Twin Atlantic – Brothers And Sisters

“Brilliant.”

Tim: This is getting a lot of airplay on Radio 1, and I don’t think it’s just because the Commonwealth Games were in Glasgow.

Tim: Rather, I think it’s because it’s got a great chorus in it, and an especially brilliant closing line to that chorus.

Tom: And the build isn’t bad either — there’s a Biffy Clyro ‘Many of Horror’ vibe here, and it’s not just about being Scottish.

Tim: There are times when a wonderful chorus will make up for everything else that might otherwise not be great about a song (say, verses that lack much substance, the implication that no-one really wants to talk to their siblings except as a last resort or that bit at 3:22 that made me think my doorbell was going), and this is one of them, because it’s just FABULOUS.

SILVA – É Preciso Dizer

“It mostly washes over me.”

Tom: Another one in from CB in Brazil here, who describes it as “Brazilian synthpop done right”. Now, to be fair, I’ve never heard Brazilian synthpop done wrong, or indeed at all, so I’m not sure what to expect here.

Tom: Now, we’ve talked about music like this before. It mostly washes over me, as indeed this has, but you tend to get excited about it. What d’you reckon?

Tim: Not so much this time – it’s nice, sure, but this isn’t one I find myself getting excited about – the chorus instrumental melody is fairly simplistic, and the lyrics and verses don’t really do anything for me. I don’t think it’s a language barrier thing, as that’s never presented a problem before, so it might just be a sense of almost tedium.

Tom: That’s a shame: there’s clearly potential here.

Tim: I get a feeling, especially in the final vocal section coming up to the three minute mark that there’s just a sensation of “okay, let’s just keep the words coming, almost there now”. Doesn’t really do it for me, unfortunately.

Bjørnskov – Venner for Evigt

“It’s still rare to find a smash-hit pop song that isn’t about love somehow.”

Tim: Danish, for “Friends Forever”. That’s nice, innit?

Tom: Ah! That’s a coincidence. Our Brazilian reader, CB, sent this in yesterday. I’m guessing it’s not a cover?

Tim: Believe it or not, no.

Tim: Yes, as it happens, it is nice, both with the music and because it really is just about friendship. It’s refreshing to have a track that acknowledges that not all two-person relationships are romantic, and as the (entirely predictable and unemotional) video shows, this is exactly what this is.

Tom: Agreed. It’s still rare, even now, to find a smash-hit pop song that isn’t about love somehow. Wake Me Up’s the first one that comes to mind.

Tim: A celebration of two people who’ve just been BFFs throughout their life. I thought it came across a bit aggressive for a pleasant sentiment like that, to start with, but then I checked the lyrics and it turns out the chorus is about the relationship standing strong through all sorts of challenges (“they do what they want, we’re like water over a fire”) so it actually works very well – appropriate aggression with a whole amount of enthusiastic and celebratory energy.

Tom: And musically, it stands up too.

Tim: It does indeed. Lovely stuff.

Saturday Flashback: Edyta Górniak – One and One

“This is a great take on the song.”

Tom: A prerequisite for this review: go and remind yourself of Robert Miles’ fantastic One and One from 1999. It’s pure Robert Miles: catchy piano hook (this was after ‘Children’), uplifting style, into a gorgeous middle eight and final chorus. It’s even got a key change.

Tim: All of this is true.

Tom: One and One is one of my all-time favourite songs: even now, writing this, I listened to it through, just because I’d linked to it. Which is why this confused me a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA1Vwbok76M

Tim: Huh. That also confused me a bit, but only because for twenty seconds or so I thought you’d linked to to a Spanish guitarified version of the Big Brother theme tune.

Tom: I can’t help but admit that this is a great take on the song. Those synths in the introduction pretty much sum up the late-90s pop sound, don’t they?

Tim: And hard-hitting reality TV social experiments, yes. I like it a lot, especially after a couple of minutes when the rest of the instruments have grown up to drown out that distraction.

