Tom: That’s the first time in many, many songs that a long build has paid off so well. What an amazing chorus.
Tim: That really, really is – haven’t heard anything like it in a while.
Tom: Yes, the verse sounds a little bit like Lene Marlin’s Sitting Down Here, but that’s probably coincidence, and everything else makes up for it.
Tim: RUNNING OUT OF MUSIC, Tom.
Tom: You know what really got me? The second line of the chorus: not the “dance like no-one’s watching”: that’s fun, but ultimately it’s been heard a thousand times before. The second line, though: “make love like no-one’s judging”. That’s a really good bit of lyric-writing: take an old expression, turn it into something new and wonderful. Yes. That.
Tim: Cannot disagree with you at all, there, though to be honest it took me a couple of watches to get round to hearing the lyrics.
Tom: The hidden-camera shtick’s in the video’s a bit creepy, though. I’m sure it’s meant as “playful prank by boyfriend”, but man, is that ever horrible if you read it the wrong way.
Tim: Hmm, maybe. I do like the rest of it, though – not sure if my favourite reaction is the royal guard just checking his watch or the girl playing on her phone entirely not noticing her.
Tim: We reviewed Ready To Run; Viktoria came across it recently and sent us this to have a look at. It’s from last summer, and her debut single in the US.
Tim: And I think that’ll do me nicely. Our main complaint last time was that it built but never really climaxed; no such complaint here, and to be honest it’s quite nice to hear a “we are young” song that’s so calm and relaxed, and it makes me wonder why they’re quite rare – after all, being young is just as much about having time to relax as it is about wanting to party and be loud, but I digress.
Tom: That’s true: although I suspect it’s a tougher sell in the charts.
Tim: Pleasant track – I’d best describe it as a mix between Shania Twain and The Corrs, so there are two very ’90s references for you. Nice one.
Tom: I was going to say the Corrs! I’m not sure if that’s a compliment these days, but I meant it as one.
Tim: Girl’s been binned off, her bloke starts dating someone who looks just like her, she writes a song about it. As you do.
Tom: I’m going to assume those two the same person, because it looks like a split-screen shot, and there’s no reason to frame it that way otherwise? I am literally unable to tell if those are different people. I am not good with faces.
Tim: Took me a while too, but yes – Kaksoisolento translates to “Lookalike”, and, yeah, the two don’t get on much.
Now, I get that the new and old aggressively facing off against each other; I’ll even buy the singing in each others’ faces. But a dance off, with each of them brining full choreographed backing? Come on, be realistic.
Tom: There’s someone who hasn’t seen enough dance movies. Come on, don’t I remember you being a High School Musical fan?
Tim: Oh well yes I will give you that – in fact, one of my favourite moments in the whole of music is in Can I Have This Dance (which is a WALTZ so added bonus points there), when Gabrielle sings in harmony with herself, and in comparison I suppose this is perfectly normal.
Apparently, the replacement is kinder but more boring, because an easy life isn’t satisfying. I don’t know if that’s true or not – personally, I’d rather not be dating someone who got all musical in my face every time she got a bit annoyed, but it takes all sorts, I suppose.
Tom: Anyway, the music. It seems to drift over me in much the same way as the video does.
Tim: Yes – I’m currently just thinking: quite nice. Standard pop fare, really, and I’m enjoying listening to it. So basically, I’m happy with it, as long as she doesn’t release an English version and I don’t need to force myself to ignore the lyrics. Deal?
“That’s a damn fine chorus, so who cares about moralising?”
Tim: Happy fifth birthday, Tom! To celebrate, here’s a song from a Finnish duo that’s partially awful, but I need clarification about something. Is this lyric what I think it is?
Tom: “Seen my penis so you think you know me?” Yep, I think that’s it. And “partially awful” is about right. That’s the worst introduction I’ve heard in a while.
Tim: So whenever they’re singing, it’s actually pretty good. When there’s no-one singing, it’s alright, and when there’s that male vocal doing something or other I just want to hurl my speakers out of the window, but that’s by the by.
Tom: There’s some really lovely elements in here: the synths in the second half, and the ethereal sample in the middle, are wonderful. The melody’s not bad too.
