Rasmus Faber & Frida Sundemo – Hideaway

“Almost ambient.”

Tim: We’ve featured Frida (the vocalist here) a few times before, though not Rasmus (the backing tune bloke). Here’s their output as a pairing, which according to the accompanying scribblings “marries together perfectly Frida’s hazy, gently beautiful vocals with Rasmus’s crisp beats and mesmerizing, layered production.”

Tom: “Crisp beats”? They’re not lettuce. Some marketing person’s getting carried away with themselves.

Tim: Let’s have a listen.

Tim: Allegedly, “the result is an infectious but subtle earworm that will have you humming in the spring sunshine!” which is perhaps one exclamation mark too many, and if I’m honest a perfect example of why sometimes publicists should just let the track do the talking, because reading that first just results in a let down.

Tom: Yep: that first verse was — well, “enchanting” is too strong a word, but certainly “nice”. But that chorus…

Tim: Yes, nice is about right – great vocals and good backing, so good work from both of them there, and the song is definitely one I might stick on a lazy summer playlist – not earwormy stuff, though, and to be honest I may well have forgotten it by the time I’ve got my sunglasses on.

Tom: Agreed. It’s almost… ambient. That’s not a good description for a track like this.

Tim: No – although the vocals are gently beautiful (and probably hazy as well, whatever that might mean when describing vocals) and the beats are indeed crisp, mesmerising and layered, it’s a great track, but not one I’ll be humming. DAMN YOUR OVERSELLING.

Ida LaFontaine – Shut Up And Kiss Me

“An incredibly enjoyable pop song”

Tim: I’ll leave you to insert a “ha, Tim on the dance floor” joke —

Tom: Glad you got there first.

Tim: — but this is the new one from Ida, the Swede who’s previously brought us the rather enjoyable YOLO and Anthem. (Incidentally, if you’re like me you’ll spend the first couple of minutes not paying attention because you’re thinking “who had that big song called this?” before realising you’re think of Rihanna’s Shut Up & Drive; saved you a bit of time there, you’re welcome.)

Tom: I was thinking Chely Wright or Sin With Sebastian actually, but sure.

Tim: And that there, once I’m able to pay attention to it, is an incredibly enjoyable pop song, one of my favourite in a while.

Tom: Yep, agreed. I wasn’t expecting that to be as enjoyable as it was.

Tim: Right, it’s got everything: great chorus (and verses, for that matter), fun video (skateboard moment in particular), nice melody (with some lovely ooh-ooh-ooohs in the background) and generally just the whole package, all adding up to a song that really, really stands up to repeated listening.

Tom: And a successful song needs to manage not just that, but it also needs to make me hit repeat immediately (which I did — that’s rare).

Tim: Speaking of the lyrics, I’m with Ida on this one: people should be direct and really just get on with stuff, because otherwise life would be really quite dull and 1920s. Let’s LIVE FOR WHEN WE ARE, guys.

Tom: Although possibly avoid getting a tattoo of your partner’s name until, you know, you’re actually married or something. That’s just a bit weird.

Saara – Ur Cool

“Oh that introduction can sod RIGHT off.”

Tim: And, the award for “most educational video of the year” goes to…

Tom: Oh that introduction can sod RIGHT off.

Tim: Haha, yes indeed. It’s also one of the most desperate videos, though I’m somewhat relieved by the fact that the way they seem to have hired an eight-year-old to say the “maybe” line, implying they know how pathetic the line is. Aside from that, the song is occasionally irritating (particular the Cher Lloyd-esque chanting bits) but mostly quite enjoyable, I find.

Tom: I have something really against those chanting bits, and you’re right: it’s because they sound like the worst of Cher bloody Lloyd. You can sing. So sing.

Tim: Right – if it wasn’t for the video I probably wouldn’t give it the time of day because I’d be put off by every single moment of the first twenty seconds, but as it is it just about holds my attention enough to get to the decent bits, so I suppose the main ‘well done’ for this should go to the person who came up with that concept. Whoever you are: well done.

Tom: And well done to the singer, who seems to be one of the few vocalists who can actually pull off a whistle register.

Tim: Yes, just as long as she keeps singing.

John Dahlbäck, Albin Myers & ILY – Vibe

“It’s a cut above the normal stuff”

Tim: Summer is coming, no doubt bringing with it a fair number of vaguely enjoyable but largely nondescript dance tracks. Presented here for your vague enjoyment, a song about exactly that.

