Sval – Fasitsvar

“One of the best tracks we’ve covered in weeks.”

Tim: Last time we talked about Sval, you mentioned you were ‘a sucker for a well-placed “heeey” sample’. Assuming the same hold true for a “heeeyo”, this one may well hit the spot.

Tim: And what a horribly abrupt ending that was.

Tom: What? That was a brilliant ending. In fact that was a brilliant track. And an astonishing video. In fact, all of that added up to one of the best tracks we’ve covered in weeks.

Tim: You’ll recall she’s Norwegian; the title means “definitive answer”.

Tom: And the chorus translates, roughly, as “we are in the midst of everything and we are nothing, and we are here without any definitive answer”. I’m not quite sure what that’s about.

Tim: I don’t care, though, because aside from the first verse that sounds too quiet after the hefty intro, and the aforementioned ending, this is a lovely track. She has a lovely voice, the instrumentation underneath is that lovely but not hugely common combination of drum-led and listenable. I’ve said lovely a lot there, but never mind.

Tom: That pretty much sums up my thoughts: more like this, please.

Tim: This is a very, very good track, and one that’s really got me hoping an album’s not far behind.

One Direction – Steal My Girl

“Strong piano riff. I’m sure I’ve heard it before.”

Tim: Previously we’ve covered new One Direction tracks as soon as they’re out; this year, though…

Tom: We missed them releasing a track?

Tim: No, but I thought it’d be more fun to wait for the inevitable plagiarism allegations to hit, and see which slightly-past-it musician wants to get in the headlines by kicking up a fuss.

Tom: To be fair, Best Song Ever did sound really like Baba O’Reilly.

Tim: Well, possibly. But we should probably hear the new track first, so here it is.

Tom: Strong piano riff. I’m sure I’ve heard it before.

Tim: Possibly, at least according to Chad Gilbert from New Found Glory, who may or may not have an album coming out next week. He reckons they’ve stolen the intro from his 2006 track It’s Not Your Fault, which charted precisely nowhere. Hmm. Admittedly there’s a similarity, but he curiously declined to answer the question of whether he in turn ripped off Journey’s considerably more successful 1983 track Faithfully.

Tom: That’s where I’ve heard it before! There’s a whole lot of new stuff over the top of it though.

Tim: Chad did, though, go on to say that “Music influences music. No one cares.” Who’d have thought it?

Back to the track that matters, though, and if it is a deliberate ripoff then the writers must have been incredibly confident they wouldn’t get sued, because that is basically the track. Over and over and over, with a few words thrown on top for good measure. Fortunately, that piano riff is a very good one, which means we can do our best to ignore the incredibly narcissistic and almost disturbingly possessive lyrics which don’t have anywhere near the same sense of fun and enjoyment they had a couple of years ago.

Tom: “I don’t exist if I don’t have her.” I’m not sure those lyrics work any more in a world where Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and dozens of others are more at the top of the charts and out in the public consciousness. Let’s have less of the possession, hm?

Tim: Still, very catchy, very clappy and very enjoyable – I’ll take it.

Nico & Vinz – In Your Arms

“It’s pleasant, it might pop its head into the top 40, but I can’t see this being a Big Tune.”

Tim: I was entirely wrong when I predicted Am I Wrong wouldn’t be a hit in the UK, what with it ending up being one of the biggest tracks of the summer.

Tom: Heavens, I was actually right about that. I still think chart predictions are basically a lottery, though.

Tim: Probably, yes. But here’s their follow-up, actually a re-release of a track from four years ago, because they reckon it’s good.

Tim: Despite my previous failure, and your point that it’s a lottery, I will happily make another prediction: this will have no trouble at all being a hit.

Tom: And again, I’m going to disagree with you: it’s pleasant, it might pop its head into the top 40, but I can’t see this being a Big Tune.

Tim: It’s a great track, even if it does feel broken a bit by the second part of the middle eight. It’s a lovely part, especially if you’re watching the video.

Tom: The video’s just as pretentious and credit-filled, I see.

Tim: Well, it’s a bit of fun. It does at least show they put some effort into this release rather than just “shall we put that one out again?” “yeah”; that middle eight does create a fairly heavy disjoint in the track, though. Unless it’s just one of those bits they stick in a music video that isn’t in the main track, in which case: all great, no problems at all.

