Imagine Dragons – I Bet My Life

“ASTONISHINGLY good, with one very big caveat.”

Tom: This is currently stuck in a two-month limbo between “official US release” and “official UK release”, so presumably all the fans are ripping it off YouTube and downloading pirated MP3s rather than actually buying off iTunes.

Tim: Oh, don’t be silly. Why would they do that?

Tom: A lot of their fans seem to hate it as being ‘too different’, because it’s not ‘Radioactive’. I’m going to put my cards on the table here: I think this is ASTONISHINGLY good, with one very big caveat.

Tim: Oh? I agree with the ASTONISHINGLY, but where’s the caveat?

Tom: That weird vocal squeak — a gospel singer missing a note? I’ve no idea — is not a good sample. It’s all I can hear in the verses. And it just doesn’t fit: it utterly, utterly kills any section of the song that contains it. How on earth did anyone think “yep, that’s okay, include that”.

Tim: Oh. That part. Um, I don’t mind that, actually. it’s really a problem?

Tom: I want to fade out that sample, just that sample, and let the rest of the absolutely brilliant track shine through. Because LISTEN TO THAT CHORUS. It deserves CAPITAL LETTERS. It’s INCREDIBLE.

Tim: Yes. Yes, it is.

Saturday Flashback: Charli XCX – Boom Clap

“One of 2014’s best songs.”

Tim: So, first flashback of 2015, let’s have one of 2014’s best songs, shall we?

Tom: Okay, so this is where I own up: I’ve never actually heard this all the way through. I picked up bits of it from various radio stations and background noise, but I’ll be coming to this as if it was new.

Tim: Starts as it means to go on, dips down for the verses but then comes back with a quite literal BOOM and CLAP for a stonking —

Tom: “Stonking”?

Tim: — yes, STONKING chorus that perfectly captures what the song’s about: the start of a relationship with someone new, who gets you going, who you’re enthralled with, who you can’t stop getting excited about when you think about them.

Tom: It’s good. I’ll grant you it’s good. But I just can’t get as excited about it. Is it because I’ve only heard it a couple of times, and it hasn’t had a chance to get into my head as an earworm?

Tim: And it’s not just the chorus – the entire song is very fast: we’ve got the standard two verses, two choruses, fully fledged middle eight and four (four!) repetitions of the chorus to close, and we’re all done in 2:47. Is it too short? No – the length is perfect.

Tom: That’s true: it’d definitely overstay its welcome if it were any longer. And I can see the appeal, even if it doesn’t quite work for me.

Tim: Everything that should be there is there, and if there was more, with that speed it might be too much. As it is, though: let’s just push play again anyway.

Suite 16 – Stupid Lovesong

“Roughly slightly above average”

Tim: End of last year, there was a Norwegian TV show called “Prosjekt: Boyband”.

Tom: This lends more credence to my theory that Scandinavian languages are mostly just dubstep remixes of English.

Tim: If you can’t fill in the rest of this introduction yourself, you’re on the wrong site.

Tim: So there we go. Yes, the five of them have names, but I’ll wait to see if there’s a follow-up before bothering to learn those, because this is roughly slightly above average.

Tom: That’s harsh, but justifiably so. That chorus goes absolutely nowhere.

Tim: Right – not a massively exciting melody, and the stop/start vocal in the chorus is a little alienating for me – a pop/rock chorus like that wants to be sung along with, and that doesn’t make it easy.

Tom: It sounds like someone’s tried to take the pop-punk sound and… hasn’t quite made it. I can’t believe that they use that same note three times in a row to end a line in the chorus: it just sounds… wrong.

Tim: Yes. Though regardless of all that, they clearly have the necessary fanbase, because they already had the ineptly-made amateur lyric video created for them before the proper video went up, so maybe we will get another. Let’s wait and see.

Ingvar Olsen – Sarah Moore

“YES I THINK SHE’LL GET THE PICTURE”

Tim: A few weeks back, Ingvar won Norwegial Idol; here’s his winner’s track.

Tom: Oh! Just like yesterday, that’s an extremely promising introduction.

Tim: But to song that doesn’t sound remotely like a winner’s track, largely because they didn’t have Idol back in the 1960s, but…dammit, I’m on another two-day streak, because I’m finding this a bit dull as well.

