Rebecka Karlsson – Surrender

“It sounds exactly like it could be a Cascada cover version”

Tim: New track off her who we first met last November, which happens to be the official song of Malmö Pride 2015. TUNE, therefore.

Tom: I’ll be very surprised if it isn’t.

Tim: Weird thing: despite being a completely original song, it sounds exactly like it could be a Cascada cover version of some older track, especially in the chorus.

Tom: Blimey, you’re right, but “Surrender” isn’t exactly the easiest song title to search for. I kept getting French songs.

Tim: It may just be the vocal stylings, but I think it’s some slight disjoint between the vocal line and the backing track you might get – as good as Truly Madly Deeply was, it’s blindingly obvious it wasn’t originally written that way. Is that the case here? I don’t want it to be, because its a good dance track and I don’t want to lay into it unfairly when it could just be me hearing it.

Tom: It’s good, although like other Cascada songs, it’s perhaps a bit… generic. There’s nothing here to set it apart: the melody is good but unremarkable, the vocals are competent, and the production is okay. The middle eight at least breaks it up.

Tim: It does, yes, and like I say, it’s a decent enough dance track – well, I’d put it as getting to Andra Chansen at Melodifestivalen decent, at least – and it’ll do as a celebratory song, but dammit I just can’t shake the feeling– WAIT HANG ON so it turns out it is a cover. More later.

Tom: Did you just do a cliffhanger ending to a blog post?

Tim: I KNOW RIGHT!!?!?!!?

Tom: Bloody hell.

Rita Ora – Poison

“I suspect it’s a grower”

Tim: X Factor auditions have kicked off this week, so let’s have a listen to this, which I’ve been enjoying very much recently.

Tom: Oh! Perhaps surprisingly, I haven’t heard this one, and my reaction’s the opposite of normal: I very much enjoy the verses, but it took me until the final chorus to start liking that… at which point I started singing along. I suspect it’s a grower, from that: put this on a radio playlist and I’ll be singing along. And what a middle eight!

Tim: There’s a proper video here, but it doesn’t add anything and has a load of filler gaps interrupting the music, so we can ignore that, because interrupting the music is NOT AN OPTION here, with its immediately IN THERE piano introduction with her decent voice on top, before going OUT THERE for the chorus which a proper head filler which I like and I should probably end this sentence about now, but really I’m just listening to the music and carrying on typing, because it’s the sort of track that just keeps going and going and going, in a VERY very good way.

Tom: You… you want to breathe there, Tim?

Tim: Ah, and we’ve reached the end. So let’s have another listen.

Malika Ayane – Senza Fare Sul Serio

“They should have kicked that chorus up one more notch”

Tim: If you’ve never heard of her (as indeed I hadn’t until Apple Music suggested her to me) Malika’s been going a while, but has never had much (or indeed any) success outside her native Italy. Here’s her current one, which recently entered the Italian top 10 (and number two on the Airplay charts).

Tom: Good job getting a product-placement plug in that introduction, Tim.

Tim: No, just a mild recommendation.

Tom: And for the second day in a row, we’ve got a brilliant introduction: a nice combination of synth and traditional instruments, and a pleasing chord progression.

Tim: So from what I can tell with Google doing its semi-reliable translation, it’s something about being serious, and being able to look back about doing stuff not too seriously, or possibly wasting time by being boring, I’m not entirely sure – the video implies just plain dissatisfaction with a repetitive life, so let’s go with that.

Tom: “Perdi tempo” is “lost time”, so yes; it’s along those lines.

Tim: What I am sure about is that it’s a really rather enjoyable track – a bit more melancholy than often I’d like to listen to, but it certainly does what it’s trying to do in a very listenable manner, so good work all.

Tom: I found my foot was tapping half way through the first listen, which is always a good sign: but I found myself waiting for a Big Chorus that never really came. The producers, I reckon, should have kicked that chorus up one more notch; right now, there just isn’t enough to set it apart and the whole song seems to plod a bit more than it should.

Tim: I won’t disagree with you – like I said, more melancholy that I’d like – but for the track it wants to be it’s about right. I’d say it’s a shame she’s never broken out outside Italy, but let’s face it that’ll never happen unless she drops the Italian, and when its doing so well for her, why bother?

Elin Bergman – Gasoline Dream

“It keeps changing on me.”

Tim: Formerly of Swedish Idol, Elin’s here with her second single.

Tom: That’s one of the best introductions I’ve heard for a while. And with a voice that sounds a bit like Ellie Goulding, it’s promising. It’s just… well, it keeps changing on me.

