Cars & Calories – To The Extreme

“Just very specific parts I dislike.”

Tom: To the “EXTREME”? I’ll warn you, Tim: if that’s the chorus hook I’m going to have issues with this.

Tim: We’ve written about Cars & Calories before, and had generally very positive things to say about them; you’ll be please to know that I don’t think this’ll change that much.

Tim: Bad bit out of the way: the first verse, with not much to focus on except the auto-tuned voice, which I find incredibly 2009 and rather unpleasant.

Tom: Yep, I pretty much tuned out for that. It’s monotonous, and not a good way — it picks up a bit on the pre-chorus, I’ll give it that.

Tim: Right — 45 seconds in, other stuff happens and that’s all forgotten. The melody picks up, the instruments kick in properly, and then a bit later that chorus melody hits properly and blimey is it something of an earworm. A good earworm, and overall a good track.

Tom: Oh, and that’s where we disagree. The combination of inane lyrics and autotune just grates really badly for me. And that’s a shame, because you’re absolutely right: overall, it’s a really good track. It just has very specific parts I dislike.

Tim: I’d like an album next, I think. That’d do me well.

Thomas Stenström – Slå mig hårt i ansiktet

“Hit Me Hard In The Face”

Tim: Another from the inbox, and apparently Thomas lied all the time when he was young and had emotional weirdness, and he now feels a bit guilty. This song, whose title translates as ‘Hit Me Hard In The Face’ is about that.

Tom: Strong title.

Tom: Well, there’s a lot of clapping there. The video is, sadly, terrible: it looks like someone amateur lipsyncing along to a professional’s track. There’s a reason most music videos are filmed either in fast or slow motion, or at least with some actual tech skills.

Mind you, the fact I’m calling it “professional” does speak well for the track.

Tim: The main repeating lyric in the chorus is an extended version of the title, and is “Hit me hard on the face so I can feel that I’m alive./Shoot me here and now, because now I can die.” Basically it’s a song about wanting to feel something, to the extent that it says “I just want to feel something” three times, and wants to pulled over a gravel path. (And also, yes, you can hear the English line “the lion sleeps tonight”.)

Tom: Hmm. I quite like that, as a theme.

Tim: Something of a downer, you might say, but I think you’d be wrong because actually I think it’s a great track.

Tom: Agreed: that chorus is really rather nice.

Tim: The hand claps and instrumental backing of it actually make it seem a very happy track, which I’ve just listened to four times in a row, and the only thing that annoys me about it is the 22 seconds of silence at the beginning of this video because I have to wait each time. Aside from that, it’s all great.

Resistor – Narcissist

“Like someone trying to do the Divine Comedy and Frank Sidebottom at the same time”

Tim: Here’s one that got e-mailed to us, by an American synthpop guy; the video was described in the e-mail as “LOL-tastic” so there you go.

Tom: Wow, that’s pretty high on the list of “words that’ll turn me against something before I’ve seen it”.

Tim: Me too, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway.

Tim: And that’s that. Not sure I’d go with entirely “LOL-tastic”, but I do get the idea and more importantly I like the music.

Tom: Really? Because I don’t. It’s like someone trying to do the Divine Comedy and Frank Sidebottom at the same time and missing terribly.

Tim: Oh. See, the way I see it, it’s got a good chorus hook to it, and one that, by the end of the song has almost got me swaying as I’m typing this; a decent enough sign, I reckon. The verses aren’t hugely interesting, and occasionally seem a tad dreary, but the middle eight I do like, with the interesting musical base underneath the singing and the extended plain instrumental. Basically, I’ll take it.

Tom: The middle eight’s the only bit that stuck out for me, but other than that: I’d class it as “a good effort, but not a pop song yet”.

Tim: His debut album, First World Problems, is out now and is “concerned with fame and the artistic process, born of frustration, delivered as a joke, but with the truth lurking underneath”, so that sounds fun doesn’t it.

Tom: It sounds like something.

Saturday Flashback: Ace of Base – Life Is A Flower

“It’s just such a happy track.”

Tim: I woke up early this morning, and after a while my mind wondered to what song we could write about today, and then my alarm went off, and a massive smile appeared on my face. Because it’s this song. This wonderful, wonderful song.

Tom: Let’s see, it was 1998 when this came out. I’ve got a particular memory associated with this: Ingoldmells, of all places, on a double-decker bus with some friends. I think someone was throwing paper airplanes out of the slightly-open rear window.

Tim: That’s, er, yes, quite a particular memory. I myself offer a different story: I can’t remember now who it was, but a while back someone mentioned that this was their pick-me-up track, their go-to track for when they’re feeling a bit low, and I didn’t think much at the time, and then a while ago I was in need of a track like that, and I remembered it, and WOW. Because it’s just such a happy track.

Tom: Apart from that middle-eight: I don’t know why, but it never really worked for me. But yes, it’s a classic for good reason.

Tim: Oh, multiple reasons. The lyrics: not only is life a wonderful flower, but “we live in a free world”, and just “carry on smiling, and the world will smile with you”. The music: that lovely flowing intro, the strings underneath. The background chanting at the end. Even the video, with the flower dye (God, I’d love it if that were a real thing). I just find it near impossible to listen to without smiling; if I do find myself not smiling, well, I listen to it again. And again. And again, for good measure.

