Die Fantastischen Vier – Und Los

“It’s all a bit baffling, if I’m honest”

Tom: Highlights from the Wikipedia page for the “Fantastic Four”: they were some of the first German rappers, they’ve been going for nearly thirty years, and they’re also the German voices of the penguins from the Madagascar film series.

And I am absolutely unable to tell whether this is tongue-in-cheek German humour, or just… German.

Tim: Going by the ‘charity appeal’ at the beginning for their positivity institute, I’m leaning towards the humour line.

Tom: “Und Los” is literally “And Go”, and the lyrics translate to a general “don’t give up, you’ll be okay” message.

Tim: Well that at least is nice.

Tom: It’s all a bit baffling, if I’m honest, but it’s well-produced baffling, and it’s a rare record that manages to pull off a church organ in its middle eight and not sound more ridiculous than it already is.

Tim: Hmm. I’m not entirely sure I read that sentence in the complimentary manner you intended it (bear in mind that it’s a rare dictator that manages to make all his soldiers wear skulls and not come across as more awful than he already does), but you’re right in that it doesn’t stick out as much as it might in most songs.

Tom: I can’t think of an equivalent English-language act this could be performed by, which is odd, because it seems like we really should have some sort of middle-aged possibly-ironic hip-hop act. Am I missing someone obvious?

Tim: Well, he’s not exclusively hip-hop, but yes. Shame on you.

Tom: Oh, of course. You’re right. You know, I’ve never actually seen the video for– WHAT. THAT’S ACTUALLY GLEN CAMPBELL IN THE VIDEO. HOW DID THEY GET GLEN CAMPBELL INTO THE VIDEO. HOW IS THAT A THING THAT HAPPENED. THEY MUST HAVE FILMED HIM SEPARATELY.

Tim: Umm…

Tom: I’M NOT DONE YET. SERIOUSLY. THIS IS THE MOST ASTONISHING MUSICAL THING I’VE SEEN. HOW DID THEY GET GLEN CAMPBELL? HOW?

Helena Paparizou – One Life

“That’s a bloody excellent chorus, isn’t it?”

Tim: Title track from her really rather excellent (and not just because it contains the 19 out of 5 stars Survivor) most recent album. Listen, do.

Tom: That’s a bloody excellent chorus, isn’t it?

Tim: It really is, and I’ve actually just one criticism: there’s no key change. And my word, that big note shifting up out of the middle eight is properly laying the groundwork for one. And then nothing. I mean, that’s just cruel, really.

Tom: Yep: I was fully expecting that. No idea how they missed that one.

Tim: But other than that, this is wonderful. It’s obviously not a Survivor, but it’s very close. It’s glorious. Hearing the music, I want to get up and celebrate life and all its glories, because it’s one of the most triumphant songs I’ve heard in a long time. It’s brilliant.

Tom: Really? I mean, it sounds like it, sure, but… those lyrics.

Tim: Yes, and let’s talk about the lyrics – I normally stay away from fan lyric videos because of the inevitable typos and mistakes and weird “yes I know I’m breaking the law but I’m admitting it so that must make it alright” descriptions, but here the lyrics are worth paying attention to. From the very first line about crying it’s very clear this is meant to be a depressing song, and by the time we move on to sitting alone and hurting deep inside we could be be feeling downright suicidal. So how on earth does that chime with the music?

Tom: I’m really hoping that’s a rhetorical question and you’re setting up to explain it.

Tim: Well, as it happens: there’s also a Greek version, which makes things a bit clearer – it’s called Μεσημέρια, translating to Noon, and the chorus there has lyrics about seeing the moon coming through the blinds, and how someone will be there for her, and actually everything will be alright. So actually, the music makes perfect sense – just something got very, very lost in translation.

Tom: How does the music in that version sound ‘more Greek’ to me? Is it the stronger harmonies? The seemingly-gated drums? I assume it’s just because I now know it’s Greek and my brain’s filling in gaps, but I swear it sounds more Greek.