Tom: I’m in the same boat: I’m really enjoying the style, and the backing is just wonderful, but it’s far from perfect for much the same reasons as yesterday’s track.

Tim: Once again, it’s not a boring track – production’s top grade, vocals are on point, everything technically necessary is there. But that Sarah Moore pairing of words doesn’t half get tedious after the first dozen repetitions. “I never get to say I love her so” YES I THINK SHE’LL GET THE PICTURE. And if she’s any sense, a restraining order as well now that you’ve yelled her name thirty one times in four minutes.

Tom: That’s almost Roxanne-level name-calling there.

Thea & The Wild – Heartattack

“Just the right side of being a bit boring.”

Tom: Florence has the Machine, Marina has her Diamonds, and now Thea has the Wild, it would seem. She’s been around for a while in her native Norway, but this here is her attempt to get big in Britain, to be followed up with an album in a couple of weeks. Have a listen:

Tom: Oh! That’s an extremely promising introduction.

Tim: Gentle, and certainly not offensive, but staying just the right side of being a bit boring. And by that I do mean ‘just’ – while the production is great and she’s clearly got the vocals, it doesn’t exactly do much, does it?

Tom: Yes! It does, but damn it, it’s imperfect for a couple of reasons. It’s moody, it’s emotional, and it’s a rare song that makes me sit up and listen just from its bassline.

Tim: Well there is that, yes – it’s very listenable and enjoyable enough, but the thing is it’s struggling to fill the 2:43 it’s been given. The repeated “I’m standing right here…” line is all well and good being repeated as if to imply just how invisible she believes herself to be, but it could come across as repetitive if the listener isn’t going for artistic depth.

Tom: And that’s what I mean by imperfect. Oh, all the ingredients are there, and they’re great — they just haven’t been baked for long enough. Does that metaphor make any sense?

Tim: I don’t know – still good to listen to, though.

Gabriel Alares – 98

“As guitar pop goes, this is bang on the money”

Tim: The new One Direction album, FOUR, is a great example of guitar pop done very, very well. I mention that now for two reasons: firstly, it deserves to be said, and secondly, so is this, Gabriel’s follow-up to his October debut.

Tim: It cuts the right balance between being too loud and being horribly dull, the vocals are strong and heartfelt, and the progression from verse to chorus and back again is handled very well indeed.

Tom: I think you’re wrong, there. Yes, the tone’s about right, and there’s nothing technically wrong with the vocals: but I don’t get “heartfelt” in there, and I thought, specifically, that the transition into the chorus was rushed — perhaps a bar too early, with nowhere near enough build.

Tim: Huh. Well, maybe I’ve just been feeling unusually complimentary these past couple of days, but this is another track where I really can’t think of much to say against it – as guitar pop goes, this is bang on the money, and I’m happy listening to it a whole lot.

Tom: Well, you do tend to be a much more lenient reviewer than I do: there’s perhaps only one track a month here where I’ll enthusiastically go “YES”. This isn’t that track, but clearly it works for you.

Tim: In fact, I’d quite like a whole album of it, but until then I suppose I do have One Direction.

Marion Raven – Better Than This

“I can think of some very positive comparisons”

Tim: I can think of some very positive comparisons that I could pay this ballad, but I’ll let you hear it first.

Tom: Ooh, Marion Raven! Arguably best known over here for her collaboration with Meat Loaf. Her vocals generally sound like they just came out of the 90s — but a really good bit of the 90s.

Tim: For me, this has elements and echoes of ballads from the lates and greats of S Club 7 and Steps, and even, particularly around that “I wish I could push past”, an ABBA ballad or two.

Tom: Yep. And I think part of that is the timbre of her voice, or perhaps even the microphone it’s recorded with.

Tim: I don’t want to go properly off on one here, because it’s not perfect – the middle eight could do with a bit of work with ideally an added vocal rather than just an extra instrument or two – but that chorus is just wonderful, and the verses don’t exactly let the side down.

Tom: True. I don’t think it’s ever going to crack the top 10 — it’s a bit too traditional for that — but it’s certainly a pleasant track.

Tim: Back to that S Club 7 comparison, it would fit a video set in a nice snowy forest, come to think about it, and in fact I’d like to see that quite soon please, because it’d round the song off nicely. A splendid track.