Tom: The completely new Spanish guitar line really, really works — as does the electric guitar in the middle eight. And those vocals, with their high rising notes, add something beyond the original.

Tim: They do, actually – I’d wouldn’t describe Maria Nayler’s vocals as being weak, but these are much more, well, meaty, probably because they’re not going for the dreaminess that was almost a feature of the original.

Tom: Don’t get me wrong: the Robert Miles version will stay in my heart. But it’s nice to know that a great track can be covered and still remain great.

Julia Kedhammar – Du Är Inte Ensam

“One of the cheesiest dance tunes that I’ve heard this side of 2004.”

Tim: 15th November, Tom, a date that should be in your diary – the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

Tom: That is so not going in my diary.

Tim: Here’s Sweden’s entry (as I’ve a feeling you won’t be worried about spoilers for this).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8K365ADCiw

Tim: Yes, it’s clearly a song by a kid, and it probably isn’t too worried about taking itself too seriously.

Tom: That’s true. Which is for the best, because apart from that build into the chorus — and yes, that key change — I’m not that fond of it.

Tim: Nonetheless, it’s a damn good track, and one that’s substantially better than a lot of entries to proper Eurovision, though I’m aware I might just think that because it’s one of the cheesiest dance tunes that I’ve heard this side of 2004.

Tom: I’ll agree that there are much worse entries in Eurovision, but it seems to have brought the style of 2004 without all of the energy that went with it. It’s not bad, I guess, but the build never seems to turn into a proper chorus. That might be the fact it’s a kid singing it, and not someone with a more powerful voice.

Tim: Well, who cares? It’s a great dance track, and it has a key change, so who needs more than that?

If you’re wondering about our place in the JESC (I’m not typing it all out), well, we competed in 2003, when Tom Morley came third; in 2004, when Cory Spedding came second; and in 2005, when Joni Fuller came fourteenth. We didn’t return after that.

Tom: I’m guessing the viewing figures didn’t justify the expense. I’m not surprised.

Helena Johanssen – Faith

“A confident and powerful statement of YES.”

Tom: Ooh, is it—

Tim: I’ll stop you and your immediate predictability there, and inform you that no, it’s not a George Michael cover. A Swedish lady instead, with a song all of her own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuONKC4NWpo

Tom: That’s one of the best introductions I’ve heard in a while.

Tim: It is yes – it just starts and never stops, does it? A nice example of a track where the lyrics and music go together perfectly – it’s a declaration of self, a confident and powerful statement of YES.

Tom: It works so well: this is a damn good track.

Tim: Everything WILL be great, because we have FAITH. Which I suppose is alright, really. You might want to doubt the reality of it, because if faith is all you need then judging by the number of X Factor hopefuls that say “I really really know I can do this” we’d be able to do a track every hour.

Tom: It could be worse: it could be the nauseating (sometimes literally) No Matter What, the ultimate expression of denying reality.

Tim: Yes, that’s true. Either way, let’s not go down that route because it would spoil the essence of the song, and I don’t want to do that because it’s such a great track.

Tom: And as for the music: listen to that drumbeat. No four-on-the-floor here: that’s sometimes disastrous, but here it just works so well. It’s a testament to her voice that she’s able to compete with instrumentation that compelling.

Tim: That production underneath is just excellent – I genuinely don’t think I can fault it, so good work to everyone involved.

Tom: I’m quite happy that 90s-esque synth pads seem to be back in fashion, too, even if they’re buried deep in the mix.

Tim: Excellent. All happy then.

Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj – Bang Bang

“Basically a Little Mix album track.”

Tom: There’s not a “feat.” to be seen in that artist credit: it’s all three of them working together. Surely this can’t be anything but brilliant?

Tim: Well, certainly not if you’re a fan of at least two of them.

Tom: Ah, damn. That’s basically a Little Mix album track, isn’t it?

