Pixie Lott – Lay Me Down

“Surprisingly flatulent-sounding brass section”

Tom: This one’s sent in by a reader, who says “didn’t like it at first, but it’s all good between us now”, which I think implies a somewhat closer relationship to Pixie Lott than one would otherwise suspect.

Tim: Perhaps a briefly disappointed father?

Tom: I wasn’t sold on this either until that surprisingly flatulent-sounding brass section hit, along with the whistling and woah-ohs that came along in the middle eight. It’s like they steadily built everything up, in order to make the final chorus properly exciting.

Tim: Hmm – similarly with you, I wasn’t hooked at first, but dissimilarly, I got it at the first chorus, and after that thought it was great, both with and without the flatulence. As for the build up? Well, that’s the point really isn’t it, and it certainly does build up because ‘properly exciting’ is a very good way to describe that last chorus.

Tom: Pity it took so long to get there, though.

Tim: Seems we have have different ideas about where ‘there’ is.

Saturday Flashback: Porter Robinson – Sea of Voices

“It’s five minutes long, and most of it’s build, but…”

Tom: I need you to listen to this one without distraction, Tim. Headphones on, sit back, and listen. It’s five minutes long, and most of it’s build, but…

Tom: …it has been a long, long time since a song has made me exclaim out loud, and this did that. That build, that drop, everything, absolutely bloody everything to do with this.

Tim: Good lord, man, do you need to go somewhere to clean yourself up now?

Tom: Oh, come on, compared to the gushing praise you’ve given tracks before, that’s practically restrained.

Tim: Maybe, though I do often need to go and clean myself up. You’re right, it is very nice. Pretty, almost. The sort of music a developer might use in a trailer to show off the beautiful artwork in a new game.

Tom: Ouch, that’s harsh. It’s pretty good to listen on its own.

Tim: Oh, it’s in no way a criticism – actually meant as a compliment, because some trailers are lovely.

Tom: Porter Robinson dropped this, his own track, in the middle of his two-hour, astonishing, genre-clashing Essential Mix a few weeks ago, and it’s been haunting me since. I don’t even want to listen to it too much, in case it spoils the magic. Right now, listening to it as I write this, it sent shivers up my spine one more time, and I don’t want it to lose that ability.

Tim: Hmm. I see exactly why it would do that, and why you’d feel that. Can’t say it grabs me in exactly the same manner, but I’ll grant you it’s a very nice listen.

Tom: This isn’t dancefloor EDM — this is the pinnacle of electronic music as art, and it’s beautiful.

Tim: This is not just music. This is Porter Robinson music.

3Logy – The Banjo

Just as good as Wake Me Up.

Tim: Let’s pretend we plan this sort of thing in advance and follow up from the past couple of days with this. Much like Wednesday, it’s Norwegian and a tad silly, and like yesterday it features a typically irritating instrument.

Tom: “Play that banjo” and “lose control” are not really phrases that go together.

Tim: The verses are comprised of entirely standard and generic lyrics, and then we hit the chorus and start singing rapturously about the banjo. Because, in this age of farmhouse music, that’s exactly what we’re meant to do. Is it silly? Of course it is. Does that stop it being a decent track? Not really, no.

Tom: It’s a moderately good track, sure, but ‘standard and generic’ still sums it up — apart from that banjo part, which admittedly sets it apart.

Tim: If you get your kicks listening to Avicii’s Wake Me Up, then as far as I can tell this is just as good so you should be fine.

Tom: What the hell? No it’s not. It’s no Wake Me Up. It follows the same formula, but in much the same way as a 1980s Lada follows the same “four wheels and a steering wheel” formula as a Porsche.

Tim: Maybe, but wherever you gets Porsches, you’re going to get Ladas – this is what society gets if it starts embracing genre mix-ups, isn’t it. SLIPPERY SLOPE. You only have yourselves to blame, all of you.

Tim: But anyway, the intro also sounds a bit like Aqua’s My Oh My, and that’s always a bonus.