Tim: And I reckon that can very much be compared to a staircase in terms of enjoyability – many songs segue gently from once place to another, whereas here we seem to have very defined sections, at least for the first two thirds of it. Opening with just the quiet undertones is to be honest a bit dull; the first ‘gasoline dream’ builds up and immediately hits a new level. Trumpets are IN, and we’re up again, before going right back down for the second time around.

Tom: Mm. And it spoils it for me – plus, that trumpet sample is dire. There are a couple of good tracks in here, and a couple of very dodgy ones, but they never work together. What do you reckon?

Tim: I’ll be honest: I find that a significant flaw. I said for the first two thirds of it, and that’s true. Come the end of the middle eight, everything piles in together and it’s good and enjoyable and it all flows nicely – so I don’t get why the disjointedness at the start. Sure, there are individual good bits, but as a whole it’s more than a little ugly.

Tove Ask – By Myself

“So here’s a philosophical quandary…”

Tim: We’ve had Tove Lo, from Sweden, and we’ve had Tove Styrke, also from Sweden (who incidentally recently put out a video for the brilliant Timebomb). Now we have Tove Ask – would you believe it, she’s also from Sweden. Here’s a video, in which she plays at least three miniature instruments.

Tom: I was not expecting that voice from that face! That’s really good.

Tim: So here’s a philosophical quandary: are you actually ‘by yourself’ if you’re with an identical copy of yourself? Linguistically I suppose technically not, unless you’re standing next to each other, but as a concept equivalent to being on your own, well that could potentially raise an interesting point.

Tom: The real quandary is what happens if you’re with an identical copy of yourself on top of a high cliff, and you’re sick of them constantly swearing, so you push them off the cliff. That’s obviously illegal, but is it murder, or are you just making an obscene clone fall?

Tim: Yes, well, we’re not philosophers (or, it would seem, comedians), so we won’t be banging on about that for ages and boring people.

Tom: OBSCENE CLONE FALL, TIM.

Tim: Yes, I saw that, and I will slap you. Let’s do the music, shall we?

It comes across as a bit of a mishmash, especially in the chorus, but not really in a bad way. The main issue I have is that there are at least two dominant backing elements – the eight-bit-sounding sampling and the synth that hits after the first line of each chorus.

Tom: Full marks for saying “eight-bit-sounding”, because “eight-bit” is pretty just a synonym for “chiptune” these days and they’re different, damn it. I do like both of them, though.

Tim: Oh yes, they’re both good – but also unusual enough that they demand the attention of the listener, and everything else either gets forgotten about or just plain drowned, and I’m really not sure that that’s a good thing. Fairly enjoyable, mind, although I’m not really sure which bits of it I’m meant to enjoy.

Tom: Agreed: it’s an odd thing that’s perhaps less than the sum of its parts, but I think that’s down to the production rather than anything wrong with the performer or composition. Still good, though.

Saturday Flashback: MMDANCE – Друзья

“Light, joy and smiles”

Tom: They’re from Ukraine, pronounced “em em dance”, and their mission is to “bring people together through the songs of light, joy and smiles”.

Tim: Perfectly decent mission, especially for a pop group.

Tom: Yep, they’re a party band, they’ve got an accordion, and the song’s called Friends.

Tom: No, it’s not a Scooter cover, but it’s certainly got that same “take some else’s song and change it up a bit” feel to it. Does it remind you of anything else?

Tim: Erm…nope. Not at all, actually.

Tom: Wait, really? Weren’t you listening to the radio in the mid-90s?

Tim: Not the same radio you listened to, apparently. Go on, tell me.

Tom: It’s reggae-classic Shine by Aswad, filtered through the Ukraine with the help of an accordion. Did they credit it? No idea. Is it any good? Well, yes. It’s just, you know, from twenty years ago.

Tim: Hmm. To be honest, much as I hate to say this, they’ve kind of failed in their light/joy/smiles mission, because this song does precisely nothing for me. It’s very much a standard middle-of-the-semis at Eurovision, failing to progress through. Dial it up more and you might get back to Ukraine’s 2007 glory, but as it is, nope.

Jessica Andersson – Rain On Me

“CAN WE PLEASE NOT THINK ABOUT ANY LYRICS EVER AGAIN.”

Tim: So, you know how sometimes you get tracks that kick in fairly early on and you just think “oh, yes, this’ll be alright”? Yeah, that, basically.

Tim: Because seven seconds in, you’ve pretty much got a decent idea of where the song’s going to end up.

Tom: Somewhere startlingly close to “My Life Will Suck Without You”. Not that close, but clearly on the same formula.

