and expectations with its stuck in your head melody and blindingly clear message. After all, if there’s one thing everybody knows more than that they need to stand up for themselves and FIGHT occasionally, it’s that they very often need someone else in their corner. Clichéd? Perhaps. But fantastic listening? Definitely.

Annoyingly, it’ll probably suffer in the UK from being released within three weeks on Fight Song, but I’d say that’s better than us having to wait a similar six months, so I’m sure I’ll manage.

Tom: There is a bit of similarity to Fight Song in there too, particularly in that piano, but it’s not enough to be a problem. Can we say something about that astonishingly good middle eight? About the properly-stompy percussion-and-vocals bit that leads into the final chorus? And about that final chorus, which is just great by itself?

Tim: We can speak about all of those things, because they are all wonderful – you’re very very right about that final chorus, right up until the very end.

You know, if you’d asked me two weeks ago if I though Rachel’s follow-up would live up to Fight Song’s standards, I’d have said NO WAY; I’m therefore very glad you didn’t, as I hate being wrong.

Tom: And you know what? I think this is actually better.

Tim: It’s funny – I first heard this 24 hours ago, I thought ‘this is really good – no Fight Song, though’. I listened again to write about it this morning, I thought ‘blimey, this is really bloody great – it’s a proper follow-up’. And tonight, ‘OH HELL YES’. The main thing I will take from this is my utter delight that two of the best (if not the two best) songs of the year have come from from one more or less unknown artist. It’s WONDERFUL.

Dolly Style – Upsy Daisy

“I don’t think this is a truly terrible song.”

Tim: In case it’s left your mind in the five months since Melodifestivalen, HELLO HI! Here’s a third track from Molly, Polly, Holly (members have changed, names stay the same).

Tom: That’s an easy thing to make a joke about it, but, hell, there’s plenty of bands who’ve done that in the past, particularly in the weird Eurobeat-slash-J-pop twilight world they’re inhabiting.

Tim: Well, anyway, press play and enjoy the fact that they’ve calmed down a bit.

Tim: Haha, no of course they haven’t, so quite where that first verse came from I’ve no idea. I also have no idea where that banjo in the middle eight came from, but hey, now that Avicii’s stopped with that someone else might as well pick it up, right?

You know what? I don’t think this is a truly terrible song.

Tom: You’re right. Despite your joke earlier, this is actually a bit calmer: the instrumentation in that last chorus could come from a much more serious pop act, even if the vocals over it are ridiculous. (The “like, whatever” bit isn’t even ironically good.)

Tim: It’s certainly better than their sophomore track Cherry Gum, with the lyrics being a vast improving on the cherry popping nonsense, and laughable banjo (as in I actually did laugh when I heard it) aside, this is not an awful dance track. It’s very, very heavily towards the bubblegum end of the dance spectrum, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Tom: Yep, I’ve happily listened to much worse. This could go on a playlist.

Tim: It knows what it wants to do, and it does it well – I can’t fault it that.

A-ha – Take On Me (Kygo Mix)

“It’s got new stuff that sounds modern and Kygo-like! It’s got the brilliant chorus!”

Tom: A bit of a strange one here: Kygo appears to just have gone out remixed a classic track in his own style. And I wouldn’t normally cover this, except: it’s really good.

Tom: Listen to that!

Tim: Blimey – that’s pretty much an entirely new song.

Tom: It’s got new stuff that sounds modern and Kygo-like! It’s got the brilliant chorus!

Tim: Yeah, though that’s about all it shares with the rest. I’m not sure when you go from being a remix to a new track with samples, but this’d be on the boundary.

Tom: It’s really, really… nice. Nice is the word I’d go for.

Tim: Nice is an excellent word to describe this.

Saturday Flashback: Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance

“It’s a GREAT track.”

Tim: The playlist at work just got updated for the first time in about two years, and THIS is on it, which is good because it’s a GREAT track.

Tom: Bloody hell, he looks like the love child of Scott Mills and Greg James.

Tim: He dopes look good, doesn’t he? Also good are the lyrics, from “This woman is my destiny” to the straight up, stop messing about, SHUT UP AND DANCE. The music doesn’t let up, there’s a great “woo-ooh!” bit in the chorus and basically all you really want to do it shut up and dance.

Tom: Yep, agreed: this is a fantastic track. Even that “oh, come on, girl!” into the solo doesn’t kill it — and what a middle eight that is, too.

Tim: Good – glad we agree so now allow me to ruin it for you. OH YES. Hear the chorus again, listen to the vocal, the shouted SHUT UP AND DANCE, bear it in mind. Then cast your thoughts back to the Saturday nights of a few summers ago, and the audiovisual tripe that was John Barrowman’s Tonight’s The Night, which if you’ll recall opened with him murdering any particular song in an attempt to get everyone going.

Tom: You know what? I never actually saw that show, and now I hate you for introducing it to me. To be fair, he’s a great performer: it’s just the show’s from about thirty years earlier.