Saturday Flashback: Andy Burrows – Light The Night

“A beautiful track, with or without a flying snowman.”

Tim: The Snowman and The Snowdog was on TV the other night; it’s enjoyable enough, though a bit light on plot (and the bit where the snowman flies a plane is just downright unrealistic).

Tom: There’s a whole dissertation somewhere in the implications of that last sentence.

Tim: Well this here is the central musical piece of it. (Note on the video: you’ll know within twenty seconds or so whether it’ll annoy you or not; if it does, feel free to stare at another tab.)

Tom: I tabbed back to writing this after just fifteen seconds. Let me just check… yep. Right decision.

Tim: Yep. But it’s a beautiful track, whether or not it’s accompanied by a flying snowman.

Tom: Um. I suppose? It’s got some nice moments, true, but those verse aren’t up to much. What about it works for you?

Tim: Well, there’s a Sigur Rós-esque feel to it, a sort of ethereal quality that allows it to float around, which I suppose is entirely appropriate. It fits wonderfully into the film, with the big chorus themes being reused every now and again at big moments, giving some lovely goosebumps moments. Maybe it loses a bit just here on its own, but I still think it’s a lovely piece.

Tom: Ah, I suspect without that context, it loses quite a lot. It’s pleasant enough, I suppose, but it’s not going to be a classic any time soon.

Tim: In case you don’t know the name, Andy Burrows was the drummer for Razorlight for a while; the guy who composed Walking in the Air for the first Snowman film asked if he could do the music for this one, but then got in a huff when the producers asked him to send in a demo. As you do.

Bonnie McKee – California Winter

“Oh, that’s a fantastic song!”

Tim: Bonnie McKee, not been featured here before as a singer, though she has a very healthy record as a writer. Here’s a somewhat festive track for you, though, while we’re still technically in the Christmas period.

Tom: I’ll allow it, but I’m hoping for something else come tomorrow.

Tom: Oh, that’s a fantastic song! That’s my Christmas song of the year! Why did you wait until Boxing Day? I can’t listen to this for another 11 months now!

Tim: It’s a lovely video, and a lovely song as well, so I’ll do my very best not to let the fact that the timing goes a bit off towards the end, and instead just click my fingers in time and enjoy it, and its heartwarming message.

Tom: That’s what happens when you film at a different speed to playback: if you don’t nail it exactly…

Tim: I called it somewhat festive earlier, I’m not really sure whether it is or not – the video’s full of Christmas decorations, and Christmas Eve gets a mention in the lyrics, but instrumentally it seems very summery (even with the bells), which is an interesting disjoint. A very enjoyable disjoint, but it does mean I’d never really be sure when I’m meant to play it.

Tom: Wait, that means…

Tim: That means I can play it any time I want, I suppose, like right now. Let’s have another listen.

Tom: …you’re right. It’s just a winter song, not a Christmas song. I can play this again. And I fully intend to. This is just lovely.

Santa Claws and the Naughty But Nice Orchestra – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

“Oh no, no, no.”

Tim: So here’s a weird thing to add to your Christmas. Push play, I’ll explain later.

Tom: This is going to be bad, isn’t it?

Tim: Just push play.

Tom: Oh no, no, no.

Tim: Really? I think it’s rather fun. Not much explaining to do, I suppose, or at least I don’t have much of an explanation for it. A band of some sort, or maybe just some guy in his bedroom, made The Green Days of Christmas, full of instrumental versions of all their best-known tracks with sleigh bells, panpipes, glockenspiels and all other tinkly instruments. Some would ask why; others like myself would say well why not, and why has it only been done for Green Day and Metallica?

Tom: I can actually answer that: it’s because there’s a lot of money in Spotify, and other music licensing avenues, and even from the Wal-Mart one-dollar bargain bin. If you’re willing to look at the “long tail”, and churn out a thousand terrible cover versions as quickly as you can, the chances are that you might actually get enough back off royalties to make it worth your while.

Tim: Terrible? Or rather fun as a novelty and doing no actual harm to anyone? I personally see a lot of potential in a festive Daz Sampson anthology, so we’ll have that for 2015, please. Oh, and merry Christmas to you.

Tom: Merry Christmas, Tim.