CHVRCHES – Never Ending Circles

“It’s nice to see that they still have it”

Tim: In case you’d forgotten that these guys were Scottish, here’s their new single to remind you.

Tom: Bagpipes? Are there bagpipes?

Tim: Ah. I, er, I feel I may have got your hopes up just a little too high.

Tim: Ain’t it good? Standard fare from them, really, but it’s nice to see that they still have it for their upcoming second album. Though now I write that, it really is just that: standard.

Tom: On a second album, that’s fair: you’d expect a refined, tweaked, but ultimately similar sound. If they’d decided to change it up massively, it’d be interesting to see how the fans would react.

Tim: True, and I’m definitely not asking for massively – it’s just that I’m listening to that, but I might as well be listening to Recover or The Mother We Share or any of their others. That’s not a bad thing, particularly, as they’re good tracks, but maybe I’d like something a bit different from a new album? I don’t know, it’s good, and I’ll take it, but I’d like a bit of variation maybe in the future please THANKS.

Dixiez – It’s Okay

“You ever wanted a button you can push that will immediately bring a smile to your face?”

Tim: You ever wanted a button you can push that will immediately bring a smile to your face, Tom? Well, it’s the play button that you’ll find just here.

Tom: What… what? That’s… that’s almost like a cliché of every dansband-y, schlager-y, pop song ever. I mean, I can’t deny it’s put a smile on my face, but what’s with that album art?

Tim:   Jordskott is a Swedish murder mystery programme from earlier this year, and this song showed up in our inbox; I don’t know to what extent this is actually “from” it, but dammit I sure as hell want to watch it now.

Tom: This is going to be used in some ironic “finding the body under really happy music”, isn’t it? The radio that’s playing it will get turned off by a grim-faced detective, and the sudden silence will make it clear just how Bleak This All Is.

Tim: I can’t quite imagine how it does fit in there, though admittedly I can’t find a translation of the lyrics so they might be horrifically upsetting for all I know; I’d be amazed though, partly because, well, the title, and also because the music is JUST SO HAPPY. Like I said earlier, you push play and you smile. You’ve got your trumpets right in there, all fanfare-y and proud and, well basically that’s it, but that really is enough. It’s just LOVELY.

Smith & Thell – Statue

Tom: Oh! They’re the pair who made Joshua’s Song.

Tim: Ooh, he remembers. It is indeed, but it’s a standard track this time, for their next album.

Tom: And while I hear the similarities in style, I much prefer this.

Tim: First off, SPOILER WARNING because this review contains references to the plot Inside Out, so you might want to stop here if you’re planning to see that.

Tom: It’s not Pixar’s best, so don’t worry about it.

Tim: If you’re not, or you already have done, listen to all of this song – I don’t just mean that in the sense of appreciate every element (although do), but hear all the lyrics, and the wonderful telling of self-worth therein. We’re starting out wanting anaesthesia for the pain, but going through an emotional journey, realising that pain is necessary to appreciate the high points in life, much like the characters in Inside Out.

Tom: Yes! And I think they’ve done more in four minutes here than Pixar’s heavy-handed metaphors did. It’s a lovely job.

Tim: The timing of that is (presumably) entirely a coincidence, but it’s nice to have it.

And then of course there’s everything else. The guitariness, the folkiness, just the whole damn package. The beginning of the chorus, when the tempo drops and then speeds up again – it’s a great thing, though I wouldn’t mind it going a little bit further.

Tom: I was going to pick that out too: it’s the kind of thing that more “produced”, dance-y tracks never bother to do, so it works well here.

Tim: Also wouldn’t mind the final chorus being repeated, as with only one of three choruses being the happy one you’re running a risk of the message going wide of the mark; those two bits aside, I LOVE this track.

Rita Ora feat. Chris Brown – Body On Me

“Great tracks by terrible people.”

Tim: The second, and hopefully concluding, part of our series of great tracks by terrible people, and it’s still no less upsetting.

Tom: Ah, this is where we disagree. On the first part, anyway, Chris Brown’s clearly a terrible person but at least I won’t ever want to hear this song again.