Tim: You’ve really never seen that I Got A Feeling clip? Blimey, I almost actually feel sorry for showing it to you. But now I have, I might as well continue: wouldn’t this be a perfect song for him to sing? Can’t you just imagine it? JUST IMAGINE IT.

Tom: Thanks, Tim. Thanks a lot.

Tim: Well, that’s what I’m here for.

Jeremy Folderol feat. Tilly – Little Sister

“The verses pale in comparison”

Tim: Little more for you on the ‘slightly harsh dance’ front, this time from Finland.

Tim: Interesting one, this – the first time you hear it, it’s entirely adequate, with the first verse being a fairly good level, knocking things quite a way up for the chorus, The second time, though, you’re very much (or at least I was) in full “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” mode, because there’s a fairly hefty disconnect between the two, and I sure as hell know which I prefer.

Tom: Except, sadly, I’m still bored by that chorus.

Tim: WHAT?

Tom: You’re right about them being different, but it still doesn’t work for me at all: the pre-chorus, if anything, is the best part, promising much more than actually gets delivered.

I’ll grant you, that part is good, but it’s still the chorus that stands out for me. Mind you, don’t get me wrong, as there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the verses, they’re very, very competent – they just, annoyingly, don’t seem great, slightly paling in comparison to the excellent chorus. GREAT TRACK in all, though.

Devon Seven – The Real One

“Kitchen knife raised and waiting to be plunged.”

Tom: Landed in the inbox, this is “150bpm rave-pop” from Denmark, so take a minutes to get you glowsticks out, then press play below.

https://soundcloud.com/devon-seven/the-real-one

Tim: And, erm, yeah. Quite something.

Tom: There’s a lot of bass synth there. Possibly too much? I think that might get close to a brown note if it was played out of club speakers.

Tim: Now, I can’t be certain, but I think – I *think* – she’s trying to tell us something about being the real one, and, if it didn’t sound quite so desperate I’d almost believe her. As it is, with this intensity and level of repetition, I can’t really help but imagine her as the ex-girlfriend who’s thirty seconds away from watching the ex and his new love going at it, kitchen knife raised and waiting to be plunged.

Tom: Right. That said, that level of repetition is about normal for the genre, so I can’t ding it too many points for that.

Tim: Okay, perhaps not, so then how does it stand out as a rave tune? Well, it ticks the boxes but doesn’t do that much else. It possibly doesn’t help that we don’t feature much in this neighbourhood, so the good stuff is all I have to compare it to, but can’t help being disappointed that this has a lot of untapped potential.

Tom: I sometimes listen to music like this as a background for working — and yep, that pretty much sums it up. Weirdly, the verses sound much better than the choruses to me: that odd octave and vocal timbre really do start to grate.

Tim: Well, there’s an EP out soon, so I guess we’ll see if that potential ever comes to something.

Robin – Yö Kuuluu Meille

“Well, that’s properly good and loud.”

Tim: Remember Jimi Constantine? If you don’t, go back here and wonder how on earth you forgot him. Anyway, he’s written this and and Robin’s picked it up, with a heftier sound that is entirely appropriate when young artists put out their third album.

Tom: Well, that’s properly good and loud.

Tim: I’m gonna be honest: I have very mixed feelings about this song. Title translates roughly as “The Night Belongs To Us” and yeah, I get that vibe from it. Thing is, I have very, very mixed feelings about this. The chorus is great – raucous, well sung and with exactly the right amount of attitude. The pre-chorus, also showing up intermittently between the rap bits? Also good. BUT, those rap bits. Well, they’re rap bits, and we know how I generally feel about those in songs.

Tom: It’s also “Walk This Way”. Seriously. Listen to that middle eight: the guitar riffs, the drums, the cadence of the lyrics. It’s not close enough to be actionable, I’ll bet, but that sounds really rather familiar.

Tim: WE’VE RUN OUT OF MUSIC, TOM. And on the other hand, I was able to keep myself from switching it off, because of the knowledge that the chorus would be returning, so I’m guessing that gives an overall positive view. Basically, the chorus is better than the crap is bad, so it’ll do.

Elizabeth Kostas – We’re Goin’ Down

“Boy, that escalated quickly”

Tim: VIDEO IDEA: take an insanely hot guy, strap him to a chair, and stroke him gently. That’d certainly work for me, and it appears it works for Elizabeth.

Tim: …but I think the phrase “boy, that escalated quickly” has never been more appropriate.

Tom: BLOODY HELL that’s creepy.

Tim: I mean, WOMAN – are you out of your freaking mind? I know cheating is a dick move and all, but you are SETTING HIM ON FIRE? BURNING HIM ALIVE? What would you have done if you’d walked in on him in the act? Picked him up in a helicopter and dropped him in Chernobyl? Jesus Christ, I don’t blame him for wanting to be rid of you – you strike me as the sort of person who might put laxatives in his coffee for a month if he was five minutes late for a date. What’s the MATTER WITH YOU?

Tom: It’s an odd call for a video, isn’t it? Maybe I’m just a bit out of touch, but premeditated violent murder as music video seems a Bit Much.

Tim: Decent enough song, though.

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