Tim: I don’t know, sounds similar to me. But I’m not that bothered about the lyrics – this is a fantastic song, and I love it.

A*Base – Never Gonna Say I’m Sorry

“I want to hear more from them, but not really because of this.”

Tim: Remember A*Teens? ABBA tribute band, made up of teenagers, who had a vague amount of success at the end of the nineties.

Tom: “Vague amount of success” is right, but, yes, I remember them, and I suspect a lot of other folks do.

Tim: Well, it seems it’s not just ABBA that get the A* teenage tribute treatment, because now there’s an Ace of Base on as well, and they kick off, oddly, with one of the more obscure tracks.

Tim: It’s a tricky choice for a tribute act trying to have success: do you go for like for like covers, in the knowledge that if you alter it even slightly there’ll be melodramatic fans screaming OH GOD YOU’VE RUINED MY MEMORIES!!! or do you, to quote Louis Walsh and every single other reality TV judge, ‘really make it your own’, and try to develop a sound of your own?

Tom: I’m always in favour of changing things up: there’s not much point in a like-for-like cover of a modern pop song, particularly when you don’t have a vocalist with a recognisable voice.

Tim: A*Base, it seems, have gone for a mix of the two, though strangely in a ‘worst of both worlds’ sense: changing the song (bit faster, slightly heavier beats, bringing the synths twenty years forward), but still keeping a very Ace of Base sound to it (though admittedly that middle eight exit and first half of the following chorus could safely be called their own).

Tom: Yep, I’ll admit it does sound like Ace of Base brought up to date. And I can get behind that as an idea.

Tim: It’s also peculiar to have started with this – A*Teens kicked off with Mamma Mia, probably the worst possible Pointless answer if ABBA songs ever came up, and which went top 20 in every country it was released in. The original of this, though, didn’t even crack the top 20 in Sweden, and even worse it’s a fairly repetitive and not all that interesting track.

Tom: Right! I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve never heard the original of this: it’s not even on their Greatest Hits album. Maybe it was cheaper to license?

Tim: Tactics aside, though, it works: given the source material it’s a good interpretation, what changes they have made have brought it fairly up to date, and it stands up to repeated listening, though possibly not to double digit levels. As an introductory track, then, summary: I want to hear more from them, but not really because of this. I want Life is a Flower, or All That She Wants, or even a Happy Nation, if only to see what they’d do with that.

Tom: I reckon an updated Always Have, Always Will would be interesting: given the backing for that was sampled from Motown songs, there’s a lot of interesting potential ways to bring it up to date, beyond installing a few different synth packs on the producer’s laptop.

Tim: Yes, so let’s hope the project keeps going.

Saturday Flashback: Charlotte Qvale – The Beginning of the End

“I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the video”

Tom: I think I first heard this while boarding a plane back from Norway at the start of this year.

Tim: I found myself quite thirsty just after the video started, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the video – it’s lovely, it really is.

Tom: Well, that’s a strange compliment. I can’t work out whether that odd, staccato instrumentation is an actual electric guitar, or a synth. Either way, it’s a brilliant riff, and it’s stuck with me, for some reason.

Tim: The vocals are lovely, the production is suitably deep and layered, and it all combines to make a track that, for me at least, manages to be pleasant and entertaining without getting stuck in my head on repeat.

Tom: Yeah, it is very nice. It reminds me of Still Alive, the theme from the game Mirror’s Edge – not musically, or lyrically, or stylistically, or really in any way to do with the song, but I think it’s because the best way to describe that, too, is ‘lovely’. And this is as well.

Vilma Alina – Hullut Asuu Kallios

“A big triumphant pile of everything”

Tim: BRASS!

Tom: Bloody hell! Where? Get down!

Tim: Well, sometimes anyway, from a Finn who’s been busy on YouTube for a while now and has just been picked up by Universal; here’s her first release.

Tim: What a great track that is, with basically everything up to the musical kitchen sink thrown in there.

Tom: You’re not wrong there.

Tim: The aforementioned brass was the first thing to stick out when the chorus came in, then there were the somewhat shouty and encouraging backing vocals.