Tim: So, let’s GET GOING and NOT STOP for at least the next, ooh, four or five months? Then it’ll be probably time for the northern sun to go down and all of us dancers to crawl back into our shells and calm down a bit, because apparently the main them for this year’s partygoers will be TORTOISES, which sounds quite fun, if not particularly exciting.

Tom: Y’know…

Tim: You may be thinking “why is Tim somewhat lazily just picking flaws in the song’s lyrics, just as he did yesterday? Has he got nothing much to say about the tune or the production or the vocals of this song?” Well, to I say “read my first sentence again.”

Tom: I was wondering that, because I’m wondering why you’re not hearing what I’m hearing. This sounds like a modern Kylie track to me. It’s good. There’s that same vocal quality and production, and as nondescript summer tracks go — well, yes, it’s not a floorfiller, it’s a Kylie album track at best, but it’s a cut above the normal stuff, surely?

Tim: Yes, I’m probably being a bit unfair on it. It is indeed sunny outside, so let’s feel that vibe, enjoy the mellow moments and DANCE to the big moments.

Tommy Fredvang – Give It A Year

“You’re better off without that flaming cockwomble.”

Tim: It’s a classic story: hook up at a new year’s party, stay together for a while, break up.

Tom: An insight into the life of Tim, there.

Tim: Perhaps, but I, along with most people, would accept that; not our Tommy, though.

Tim: Tommy, you see, wants to almost hit a milestone. He’s not too bothered about making it a full year, just as long as they can keep it going until December. Which makes me think he’s a bit of a dick, really, and I’ll tell you my reasoning. See, if he was going for twelve months, he could have a nice thing about a great year, full anniversary, that sort of thing, which might be slightly acceptable, in a weird way. But no – all he wants to do is make it to some point in December, and what sort of goal is eleven months?

Tom: That’s pretty much what I was figuring. Who on earth says “yes, I’ve hurt you, but we’ve been together for ten months now, so I should at least keep making you miserable until we hit a round number”?

Tim: The only explanation is that he’s got a bet on with a mate, seeing who can last the longest with a girl, he’s only got a few weeks left to go before he’s won, and that’s all he wants her for.

Tom: He can sing though. In all seriousness: with different lyrics, and maybe a bit more production tweaking on that final chorus, this could be a cracking track.

Tim: Perhaps, but until then: seriously, love, stay out. You’re better off without that flaming cockwomble.

Saturday Reject: Haukur Heiðar Hauksson – Milljón augnablik

“You can work yourself up into quite the lather.”

Tim: Off to Iceland this week, whose final was really very disappointing indeed, with two exceptions – the victor, María Ólafsdóttir with her song Unbroken, and this, whose title translates to Million Moments.

Tom: That is a Good Drumbeat.

Tim: Indeed it is, and that bumpy beaty ride is all about spending every single one of those million moments we get with the proverbial ‘you’, naturally. A number of high points here, not least of which is the simplicity of it – piano melody that barely varies from one single one-bar loop, primary drum beat that is literally just one beat over and over again – that makes it very easy to remember, enjoy and join in with.

Tom: It does, and on the Eurovision stage that may well have helped it — but it did mean that even at three minutes it overstayed its welcome for me. Yes, there’s some additional twiddly bits on that piano, and a different chord going into the chorus, but a bit more variation would have been welcome, particularly with that staccato delivery.

Tim: See, that staccato delivery of it is my favourite thing about this: strictly syllable by syllable, beat by beat, so if you arm yourself with a copy of the lyrics you can very easily chant along with it (or the slightly bassier studio version), bash your fists around and work yourself up into quite the lather. Great track.

Tom: Agreed: despite my reservations, this would have done well. Add some pyrotechnics and Eurovision production values, and I reckon this could have done well.

Tara Nabavi – Taking Off

Fancy some decent “oh-oh-oh”s?

Tim: Fancy some decent “oh-oh-oh”s from a Swede?

Tom: Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, know what I mean?

Tim: Erm, yeah, why not, because you’re certainly about to get some.

Tom: Well, that’s one of the strongest introductions I’ve heard in a while.

Tim: Isn’t it just? As mentioned in March, 100 Songs have long since past their theoretical limit, but if they keep pushing out tracks like this (and that one), I really have no interest in being pedantic about that, because this is lovely.

