Mikky Ekko – Smile

“Most depressing chorus lyrics.”

Tom: An anonymous reader sends this in, but says absolutely nothing about it. I reckon it might win the award for “most depressing chorus lyrics”.

Tom: Everything about the music here says ‘hopeful’ and ‘uplifting’, and then… then there’s the lyrics.

Tim: Yes, those lyrics…

Tom: “Smile, the worst is yet to come.” “Tell me I’m special when you spit at me.” “I want to be lonely.” These aren’t good lyrics. They don’t even make sense. Not that making sense has ever been a requirement for pop lyrics, but these seem to actively not make sense.

Tim: They are weird, and I’ve spent a good five minutes reading them and trying to figure out, but I can’t really reconcile them with the music at all. But who cares? That middle eight, just for starters, is wonderful, whatever the lyrics are.

Tom: Yep. It’s all a bit of a shame, because the music’s lovely: anthemic, singalong, and uplifting. Provided you listen to an instrumental version.

Tim: Oh yes, that would be nice, if possible.

Saturday Flashback: Donkeyboy – Crazy Something Normal

“The video is certainly a thing.”

Tom: “Donkeyboy never disappoint”, writes an anonymous reader.

Tom: To be fair, beyond the fact that Joe McElderry covered one of their songs, I don’t know anything about Donkeyboy, so disappointing me’d be difficult.

Tim: I pretty much can confirm what our reader says – their releases are considerably more killer than filler, and this just serves to further demonstrate that.

Tom: The song’s catchy, I suppose, and the video is… well, the video is certainly a thing.

Tim: Yeah – Attack of the Giant Unstoppable Spraypaints isn’t a film I thought I’d be watching today. The music, though, I think is great, and very enjoyable.

Tom: I can’t pick out anything objectively bad about this song; I’d even say it’s a single rather than an album track. But equally, I can’t see it reaching the top of the charts — it’s one for folks who like this sort of gently calming, uplifting, pop.

Tim: Hello!

Marlene – Indian Summer

“That is a lot of ey-ahs.”

Tim: An Indian Summer, a period of above-normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions, usually after there has been a killing frost, according to the Great God Wikipedia.

Tom: Or for a more friendly definition: lazy, warm, late autumn days.

Tim: So that’s something you can bear in mind when you’re listening to this isn’t it.

Tom: So, a lady who’s presumably been through some hard times, but is fairly confident it’s going to get better, albeit only briefly it would seem.

Tim: Before the long, cold descent into winter. Sorry, apparently I’m just tearing apart metaphors lately.

Tom: But never mind, it’s apparently worth celebrating anyway. And why not? Let’s take all we can get, throwing ambition to the wind, and giving as many ey-ahs as we possibly can.

Tim: And that is a lot of ey-ahs.

Tom: This is, really, a lovely track, one to sit back and relax to and gently enjoy. And with all that’s going on, I find that entirely enjoyable. Decent voice, yep, nice backing vocals, yep, great backing, also yep. No complaints at all from me. Great track.

Tim Schou – Supernova

“Burning like supernovas” isn’t really a good metaphor.

Tim: Here’s a quick one for you from a Danish guy with an excellent stage name, and who is formerly of A Friend in London, with whom he represented Denmark at Eurovision in 2011. They split six months ago, now he’s out with this song and a slightly less silly haircut.

Tom: I remember them! They had a good song, and he had a decent voice. And a silly haircut.

Tim: Well he does at least still have the decent voice.

Tom: “Burning like supernovas” isn’t really a good metaphor, first because it’s ‘supernovae’, and secondly because they burn bright and fast and then collapse into tiny, relatively cold balls of nothingness. Just saying. Anyway, the song.

Tim: Not a lot happens in it at all, really, but I think it works well to demonstrate a nice range and a decent vocal ability – there’s plenty of powerful notes in there, and a decent melody backing it up.

Tom: There is, but once you realise that the piano is mostly just hitting two notes back and forth like a six-year-old, it does start to get a bit grating.

Tim: Right, it’s about as basic a piano ballad as you can get without reverting to Mary Had A Little Lamb, but he’s worth keeping an eye on. Especially when he’s chosen that name to go by.

Laleh – Tusen Bitar

“Cheerful.”

Tim: There’s a Swedish film out; it’s called Tusen Bitar, much like this song from its soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-1t1qfRLWM

Tim: It’s a cover of a song from a few years back, but is substantially more cheerful, and I like that a lot.

Tom: Agreed: without that cheerful tone, this song could easily turn into a dirge.

Tim: The title means Thousand Pieces, and as for the rest of the lyrics I’m having a little trouble parsing what Google’s spitting out, but never mind – basically, it’s a fun track to listen to which has been given a rather happy makeover. So who’s complaining?

Tom: Well, me, but only slightly. There’s a lot of potential for a Big Rousing Outro here, and I don’t think it ever quite reaches the potential it’s got.

Tim: It’s lovely, especially with those strings all over the place. Reminiscent of Call Me Maybe at the start, actually, though that’s probably not what she’s going for. Oh well.

Emma Olivia – My Shoes

“Nope. Can’t listen without cringing.”

Tim: Emma Olivia, a Swedish 14 year old who’s got a song out.

Tom: And it’s called “My Shoes”.

Tim: Good reading skills.

Tom: I’m against this on principle.

Tim: Ah.

Tim: Pleasantly, this isn’t a song about the depth of love and the tragedy and pain of heartbreak that always sounds utterly ridiculous when coming out of, say, 16 year old Zara Larsson. Instead, we just have “I really really really like you,” which, even if it does leave something to be desired in the variety area, does at least save the melodrama for post-adolescence.