Dotter – My Flower

“It’s a song full of good bits”

Tim: Bit of Motown-y track for you today, from a new Swedish singer. Up for it?

Tom: Swedish neo-soul. This should be fun.

Tom: Oh, that intro’s very good, isn’t it?

Tim: It is, and I’d say that there are a number of good bits in there: from the nice stringy intro and outro, the chorus with its enthusiastic and unashamed desperation, the chanting that follows that, and her general singing voice, a perfect fit with the music here.

Tom: Yep, it’s all very good. I have an odd complaint, though. During that chorus, there’s far too much going on in the high frequencies: the strings, the tambourines, her voice, even most of the percussion. There’s almost nothing in the low frequencies. If they’d drop the strings by an octave or so, it’d all sound so much clearer and fuller. But yes: it’s a song full of good bits, particularly that middle eight.

Tim: In fact, there’s very little that couldn’t be described as a good bit – it’s a very enjoyable track, and I look forward to hearing more from her.

Pixie Lott – Break Up Song

Tom: Our regular reader CB sends this one in, and since we had a run of “morose” songs last week, it seemed like a good fit.

Tom: Well, “let’s have sex one last time” isn’t a standard song template, that’s for sure.

Tim: No, but it’s not a bad one. Better than “let’s not have sex one last time”.

Tom: I reckon this is a good example of making a sad song still enjoyable to listen to.

Tim: I reckon that’s exactly what this is.

Tom: There’s enough light to balance the darkness: the gospel organ chords and soulful voice work really well. Even with the rather emotional video.

Tim: A fun video, though. But yes, a bit emotional.

Saturday Flashback: Westlife – Queen Of My Heart

“I had to stop myself from throwing my hands in the air.”

Tim: Strictly Come Dancing’s back on this weekend; shall we have a waltz?

Tom: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: put the emphasis on the wrong word, Strictly Come Dancing sounds filthy.

Tim: I’m not sure how to type the noise you make when you’re almost throwing up. Imagine I have, though, because that’s pretty much what I’ve just done.

Tim: No ashamed to say it: one of my favourite songs ever, largely because of the video which is wonderful on many, many counts – the lights underneath the stairs and the ballroom, the colour coming in for the chorus, Nicky shaving his head for no apparent reason other than that he doesn’t have any singing to do at that point, Kian lying seductively on the mantelpiece because he knows he’s got it.

Tom: I can’t say I react quite the same way, but then there are scantily clad women slowly dancing, so I can still get behind this.

Tim: As for what happens at the key change, it’s up there with Dina Garipova and 3+2 for sheer ridiculousness.

Tom: Agreed. I had to stop myself from instinctively throwing my hands in the air.

Tim: Not just the video, though: lyrically it’s one of the nicest break-up songs I can think of, and it’s got beautiful chiming bells. I wake up to this song most mornings, and sometimes I will happily let it go on repeat for half an hour.

Tom: Wait, what?

Tim: It’s WONDERFUL.

World of Girls – Weekend Girl

Tim: Quick bit of fun for a Friday for you, a new Danish girlband, fresh out of the factory, managed by Rene off Aqua. Interested? Because you should be.

Tom: Oh, please tell me at last this week’s got some upbeat and happy music in it.

Tim: Oh yes.

Tim: Loud and enjoyable and a little bit shouty and a bit sweary which comes as a slight shock to the happy fun party vibe, but to be honest that’s the only criticism I can level at this track, because you’d really have to be a bit miserable not to like this. (I’ll just stand back for a bit and let you take the stand.)

Tom: It’s not bad. I’m not going to go full-on miserable, because there’s enough in here that makes me smile: the percussion-heavy pre-chorus, the shouty parts, even the unexpected swearing. I can see myself dancing to this, even if I can’t see it on a regular playlist.

Tim: Of course, it’s slightly spoiled when you listen to the lyrics and realise that they’re actually singing that the weekend girl in question is not something fun to aspire to be but just a bit of a strumpet who the target of the song should ignore, but let’s not do that. Instead let’s party out to the fact that it’s the weekend, and in fact LET’S ALL BE STRUMPETS. Who’s in?