Tim: Seriously? Mate, you don’t know how lucky you are. I mean Rita’s probably lovely – we’ll find out this autumn, I suppose – and Chris Brown’s just the featured artist so I was hoping that maybe I could just ignore him like I did with Nicki yesterday, but no. He’s just as prominent as she is, and his verse is decent enough, putting the odd bit of autotuning aside. Again, it’s all wrapped up in a decent melody, with a fantastic chorus, and I really, really like this, after just a couple of listens.

Tom: I just don’t hear it! It’s mediocre at best: a plodding, middle-of-the-road ballad that could have come straight out of the 90s, apart from that autotuning. I don’t mean that in a good way, either.

Tim: Ugh, why can’t I think that? DAMMIT.

Robin Thicke feat. Nicki Minaj – Back Together

“Robin Thicke… is entirely replaceable here.”

Tim: Occasionally, you get tracks that are by awful people and that you really want to hate, and it’s incredibly annoying when they’re actually pretty good.

Tim: You see? Nicki Minaj aside (which almost makes it worse), this is a really decent track.

Tom: Agreed — and despite the fact that I’ve got a lot of respect for Nicki Minaj, that middle eight really isn’t to my taste. But you know what? There’s no-one else who could do her job on this song. Those are her lyrics, in her voice. Robin Thicke, though, is entirely replaceable here: he brings nothing that couldn’t be achieved by a decent session vocalist.

Tim: Exactly – a decent session vocalist would have been fine, so why Robin bloody Thicke? He’s just SUCH A TWAT. But this time, I can’t really hold the lyrics against him – even they’re OK, if we ignore the bit at the start when he refers to himself as a ‘beast”.

Tom: Really? ‘Cos this is some pretty dodgy stalker-ex stuff. “I want to live between your legs”? Really?

Tim: Compared to “what rhymes with hug me?”, I’ll take it. The vocals are softly sung and on point, with a catchy but not irritating hook to them, and the melody and instrumentation is all very enjoyable indeed. Basically, 99% of Robin Thicke’s part of this song is really good, and I utterly hate that.

Saturday Flashback: One Direction – Where Do Broken Hearts Go

“A really good song.”

Tim: So, last week One Direction Beyoncéd a single on iTunes and yesterday it got to number one, setting some sort of streaming record along the way. That upsets me, because FOUR, presumably now part of history, was one of the best guitar pop albums of ages, and here’s an excellent demonstration.

Tom: Pity they didn’t name it “FOUR” after Zayn left, really. You know, I suspect I’m not going to be the first one to make that joke.

Tom: Huh. You know, I think you’re right: that’s a really good song.

Tim: Other tracks I can recommend include Ready To Run and, if you’re feeling a bit melty, Fool’s Gold. I listened to the album a LOT on my skiing holiday, not entirely sure why I chose that opportunity, but I enjoyed being able to control my phone through the ridiculously expensive goggles that I bought and then immediately returned.

Tom: Is that… that’s not name-dropping, but I’m going to invent the term “posh-dropping” for what you just did.

Tim: I’m getting distracted, I think, but basically maybe if Zayn hadn’t left we’d have had this as another release which would’ve been nice. It’s not flawless, of course – there’s the dickish idea that just because you’ve been dumped by one of these guys you’ve had your heart broken (sorry lads, you’re not necessarily all that), but damn that’s some good music. Oh, just get hold of the album and listen to it all, won’t you?

Charli XCX – Famous

“It’s advocating a pretty awful way of living.”

Tim: This got released a couple of months back, and when I heard it on Radio 1 yesterday I realised it didn’t do anyway near as well as it deserves to have done – it barely made the top 200, dammit. So let’s use all our might to give it an extra push, shall we?

Tom: Yup. All our might.

Tim: True, it’s advocating a pretty awful way of living, but otherwise it’s good and shouty and has all the party, so there’s really no reason why it shouldn’t have done just as well as Boom Clap and Doing It, really.