Tim: Yes – it’s immediately a song you know will definitely be worth your time, with a big vocal in the chorus, along with those same guitars and probably a good drumbeat or two, which’ll return in a slightly lower form for the second verse. Middle eight’s up for grabs a bit, although it’ll end with a quiet, possibly even acapella, redo of the chorus, and then everything comes back in. And what do you know? That’s pretty much exactly what happens.

Tom: Mind you, those lyrics seem to have the same problem as a certain Jedward track.

Tim: Oh, please don’t remind me of that, though with lyrics “I wanna get soaking wet” and “I wanna swim in your ocean” is hard to deny a possible thematic similarity. But CAN WE PLEASE NOT THINK ABOUT ANY LYRICS EVER AGAIN, because musically, there’s a simple reason you get formulas in songs: they work, and nowhere is that more evident than here – the music is, after all, really rather good.

Fore! – Wait

“It’s a good excuse to hear it again.”

Tim: Fore! (yep) are a new Swedish girlband who are launching with a cover of the great track from last year by Sharks.

Tom: Oh, they’ve finally got that right! Took long enough.

Tim: You may remember the track (and it seems you do); you may also remember that we featured in February another new girlband singing that who were basically still deciding their name at that point; that video has since mysteriously vanished, so I have no idea if this is that same girlband finally branded and everything.

Tom: It is! CTRL are now Fore!, as you can see from this old Facebook page.

Tim: Ah, superb. Well, no reason to stop featuring the same song twice right now – as I said then, it’s a good excuse to hear it again, especially since it’s an improvement with its vastly more listenable vocals.

Tom: Agreed: still not sure about that middle eight, but other than that — and, still, that first line — this is finally a Really Good Version of this track.

Tim: I’m going to be honest: aside from the vocals note, I have absolutely nothing to say that hasn’t already been said, so let’s just sit back and press play a few times, shall we?

Matilda Thompson – Elysium

“There is a wonderful place out there where everything will be lovely”

Tim: It’s been eighteen months, but we’ve finally got a second track from Matilda, and is exactly as happy and pleasant as the title would suggest.

Tom: It’s a bold choice to go with that vague “hey-a” sample any time after Enya, but hey, it seems to work. Happy and pleasant, though?

Tim: Well, kind of – it’s at least somewhat upward looking with it’s sense of maybe possibly this relationship could improve a bit, but the music at least is something I could listen to over and over again. Sure, it took a verse or so to actually get anywhere, but once it’s there it just keeps going, and by the end you genuinely are left with a true sense of optimism.

Tom: That is a good chorus, and that beat — I think it’s almost swing-time, or at least something close? — is something you don’t often hear in pop music. It works, although I’m not sure about that true sense of optimism: perhaps that’s from the absolutely gorgeous location she’s standing in the video, rather than the music itself. What do you get from it?

Tim: Overall? A feeling that yes, there is a wonderful place out there where everything will be lovely, and that we can all head there, and just hope this this time it isn’t underneath a carpark.

Tom: Callback humour. Nice.

Jesper Jenset – Superhero

“Oh, good grief, that’s an irritating rock-side-to-side song.”

Tim: Throughout the first verse of this, I felt it might take a horrible twee, chirpy, Hey Soul Sister line throughout.

Tom: That’s what it reminded me of! Yep, it sounds like it’s going to be a by-the-numbers Train song.

Tim: Fortunately, it doesn’t.

Tom: Oh, good grief, that’s not a foot-tapping song, that’s an irritating rock-side-to-side song. It’s still bloody twee.

Tim: Well, not at much as I first thought, at least. Yes, he’s a bit annoying with his irritating “yeah, I’m a great guy” smirk every time he looks at the camera, and the lyrics could do with a slight improvement – just for starters, who the hell chooses, for a hypothetical relationship, a sweet spot as being underneath a carpark?

Tom: I really hope that’s the kind of lyric that’s based on a real life event, rather than just his own brain.

Tim: So do I, because if it’s the latter than he could choose to imagine any place in the world, and he goes with “Look, love, down here – I know it’s got the whole sewer vibe going on, but there aren’t too many turds floating around right now.”

Tom: Classy, Tim. Classy.

Tim: Hey, it’s his words, not mine. BUT. Because yes, there’s a BUT, and it’s a big BUT, and you can probably guess what it’ll be. That’s an amazing chorus – bounce in your chair, hands clapping above your head, joining in with all the oh-oh-oh-ing in – and that on its own is entirely enough to redeem it.

Tom: And that’s where I disagree: it’s just too twee. It’s definitely catchy, it’s designed to hit every “this is nice” note. If I listen to this song more than a couple of times I’d probably end up quietly singing that chorus to myself — and then I’d realise, and hate it, and myself.

Tim: I had it going round in my head last night when I was trying to sleep. For a good hour or so. Fairly sure I know how you feel.