Tim: I’ve no idea what the letters in their name stand for, but again, that’s by the by. What we’re really focussing on is the lyrics. They’re about “the vibes of a generation that is doing everything and nothing at the same time.”
Tom: Ugh. Yes, that’s good in theory, but in practice what you’ve got is something that’ll be dated just months later, and which sounds kludgy as all hell in the here and now.
Tim: Possibly, though they continue more generically: “It’s about life online, Berlin and procrastinating versus getting shit done.” That all makes sense, with mentions of wasting your day on TV binges, delivery food, wasting money on drugs and, yep, dick pics. The sort of stuff that’d come out a grumpy old person’s mouth to get me in an “oh, shut up” bad mood, really, but somehow when they’re singing it’s less irritating, mainly because: that’s a damn fine chorus, so who cares about moralising when you can just enjoy the music?
Tom: You can’t make a good song with just a chorus, and this isn’t a good song — but there’s potential here.
“It’s hard to know off bat which part we’re meant to get excited about”
Tim: New one off the next album, this; that’s probably all the info you need.
Tim: It’s an odd one, that intro – there’s no growing, it’s dead on from the start, so it brings the feeling that you’re late to the track, which almost works to its detriment.
Tom: Agreed: it’s the polar opposite of yesterday’s contrast-filled track. Does this go anywhere?
Tim: Well, it’s not just that intro – the backing for the whole thing is at pretty much the same level throughout, barring the middle eight and a few other exceptions, so there’s not a huge amount separating the choruses from the verses. You want maths? Try the Infinite Jukebox chart for it, it’s one of the densest I’ve seen.
Tom: Ooh, get you and your science. I hadn’t thought of using Infinite Jukebox that way, well done.
Tim: After that, it’s hard to know off bat which part we’re meant to get excited about, and so I’m kind of left a bit, well, bored by it, even though I really, really shouldn’t be by a song like this.
Tom: There’s still a clear chorus in there, and there’s some lovely songwriting in there — but yes, it’s let down by that “la, la, la” bit at the very least.
Tim: Katéa’s new and off Finland, with a great big soulful ballad to start herself off with.
Tim: You see? Like many such ballads, it’s mainly about the chorus, but there’s a lot of good stuff happening in the verse – for a start, we’ve got the introduction to her vocals, which sound very good on their own.
Tom: Yes, they do: that first verse is stripped down to a level I’d call “brave”, but it still works. Even that slightly clunky “Call Me Al” reference doesn’t stand out too much.
Tim: On the other hand, bring in the backing vocals and up the volume for the chorus, and it sounds just marvellous. Well, I reckon it does, anyway.
Tom: Agreed: it means there’s a real contrast between the verse and chorus. I don’t think it’ll be on my playlist, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the talent and style that’s gone into this.
“Rip your clothes off, have some fun and dance around!”
Tim: Tom’s off for a couple of days, so it’s just me right now; well, me and this follow-up to last year’s massive hit Runaway (You & I).
Tim: And what a lovely video to start the week off with. It’s just so happy, the perfect antidote to a murky Monday, if that is indeed what anybody is experiencing. Go to a shop, rip your clothes off, have some fun and dance around! Tune itself is very good as well – not quite as “stick in your head and hang around for months” as the previous, and whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you, because right now? I’ve got too big a smile on my face to care one way or another.
“The song we have most disagreed about for a long, long time”
Tim: Why this and why now? Well, basically I got a job the other day that I’ve been waiting a full five years for, so I want to listen to it.
Tom: Congratulations! But this is a terrible song.
Tim: What? Listen to it again, you might be confused.
Tim: But hahaha, I’d forgotten that Andrew Lloyd Webber was up on the stage with her being sung at.
Tom: Which knackers the staging, of course: the vast majority of the audience are going to wonder why they’ve got this piano off to the side.
Tim: And just what an underappreciated gem this was, with it being EASILY in the top three, and probably top two, of all of Britain’s entries since Katrina.
Tom: You’re wrong, absolutely wrong. It’s the most trite entry we’ve put in for years. “It’s my time” doesn’t even really make sense, particularly when it’s endlessly repeated with this simple melody, as if a six-year-old’s trying to compose a song.