Tim: Hmm. I always really want to like Ariana Grande tracks, though that’s mostly just because she has a name that sounds like a font. Music-wise, I’ve never found a song that fits with me.

Tom: Don’t get me wrong: the voices can’t be faulted. They’re all brilliant performers at the top of their game. And while all the ingredients are there: big-band instruments, vocal harmonies, a middle eight from one of the few rappers who can pull off a decent middle eight… it’s just a fairly dull song.

Tim: Possibly – not sure, this is really not a genre I’m a fan of. It’s certainly true that technically I can’t fault it, but also that there’s nothing there to get me going.

Tom: The production’s great. The vocals are great. But the actual song itself just ain’t up to it.

Mimi Oh – Skvaller

“Standard Chord Progressions”

Tim: The lyrics to this are in foreign —

Tom: Swedish, technically.

Tim: — but we’re told that they’re “about how we humans love to gossip but still have a very hard time delivering it to the person in context,” so feel free to bear that in mind. (Oh, and ‘Skvaller’ = ‘gossip’.)

Tom: I’m not sure what I think of this. The verses are a bit dull, and as for the rest…

Tim: I think that, by far and away, the choruses are the high point of this. They’re big and loud, with a sense of “we’re talking, I don’t care who knows it”, so I suppose in gossip terms that’s a bit dull because it’s either plainly true or they’ll say “no it isn’t” and then it’s all over.

Tom: There are Standard Chord Progressions in those choruses, which means that they seem comforting and familiar — but there’s nothing more than that to back them up. I’m just not sold on this.

Tim: The verses have a subversive quality to them, which I suppose translates more to stuff that gets passed around but never directly addressed. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know where I’m going with this, and I think it’s a good example of why every song should have lyrics published online so I don’t end up overanalysing and spouting all sorts of bollocks like this. Back to the beginning, and: music good, especially the chorus which is fun, and the song’s great. End of.

Tom: Mm. Not so much “end of” as “sputtering out in a half-arsed fashion” if you ask me.

Tim: DISAGREE. But fine.

Fender Heist feat. Monika May – Move With The Sirens

“That’s an aubergine.”

Tom: Norwegian electropop?

Tim: Yes, yes it is.

Tom: Oh crikey. That pitch-shifting drone in the background of the chorus is rather good, isn’t it?

Tim: The snare drum sounds on that chorus make it sound rather military, and I like that in a dance track because it almost forces movement, especially combining with the various going/moving lyrics in the chorus, and as far as I’m concerned where there’s movement there’s excitement and pleasure (and not just in the world of dance music IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN 🍆 ).

Tom: That’s an aubergine, for anyone who’s not got emoji enabled.

Tim: Basically we have a nice melody, a good energetic vocal that doesn’t really want you to stay sitting down, some great beats behind it and an all round good tune. And a perfect opportunity to write 🍆. Everything you need, really.

Saturday Flashback: John Legend – All Of Me (Tiësto Remix)

“Get Tiësto to stick a donk on it, it works”

Tim: Almost every single time, I really hate the way that the SoundCloud website forces a new track on you immediately after you’ve listened to the one you want. Almost, that is, because for the first time ever I got one I actually liked: this one, after hearing Thursday’s track.

Tom: That’s exactly what happened to me: and I was going to send this track to you, except you got there first.

https://soundcloud.com/mixmasterscottyb/john-legend-all-of-me-tiesto

Tim: John Legend tracks are typically fantastically miserable – Ordinary People was a textbook example, and the original of this one got boring after about a minute. Turns out, though, that if you get Tiësto along to stick a donk on it, it works out alright – who’d have thought it?

Tom: Tiesto tends to add a lot of original material to remixes – fortunately, his original material’s damn good.

Tim: I don’t have much to say about it – just that I’m fairly sure I ignored it when it came out a few months back, so thanks SoundCloud! You’ve made my life great! But seriously, can we have a way to turn that off please?