Tom: Yep. As usual, I wasn’t sure during that first verse — but yep, that chorus more than makes up for it.

Tim: It is a song about improving a relationship, so is UPBEAT and CHEERING and full of OPTIMISM. In fact, after a few times listening to it, I find myself clapping along to the chorus with a big smile on my face, and I reckon that’s a sign they’ve done fairly well with a song. Another 107, please.

LunchMoney Lewis – Bills

“This might be an absolute barnstormer over here.”

Tom: It might not have troubled the US charts on its release there a few months ago, but this hit Number 1 in Australia. It’s getting a proper release in the UK next month, and I reckon this might be an absolute barnstormer over here.

Tom: Yes, the lyrics are probably the weak point, and the video is mostly just “let’s act out those lyrics”: but let’s be honest, that’s never stopped any pop music before.

Tim: No, and I think you’re right – definitely got potential, and it’s starting to get airplay on Radio 1, always a help.

Tom: I reckon everything else about this is brilliant, and will basically be on every single “summer picnic” playlist. Walk through Hyde Park in a month or two, you’ll hear half a dozen different tinny iPhones blasting this out to each group of sunburnt hipsters.

Tim: Again, can’t disagree – there are many, many parts in there that could make up a summer hit.

Tom: There’s an incredibly catchy piano riff, a ridiculous happy trumpet solo to take you into the middle-eight; and a gorgeous vocal performance over the top of it. The production is absolutely top-notch. Even those lyrics, simple as they are, have a pretty positive message attached to them. It’s danceable, it’s sing-along-able, it’s catchy, and it’s exactly what a British chart-topping summer song sounds like.

Tim: Most notable thing, though, with a song like this: I actually really like it as well. Normally I’d be put off by the old-soundingness or whatever of it, but nope – I reckon this is just great.

Tom: Number 1? Maybe, maybe not. Top 10? I’ll be very surprised if not, and it’s really rare for me to try and call something like that.

Electro Velvet – Still In Love With You (Lone Sharx Remix)

“No. No, no, no no no.”

Tom: Remember when Bonnie Tyler’s Eurovision song got an official remix, and we were all “you know, that’s probably the song they should have sent in the first place”?

Tim: I do.

Tom: Well, prepare for the EXACT OPPOSITE.

Tim: Oh.

Tom: Now, admittedly, changing the genre of an electroswing track is probably not going to improve it. And there’s something to be said for the disjointed, chopped-about style of remixing — it can work well sometimes. But… not this time. Really not.

Tim: No. No, no, no no no.

Tom: It sounds like someone’s made a boots-and-cats beat generator, a load of buttons that cue in roughly-quantized samples, and then just given the resulting control panel to a toddler to mess around with.

Tim: I had in mind a slightly different metaphor – basically chopping the song up into component parts, sticking them in a bingo machine along with some standard dance music tropes and then pulling bits out at random – but it all adds up to the same thing: a complete and total mess.

Tom: On the plus side, at least this version isn’t going to Vienna.

Moa Lignell – Where I Stand

“That moment that comes with the immediate promise of what’s coming up next”

Tim: She’s been off for a couple of years, but now Moa’s RETURNED, with this, conveniently enough.

Tom: That sounds a bit like a Corrs track that never made it out of the 90s. I meant that as a compliment, but then it turned on me half way through writing it.

Tim: I dunno, it’s probably not the worst you could’ve said, and I kind of know what you mean. This here’s pretty lovely all the way through, but to be honest I wasn’t really sucked in by until the note that came just before that first chorus. It was an effect similar to the end of the middle eight in Guld och Gröna Skogar – that moment itself isn’t great, but it comes with the immediate promise of what’s coming up next, and we are duly rewarded with it.

Tom: I mentioned recently, Tim, that I only remember about ten percent of the tracks that come through here. How you maintain such an encyclopaedic knowledge is beyond me.

Tim: Oh, please, surely you’ve not forgotten that incredible track already? In any case, here it ushered in a chorus that was slightly more soulful, with a much gentler and softer vocal (almost ethereal, though that’s probably overstating it) – I hadn’t previously thought of her singing as particularly harsh, but suddenly I realised that that’s why I wasn’t quite so drawn in by it to start with. All together, though, and by the time we’re throwing in the emotion of the final chorus: it’s great.

Tom: True: I’m slightly worried you’re confusing “vibrato” and “emotion” in that final chorus, but yes: it’s lovely.