Tom: It was the sudden drum and bass-esque percussion that startled me.

Tim: The middle eight throws in a piano, brings back the electro synths from before and at the end it’s a great big triumphant pile of everything, somewhat all over the place but utterly wonderful to listen to.

Tom: Yep, that middle eight is astonishing — it sounds like a completely different song entirely, and it pulls it off brilliantly. This is really, really, rare: something that crosses genres well.

Tim: As for the lyrics, Google reckons the title translates to “Fools living in kallios” so either Kallios is a place or Google doesn’t know it.

Tom: Now, “Kallio” is bit of Helsinki, and Finnish has some very interesting word endings — but it’s defeated my knowledge.

Tim: Well, whatever it is, one repeated line is “I don’t want to love any more”, and that would be depressing if I didn’t interpret that as “…because I’m too busy making this awesome music” so I’ll do that. As I said previously: a big triumphant pile of everything, and I love it.

Conchita Wurst – Heroes

“It comes off as a second-rate version of her Eurovision hit.”

Tim: Despite being thoroughly disapproved of by Russia and my grandfather alike, Conchita’s not going anywhere from her victory six months ago, and has come up with this to prove it.

Tim: A song about how we can all be heroes, just by doing little things to make other people feel better, according to Conchita, though the lyrics imply a more romantic idea; either way, it’s a nice track, with a big chorus.

Tom: Big?

Tim: Well, fairly big – it seems to come in with a massive drop, but that’s in comparison to what’s come before, which is basically nothing.

Tom: I just don’t hear it: there’s no massive drop here, and to me it comes off as a second-rate version of her Eurovision hit. Rise Like a Phoenix was a fairly dull song made much better by the performer, the staging, the context, and the MASSIVE instrumentation: here we’re lacking all of that.

Tim: Hmm. I don’t mind that this time, though – the fact is there’s nothing much there to take attention away from the vocal that’s clamouring for, and deserving of, your considerable attention.

Tom: That’s true: I can’t fault that vocal.

Tim: Because we can be heroes. We can do things for other people. We can improve lives. We can, dammit, BE GREAT PEOPLE. And listening to this track makes me think I should. I probably won’t, because I have to go to work in a few minutes and I’ll probably be grumpy within ten minutes of arriving, but right now is what counts, and right now WE CAN BE HEROES.

Tom: I think David Bowie got there first.

Medina – Når Intet Er Godt Nok

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a song that’s so closely trod the line between BALLAD and BANGER.”

Tim: Or, if you’d prefer a translation from the Danish, ‘When Nothing Is Good Enough’. Because, you see, when nothing is good enough, you just have to write a song about it.

Tom: Yes, and I think a band called Fairground Attraction did, in 1988. You’ll recognise the chorus.

Tim: It’s been a while since we’ve had a song that’s so closely trod the line between BALLAD and BANGER, but here we’ve got a considerable helping of dark emotion in the vocal line and drums, and heavy instruments behind it making me want to get up and jump around a bit. Which is nice, as I like a bit of depth in my songs.

Tom: Half way between ballad and banger is a good description, really, but I feel like it falls into a bit of an awkward middle ground. It’s not quite danceable enough, and not quite ballad-y enough: it’s designed for radio play, not club play, and… that’s okay, I gu — WHOA OKAY I JUST REACHED THE KEY CHANGE. I did not expect that.

Tim: What’s also nice is the length: I believe I’ve mentioned before how three and a half minutes is a very good length for a song, and here it actually seems quite a bit shorter – when the key change comes along I find myself thinking “oh, is it almost over already?” And that works very well as far as the song goes, in fact, because it has me already reaching for the restart button way before the end, just in preparation.

Tom: It didn’t do that for me: to my mind, it’s one of those background songs that doesn’t get remembered. It’s competent, I can’t fault it technically, but it’s just not memorable.

Tim: Oh, probably not, no, but it’s still a lovely track, well executed.

Nadia Gattas – Someone Like You

“It’ll be a floor-keeper.”