Tom: Nope. Can’t listen without cringing.

Tim: Really? Because I can’t listen without smiling.

Tom: That chanting, the “really really really” like you lyrics… no.

Tim: Oh. Although, for the other lines in the chorus – is shoe-writing a thing? Because, well, okay.

Tom: I wouldn’t know, I’m not 14 years old. I suspect I’m getting Too Damn Old for songs like this.

Tim: You say that, but I reckon that despite the lyrics, it doesn’t sound that much like a kid singing – certainly a lot less so than Junior Eurovision’s Julia Kedhammar – and that’s a good thing. Yes, the voice could do with developing a bit, particularly with the long note just after two minutes in, but otherwise: sounds great.

Tom: I think my reaction’s basically summed up as a slightly shuddering “gaaah” — with one exception. That middle eight deserves to be in a much better song. In fact, I’m fairly sure it already is, I just can’t remember where.

Tim: Oh. OHHH. OH GOD, yes it does remind me of something. Agh, oh I don’t know. I still think it’s great.

Ida LaFontaine – Anthem

It’s basically saying “listen to some other song”.

Tim: You may remember YOLO, or quite possibly you’ve attempted to purge it from your memory. Either way, Ida’s back with this, with a surprisingly self-defeatist chorus line.

Tim: Now, I know where she’s coming from – very often, there’s not anything on the radio I want to here. I do sometimes want to put my anthem on. But no offence, Ida: this here’s not particularly anthemic.

Tom: The intro and first verse really put me off this: that kind of stripped-down attitude shouty-pop doesn’t really do much for me. As for the chorus: well, I guess the most I can say is that at least it’s not the verse.

Tim: It’s a good track, sure, with nice production, a good example of the female almost-shouting vocal that’s so in fashion, and well-meaning and identifiable lyrics. But you need to get on to that lyricist, because halfway through this, if I’m paying attention to it, I’m gonna be switching it off.

Tom: True. It’s basically saying “listen to some other song”.

Tim: Nice lyric video, though, even if it doesn’t realise how much gravitas one should pay to the word ANTHEM.

Tom: If the best I can say about the song is “I liked the typography”, then I’m not exactly giving it a high rating.

Saturday Flashback: Thirty Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens

That’s how you do good anthemic stadium-pop-rock.

Tim: We demonstrated on Wednesday that sometimes you get choruses that are so good any other fault can be entirely forgiven. Here’s another.

Tom: Bird noises and sound effects. That’s a good start. Mind you, once that intro actually kicks in…

Tim: Once that happens, then yes, the verses are a bit dull. Yes, it’s almost six minutes long with a sillily long middle way-more-than-eight, which the civilised world has no need for. Yes, the lyrics are overinflated self-important guff. But then there’s that chorus line, so powerful, so outstanding, so memorable that you just don’t care about all that.

Tom: Yep. That’s how you do good anthemic stadium-pop-rock. Add some strings and big percussion, and start wailing on your guitars. Not an insult, that — it’s damn good.

Tim: It’s just a great, great track.

Patrik Isaksson – Slåss För Oss

“TRIUMPH.”

Tim: ‘Fight For Us’. And, rather appropriately, it can only be described as a TRIUMPH. This is a brassed-up live version; the studio version’s on Spotify if you want it.

Tom: See, I’ll always favour something with a brass section.

Tim: Differences between this and the studio one: this has a whole lot of brass; the other has a bit more backing under the verses, so they basically balance out. And really, they’re both great. Vigorous, with exactly the level of power you’d expect a song called that to have.

Tom: Agreed: this ticks all the boxes for a song like that: that final chorus is wonderful.

Tim: It’d be lovely if I knew what the lyrics were, because this is a song I’d love to be able to shout along to the chorus with, entirely drowning out his perfectly good vocals but never mind, because I’d be FIGHTING FOR US. FIGHTING, you hear me? It’s what we NEED to do, and I’ve got this on in the background and all I can really think is that man, that’s some good brass on there.

Mapei – Change

“I’m about to get analytical, because I think this song deserves it.”

Tim: Fancy some bored looking people holding bits of cardboard?

Tom: You sure know how to hype up a video.

Tim: In my defence, there aren’t many other ways of describing it.

Tim: Now that’s a good song. Sort of. Melody’s alright, production’s very good, vocals are on top form.

Tom: It’s that “sort of” I find myself agreeing with. That chorus is pretty, but I’m not sure about the rest of it, and as for the sort-of-rap interjections, well, the less said about that the better.

Tim: Yes, there I’d agree. But it’s the lyrics that get me, because they leave a lot to be desired. Now bear with me because I’m about to get analytical, because I think this song deserves it, unless I’m massively overthinking it.

Here’s the thing: we have bored people in the video. Bored people who are disappointed with their life. They want something more. Something special. Hell, they deserve it – they are, after all, “royalty waiting to be crowned”. So what do we do? How do we make this big change happen? Easy! We, erm, oh. We wait, apparently. Even though “you’re in control, you got so much soul,” we’re all just waiting.

Tom: Mm. When you analyse it like that, it doesn’t really put a good message out, does it?

Tim: No, but perhaps I’m misinterpreting it – perhaps really what it’s trying to do is point out this, that we could be doing something but all we’re doing is sitting on our arses, except I don’t get that vibe from it. With the emphasis vastly more on the waiting that the in control, I get a “you’re in control, so just sit back and everything’ll be great.” And that just doesn’t work for me.

Tom: Agreed. And you know who I’d pick for a more positive message? Oddly, it’d be Eminem.

Tim: You know, here’s where I should be suggesting a pleasant schlager track instead, but no, can’t think of one. Maybe it just has to be angry.