Tim: What? It makes perfect sense “I’ve been down, down so long, but those days are gone now” – not exactly top notch rhyming, I’ll admit, but it’s a perfectly good narrative. It’s JADE’S TIME. Her TIME to SHINE. Besides, it’s EUROVISION. Complex metaphors and philosophical treatises are hardly going to down well with foreign audiences, are they?
Tom: Here, let me do an impression of this song: “IT’S MAH TAAAAM, IZZZ MAAA TAAAM”. It’s difficult to get across in text, but I was going for “bored toddler wanting a go on the swings”.
Tim: Well, just about any lyrics can be misinterpreted if you—oh, look, the song is just MARVELLOUS, if only for the simple reason that we can start belting it out if any bellends mention that Eurovision/politics wankery. (Although speaking of politics, this is a Wikipedia article I never expected to exist.)
Tom: No. No, no, no. I don’t care if it came fifth, I genuinely believe “That Sounds Good To Me” is a better track than this.
Tim: Oh, please, get off. Your main complaint here is with the lyrics, but you’d prefer “So if you bring the sunshine, I’ll bring the good times / Just add your laughter, it’s happy ever after”? THAT is trite, my friend.
Tom: Yes! It is! But it’s less trite than this! It’s not just three words repeated to a tune that you could get from a Fisher-Price Baby’s First Piano.
Don’t get me wrong, “Good To Me” is still terrible, but it’s not this terrible.
Tim: I am amazed, and to be honest somewhat delighted, that the song we have most disagreed about for a long, long time, is Britain’s Eurovision entry from six years ago. Look, this is a decent song, with inspirational lyrics and a good key change for emphasis, lots of close-up camera shots for her to connect with the audience.
Tom: It’s a dull song, with trite lyrics, and a camera that hardly focuses on her and which she sometimes faces away from. I’ll give you the key change, though.
Tim: KOLAJ are a new pairing of two people calling themselves Teesa and Mighty Mike, who’ve both worked with a variety of musicians in one way or another recently; now they’re getting together, though, and releasing this lovely debut.
Tom: Oh! I didn’t expect that beat to kick in half way through the first verse.
Tim: It’s a lovely fusion of genres – the electropop that makes up the verses seems a little standard, almost, especially with the breathiness of the chorus vocals, but then the big electric guitar on top of that post-chorus gives it that first indication that something else is happening.
Tom: Yep, without that I think it’d be lost — and even with it, I don’t think there’s enough going on in the early parts of the song.
Tim: You could be right there, but then when every part is more or less just piled on top of another in the middle eight and closing, well, it’s just marvellous really, isn’t it? It’s a glorious track, showing an incredibly amount of promise, and I can only hope that any future releases will be as on point.
Tim: Victor’s new, ish – he was in Melodifestivalen as a featured singer, but here’s his solo debut, with a lyric video seemingly made by a designer who was told he could only use Helvetica, so had to express ALL THE CREATIVITY in other ways.
Tom: Hey, there’s nothing wrong with Helvetica.
Tim: Hmm, you say that, but…
Tom: Although there’s definitely something wrong with how they’re using it there.
Tim: Yes. Now, I’m not sure if I’ve felt let down by guitar pop recently, but I really wasn’t expecting the chorus to be that good, after the less than inspiring verses and that irritating “without no light” lyric, so I’m really happy with this.
Tom: Agreed: there’s a real sense of progress, almost triumphant, when that chorus kicks in. It almost sounds like modern American country-pop.
Tim: It’s a chorus that got me tapping my fingers on my desk the first time, and by the end I was almost drumming.
Tom: And “all the way down to the wire” is a surprisingly catchy chorus line, all told.
Tim: It pulls off that nice trick we saw with Rachel Platten’s track (still incredible, by the way) of dropping everything but the drums coming back from the middle eight for more impact, and it works here just as well, also offering a mirror back to the start, where we had nothing but the guitars; don’t know if that was intentional, but I’m fairly sure it proves that drums are better than guitars. Anyway, good track, bar that lyric, so WELL DONE VICTOR.