Tom: Perhaps it’s just more of the same? There’s an element of luck — or at least, unknowable chance — in working out what the public will like. Maybe the promotion wasn’t quite there, or maybe it just isn’t quite as good. But it works.

Tim: I’d be thoroughly miserable right now about the whole situation, actually, if I didn’t have this song here to cheer me up. Let’s just put it down to being the fourth single from an album, shall we, and, oh, I don’t know, let’s be outrageous, why not. That’s the attitude she’s going for, right?

Charlie Puth feat. Meghan Trainor – Marvin Gaye

“That’s an awful lyric but an amazing song.”

Tim: Prediction: we’ll disagree here.

Tom: Oh bloody hell, that’s an awful lyric but an amazing song.

Tim: Huh. I guess not, then. So, we’ve a video straight out of one of the more risqué episodes of Glee (I really hope those kids have had decent sex ed classes) and a song from a PG rated High School Musical.

Tom: With a bit more blatant product placement, too. Although this is one of those videos that probably isn’t suitable for kids despite being, you know, technically suitable for kids.

Tim: I happen to think it’s a very enjoyable track, though that may be because I heard it on the radio before knowing what it was. That probably says something about my predisposition to dislike some artists, actually, but we can discuss my shortcomings some other time. For the time being, well, there’s not actually much to say.

Tom: It’s lovely!

Tim: Well there’s that I suppose, and it is.

Tom: Apart from that horrible, cringeworthy lyric. The rest of it is wonderful, the composition, the performance, everything: it’s just an amazingly clunky line.

Tim: You see I don’t mind it, though that may be because the melody of the lines is just brilliant. It is very much of the no messing around variety, often pleasantly refreshing, while the music is performing the potentially daring act of slightly channelling the indicated style. All very nice, really, and I’m pleased I heard it before knowing who sang it.

Smith & Thell – Joshua’s Song

“A bit trite and obvious, but I suspect that’s rather the point.”

Tim: This comes as part of a thing called “Songs With Pride”, run by, of all people, the shopping chain 7-Eleven; basically, a number of songs released last week to coincide with Stockholm Pride Week. Press play.

Tim: So, talk about a downbeat intro, but it does at least set the scene.

Tom: As do all the lyrics: they’re not really in favour of subtlety or metaphor, are they? Uncharitably, I could call them a bit trite and obvious, but I suspect that’s rather the point.

Tim: Wouldn’t surprise me – it doesn’t seem to be a song particularly worried about subtlety. For the rest of the music, though: coming up to the chorus, my thought was “I’ve been waiting a long time, this had better be BRILLIANT”, then “oh, underwhelming”, but then just a few seconds later “ooh actually this is exactly what it should be”. It’s not a big pop song, it’s a gentle number, about how things will look better in the future; it’s about how right now, sure, it really really sucks, but it’ll change, and improve.

Tom: They ain’t Tom Robinson, that’s for sure, but then who could be?

Tim: Well, quite. For the message they’re sending, this song gets that across brilliantly, building up in steps throughout. It’s great.

the FLIGHTS – Smile On Our Face

“Lovely memories of beachy dance tracks”

Tim: Two Swedish producers, randomly bumped into each other on holiday, decided to do some music. As you do.

Tim: And that brings back lovely memories of beachy dance tracks from the likes of ATB with the high notes in the background and a beefed up chorus, and pleasingly it works exactly as well as it did fifteen years ago.

Tom: Which is where we disagree: yes, it works as well as fifteen years ago, but I didn’t really like this sort of thing fifteen years ago either.

Tim: Oh, shame – see, I love it. Start with a gentle reminder of relaxation, that people are here to throw off their troubles and worries, and just enjoy themselves.

Tom: Or to fall asleep to.

Tim: Well…

Tom: Sorry, I shouldn’t be so negative about this: it’s certainly competent, I can see why you’d like it, but it’s Just Not My Thing. What you hear as relaxing, I hear as plodding.

Tim: Possibly, but then we’ve also got a beating pre-chorus to further remind people that enjoying themselves means dancing around, and a big chorus to actually do the dancing around to. Not sure about that middle eight, though. Meh, can’t have everything.