Kate Havnevik – Micronation

“They’re just SUCH POINTLESS INSTRUMENTS.”

Tim: Sometimes, I would love it if I didn’t hate ukuleles as much as I do. Take this, for example.

Tim: Because, dammit, that’s really quite a lovely track, with the chorus going on about pirates (no idea why) and a lovely string following section.

Tom: Now, that’s where we disagree. Because the ukulele perked me up, but after that it all just sort of descended into a bit of a background mush.

Tim: It seems we do disagree, yes, because the intro with the solo strumming? God, it kills me, and makes me want to skip the entire track. They’re just SUCH POINTLESS INSTRUMENTS.

Tom: There’s someone who’s never listened to Me First and the Gimme Gimmes doing I Believe I Can Fly.

Tim: Oh, fine, yes, they have their uses. But here? No. Coming back to the second verse it’s not so bad, because there are other bits there that I can pay attention to, and like I said everything about the chorus and what follows it is lovely. When it gets going, I love it. I just really, really hate that intro.

Anders Nilsen – Salsa Tequila

“Oh I shouldn’t be laughing at this, but I am.”

Tim: Right, thinks this Norwegian. Let’s have the summer’s biggest dance tune, with all the right bits: accordion, saxophone, Spanish, the works. Except I don’t really speak Spanish. Oh well, no-one else really does either, do they?

Tom: Oh I shouldn’t be laughing at this, but I am. Maybe it’s just that it’s late and I’m sleep deprived.

Tim: So, with this just about coming down on the right side of the ‘likely to cause offence’ line, here we have all the Spanish words that everybody knows (though I’m fairly sure that calamari’s Italian, but never mind), which means we can also sing along.

Tom: It’s that Pitbull-style “Dale” that gets me.

Tim: Yes, I think the vocals in that section are my favourite too. Thing is, novelty though it may be, I really like this as a proper track. Because it does have everything the summer’s biggest dance tune would need, really, and while we could extrapolate a whole load of cynicism from that conclusion about commercial music being nothing more than a set formula with a little bit of variation here and there, this is actually done pretty well. And best of all, it’s funny without being annoying.

Tom: It still fails my main criterion for song parodies, which is that the longest they should last is one verse and one chorus — unless you’ve got really, really good jokes. Repeating it into a full song only works if you’ve got an absolutely cracking track. This nearly hits that mark. Nearly.

Tim: See, I think it is an absolutely cracking track. Top marks.

Dream Lake – Let Us Stay In The Light

“”Soft and fluffy” is my criteria for a pillow, not for a song.”

Tim: Tom, stop what you’re doing, push play, sit back and close your eyes.

Tom: This had better not start screaming death metal at me ninety seconds in.

Tim: Don’t worry, just relax.

Tim: And isn’t that lovely? Actually, I don’t really know why I wrote that as a question, because it is.

Tom: Well, yes, but “soft and fluffy” is my criteria for a pillow, not for a song. And even then, it’s possible to be too soft and fluffy.

Tim: Lovely, wonderful, dreamy synthpop, with gentle piano, easy drumbeat, vocals that sound like they’re coming from some higher plane, video that’s not out yet but going by this teaser for it will be along the same lines. It’s just all wonderful.

Tom: This sounds a bit like…

Tim: Relaxing, charming, dreamy dreamy dreamy I WANT MORE STUFF FROM SOUND OF ARROWS.

Tom: …and there it is.

Miss Li – I Finally Found It

“It’s big, it’s full-on brass bandy, it’s JOYOUS.”

Tim: This is off the soundtrack for a new Swedish film, and it’s bloody brilliant.

Tom: Brass section! There’s a brass section!

Tim: There’s a BIG brass section, and it’s all HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. It’s big, it’s full-on brass bandy, it’s JOYOUS. On my first hearing, I did think the first chorus, especially the first part, sounded a bit off – she’s shouting ecstatically at the top of her voice, but the backing isn’t quite there enough to match it.