Tim: I first heard this on Monday morning, thought it was a bit “standard dance track, move on”, but then I had it going round in my head for the whole morning, and most of the afternoon.

Tom: And I suspect the same thing will happen to me. That’s almost mid-90s synth-fake-steel-drums on the acking, isn’t it?

Tim: The only thing that shunted it out was hearing Shirley Clamp, prompted by the Band Aid announcement (and speaking of which, I do hope Pitbull’s going to be doing Dizzy Rascal’s job this time round).

Tom: I thought he was the natural pick too! It’ll probably be Ed Sheeran doing a questionable accent, although I reckon Dizzee is still big enough to be invited back.

Tim: Possibly, but not as fun. As for this track, I haven’t changed my view – it is quite the standard dance track, for a DJ to put in the middle of his set and hopefully not cause too many people to go and get a drink, but it’s a standard dance track with a couple of very good hooks in there and so I really rather like it.

Tom: Right – for once, we’re in agreement. It’s a middle-of-the-set track: it’s never going to be a floor-filler, but it’ll be a floor-keeper.

Tim: It might, in fact, get quite a few people up on their feet if they’ve finished the drink and the choice is dancing or back to the bar. By the end of it, you’re humming along, or louder, because suddenly you know that hook – its only been there two and a half minutes, but it’s in your head and you want to dance to it. Basically – standard dance track, but good at doing what it should be doing, in getting people dancing.

CHVRCHES – Get Away

“It’s exactly what you’d expect from them, and I mean that in a good way.”

Tim: For no readily apparent reason, Zane Lowe and others at Radio 1 decided to take the film Drive, get rid of all the music from it, and put new tracks on instead.

Tom: If I remember rightly, Drive has an astonishing soundtrack — the idea of “remixing” the film isn’t as strange as it might seem.

Tim: A number of acts got involved, such as Bastille, Eric Prydz, The 1975 and CHVRCHES, who did this.

Tom: All I can hear from that intro is the phrase “Ed, really?” repeated over and over again.

Tim: I’ll be honest, I’ve not seen either version of the film so I’ve no idea how well this worked with it, but it’s a good track to listen to, coming with all the usual CHVRCHES benefits like Lauren’s pleasant Scottish vocals and a warm and tuneful electronic underscoring. It does take a while to get going, as it wasn’t until the chorus I really felt YES, this is a good CHVRCHES track.

Tom: It’s exactly what you’d expect from them, and I mean that in a good way.

Tim: As on Friday, there’s a somewhat unintelligible backing vocal, here after the chorus, but again it works, and combines with everything else to give a very listenable track.

Saturday Flashback: Panetoz – Dansa Pausa

Tim: This here, a track I was going to write about when it got released two and a half years back but which got buried in a background tab until it was way too late, and eventually found its way into my Future Flashbacks pile. Let’s have it now, because it’s really quite fun.

Tim: Panetoz are a five-piece band from Sweden, originating variously from Gambia, Ethiopia, Angola, Congo and Finland, so that’s fun, isn’t it?

Tom: Mm. It’s certainly trying to be fun, but it seems a bit more like the kind of enforced ‘fun’ that follows after a teacher tries to start a singalong on a school coach trip.

Tim: This track, a very enjoyable party number, got to number one in Sweden, deservedly so – it’s almost what you’d get if Pitbull actually made listenable music, and almost makes me resent him even more, for not doing so.

Tom: Whoa, whoa, really? Pitbull makes extremely listenable music, if you just remove Pitbull. And I’m astonished this made it to number 1 – it just doesn’t seem, well, good enough.

Tim: I said this topped the charts in Sweden – elsewhere in the world, an English version entitled (perhaps unsurprisingly) Dance Pause got to number 53 when it was released in Belgium; I don’t really know what the thinking there might have been, but there you go.

This isn’t, incidentally, the only time they almost appeared here – they got to the final of this year’s Melodifestivalen with Efter Solsken, which almost made the cut as a Saturday Reject. But then it didn’t. Oh well.