Saron – Strong Like A Lion

“It’s not a promising start, but I chose to stick with it regardless and I’m rather glad I did.”

Tim: I think we may have here the shortest ever gap between getting kicked off a TV talent show and releasing a single, by which I mean about three weeks. (Sort of – she never actually made it to the Idol 2014 live shows, so it was probably several months ago, but still.)

Tim: So this has its ups and downs, doesn’t it.

Tom: This is going to be a really negative week of reviews from me, isn’t it? It’s another mediocre track that I just can’t get into.

Tim: No? Sure, it’s not a promising start, but I chose to stick with it regardless and I’m rather glad I did, because the chorus is pretty good, even if that unnamed bloke does keep sticking his autotuned gob in and even if the lyric video doesn’t remotely do it justice.

Tom: See, even the chorus doesn’t work for me. There seems to be this trend, at least in the songs we’re reviewing, towards dark and morose songs — either in mood or in lyrics. If you’re going down that route, you’d better make damn sure your production makes up for that inherently downbeat feel.

Tim: You say that, but I reckon it does. I know there’s a fairly significant amount of alteration that’s been done to her voice to but as with yesterday, somehow that doesn’t bother me here. Maybe it’s because the rest of it’s good enough to forgive that?

Tom: I don’t find the middle eight too objectionable, oddly, but aside from that: it’s a no from me.

Tim: Yeah? I mean, it’s not all great, as there are a lot of components in there I’d normally hate – whatever the synthy line is that sounds like it’s straight from a Flo Rida song, for example – but somehow it all seems to work. Quite nicely, in fact.

Gabrielle feat. Thomas Eriksen – Ti Kniver

“It’s very, very difficult to pull off “morose” in a song like this.”

Tim: We haven’t featured Gabrielle since last August’s (exquisitely reviewed) #SitterHer; let’s fix that.

Tim: That’s quite a lovely track – it’s been a while since we’ve had a decent dance ballad, and though I can’t say I was screaming out for one. I certainly won’t complain about it.

Tom: I will!

Tim: Yeah?

Tom: It’s not dancey enough to be dance, and not ballady enough to be a ballad. It occupies a middle ground, and while that can be fine, the melody and production just aren’t good enough to balance the two.

Tim: Really? Because I reckon the production’s great on it, and the melody of the singing is lovely, albeit morose.

Tom: Morose! That’s the word. That’s why I don’t like it all that much. It’s very, very difficult to pull off “morose” in a song like this.

Tim: Strange, because I think it works well. Ti Knivers means Ten Knives, so to be honest I’m not sure I want to hunt down the lyrics to translate them. I’ll just assume she’s dedicating this song to a really tough steak, and then I can forget about any potential violence issues, as long as I also forget about the rather odd ‘bitch’ that comes out of nowhere.

Tom: It’s always a little unnerving, that. English swearing seems to be powerful in nearly any language.

Tim: The singing itself with the slightly odd variant of autotune it’s got going on strangely doesn’t bother me – in fact, I really rather like it. Basically, as long as we selectively forget certain bits, #lovely.

Tom: Involuntary cringe at that hashtag, there.

Tim: YOU’RE WELCOME.

Da Buzz – Bring Back The Summer

“Three months late. Or nine months early.”

Tim: This track is exactly what you’d expect it to be, given the title.

Tom: That’s a weird setup for a video: film as if it’s behind-the-scenes, but have the artist sing the lyrics anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Mind you, I don’t think it works, either. But yes: it’s exactly what I’d expect it to be.

Tim: That is, a summer floorfiller three months late. Or nine months early, which I can’t help thinking might have been a better option: I know nobody’s really looking for a dance tune in the middle of February, but I can’t help feeling I might get a bit more from it if it was Bring On The Summer, full of hopes and dreams about how wonderful everything will be, rather than a somewhat morose style of lyric, which doesn’t really fit with the tone of the song.

Tom: Very much standard, and I’m not using that as a compliment. That hook just isn’t good enough to bear that much repeating.

Tim: In terms of the tone of the song, though: perfectly good enough. Standard, if you will. Just, yeah, out of its time, and I’m not entirely sure it works. Though actually, with our summer apparently lasting until October I don’t know what they’re moaning about.