Tom: Really? Because…

Tim: Well, yes, on hearing it again, I’m wondering how I could have thought that because of course it is, but anyway.

Tom: Right. The Björk-like vocals could be incredibly grating, but somehow they’re not; they’re a perfect match for the song and instrumentation.

Tim: The rest of it just keeps building up and up; by the time the second chorus arrives we’re right in the swing of things and nothing could be ever possibly of being too quiet. The middle eight gives exactly that sense – a feeling of being swept along, moving forward, just CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC and when we get to that triumphant climax there’s literally nothing I can think of that would improve this song. As the song is, it’s perfect.

Saturday Flashback: The Killers – Human

“More than makes up for last week’s awful ukelele.”

Tim: Last Saturday I moaned about a track on the work playlist that made me grumpy. This week, let’s have a track from it that everybody can entirely agree is fully brilliant.

Tom: Oh, man, I have so many good memories of this song.

Tim: Because for all that I love europop and key changes and that – man, this is just wonderful. So what if the chorus doesn’t make much sense? And so what if it probably doesn’t need those last couple of chorus lines at the end? Because just everything else.

Tom: It’s difficult for me to give any kind of unbiased view of this track, because I have so much associated with it. But what stands out for me is that… you know, I don’t have the musical knowledge to explain what it is, but whatever key change happens during that middle eight. That. More of that, please.

Tim: The melody and the instruments, the earnest singing, the everything – it’s just fantastic, and more than makes up for last week’s awful ukelele.

Isac Elliot – Baby I

“He’s basically a foetus.”

Tim: I’ll warn you, the first 15 seconds are not a good start to the song from this 14½ year old, but fortunately nor are they much of an indicator of what’s to come so be sure to stick with it.

Tom: Literally half my age. For crying out loud. He’s basically a foetus.

Tim: Yep. But, while he’s not yet learned to shave, he does have some fairly generic things to say about a possible break-up.

Tom: And those are a terrible fifteen seconds, enough for me to strongly dislike that first verse as well. I was about to dismiss it entirely, and then…

Tim: And then, once those rubbishy r&b autotuney bits get out of the way, this is a thumpingly good pop track, led by that wonderful descending line in the chorus and backed up by the good beats behind it, the rest of chorus surrounding it, the earnest middle eight and even, dare I say it, the vwomping bits in the background which link the song all together.

Tom: “Vwomping bits” is a good name for the mock-dubstep production we’re seeing lately. And I completely agree: after that chorus, even the verses were suddenly much more interesting. It’s a really good pop track. I found myself nodding my head along in the office, which is unusual for me.

Tim: Normally I’d want to write a bit more, and to be honest this probably deserves a good few more words, but really, I’ve said all that needs to be said: it’s just brilliant.

Tom: One more note: interesting use of what appears to be a 1980s cassette dictaphone and non-smartphones in that video, too. He probably wasn’t born when they came out.

Josh Record – Wide Awake

“The kind of thing that’d appear in a proper art gallery.”

Tim: “Poignant yet somewhat uplifting, if that’s possible,” says CB from Brazil. “That soaring chorus is just perfect!”

Tom: Firstly, that’s a gorgeous video. This is the kind of video that justifies music videos as an art form: that’s the kind of thing that’d appear in a proper art gallery.

Tim: Secondly: for a song that’s titled Wide Awake, those verses did an astonishingly good job of sending me to sleep.

Tom: Now, as for that chorus: I think ‘soaring’ oversold it a little. It’s not bad by any means — it certainly stood out in an overly-downbeat song. Poignant yet uplifting is right: the melody if happy, the instrumentation is sad.

Tim: It stood out, yes, but for me only because the rest of it is just a tad tedious. I get that it’s a downbeat song and doesn’t want to be overly excited and happy or anything, but jeez, give us something to keep us out of a coma.

Tom: An interesting combination, sung wonderfully, and I find myself leaving it the way I leave a lot of art exhibitions: glad I saw it, with no great desire to immediately go back, but slightly better for the experience.

Tim: Slightly more well-rested, anyway.