Tom: And if you get bored? The US version, which has different lyrics, different instrumentation, a different key and — crucially — a fixed middle eight. It’s not better, mind: it’s just different.

Tim: Oh. Oh, my. I don’t…oh. Huh.

Martin Stenmarck – Sommarbarn

“Gosh, that’s enjoyable. Or irritating.”

Tim: According to Google, Sommarbarn either means ‘in summer’, ‘summer beach’ or ‘summer child’, but I’m not sure which it is here.

Tom: Well, that’s helpful.

Tim: You’re welcome. And Tom, I’d advise you skip the first eight seconds.

Tom: Kids’ choir, I guess?

Tim: Gosh, that’s enjoyable. Or irritating, I can see why some people might find it irritating if they’re not keen on the whistling, or find the kids backing up the chorus distracting. In fact to be honest I’ve heard it just twice and both of those things are starting to grate on me now I’ve thought about them that way.

Tom: Ah, see you’re just one listen behind me there.

Tim: The first time I heard it, though, I really liked it, so I suppose what we have here is a song that we can all hear once and then never really want to hear again.

Tom: I’d agree with you there.

Tim: A clear success story, then.

Adelén – Olé

THE FOOTBALL WILL NEVER END.

Tim: There’s a lot of football around at the moment.

Tom: THE FOOTBALL WILL NEVER END.

Tim: — even if Brazil might not be ready for it, the music world certainly is, with a whole album out. We’ve already covered the Ricky Martin track, and we won’t be going anywhere near the main track, because it’s by Pitbull and is not even worth linking to, but this track by notable Norwegian Adelén is worth a listen or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpl-YFHUw4k

Tim: Well let’s dissect this then. Intro: very promising indeed.

Tom: That’s just because they’re using “na na na hey hey”, like dozens of tracks before them — and like a lot of football chants.

Tim: Verses: rather disappointing. Pre-chorus with the ‘my name is Adelén’: likewise. Actual chorus: really very good indeed with its euphoric backing and proper singing.

Tom: Right! Because, again, it’s an old and popular track. Everything else about the track is just a ‘meh’, sadly.

Tim: I don’t know – post-chorus is also excellent, with a lovely melody and a nice chantable bit. And the middle-eight: once again very good, especially once the build starts to come in halfway through. From that point on, it’s all just wonderful, and vastly, vastly better than that Pitbull tripe that somehow is leading the pack.

Tom: Oh, completely agreed — it’s just, you know, a not-particularly-good remix of an old track.

Tim: Damn you, FIFA.

Ola Salo feat. Kleerup – I Got You

“A bit of late-90s-Matrix-electronica about it”

Tim: Ola Salo, frontman of The Ark.

Tom: Him off the 2007 Swedish Eurovision entry! Good start.

Tim: Also Kleerup, a producer who we’ve not featured previously. Together, the official Stockholm Pride 2014 song.

Tim: It starts out as a bit of a racket, but soon becomes really very good indeed.

Tom: Bit of a racket? That’s a brilliant start: it’s got a bit of late-90s-Matrix-electronica about it, and I’d say it’s a damn sight better than that first verse.

Tim: Well yes, because if I’m be honest: the verses somewhat washed over me, partly because there’s not much to them and partly because whilst trying to listen to it I got distracted and started trying to find somewhere I could buy this GLORIOUS cover of Let It Go.

Tom: It is a good cover. But let me guess…

Tim: Regardless of how distracted I got, that chorus kept permeating my brain, because it’s just great.

Tom: Agreed. That is everything you want from a chorus in a song like this: the melody line is gorgeous, and the rest of the instrumentation — and that voice — back it up well.

Tim: Great in itself, and great as a message for a Pride festival. It’s raucous, it’s powerful, it’s a clear statement, and it’s just marvellous.

Zara Larsson – Carry You Home

“Nearly two minutes is a heck of a long time for what is, essentially, an introduction.”

Tom: CB writes in with this, and simply adds “Amazing”.

Tim: I don’t think I’d disagree too much with that.

Tom: Now, I’m a sucker for an Americana music video, as I’ve mentioned before — but the build on this, both in terms of music and picture, was slow enough and repetitive enough that it started to lose me. Nearly two minutes is a heck of a long time for what is, essentially, an introduction.

Tim: I don’t know, I was thinking that coming up to a minute in, but when the pre-chorus hit I was reassured it was building enough and that it’d likely be worth waiting for. Turns out: I was right.

Tom: So I wouldn’t go so far as ‘amazing’. There are moments in here where it promises to be amazing — that return from the chorus, for a start — but at four minutes it just overstays its welcome. Production’s great, her voice is great… but the old saying “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” is still true.

Tim: Hmm…yes, alright. I would appreciate a bit more, say jumping in halfway through the verse. From that point on, though, I’m very happy with this indeed.

Helena Paparizou – Don’t Hold Back On Love

“What a chorus, really.”

Tim: Fresh from providing us with this year’s best Melodifestivalen entry, she’s following up with this rather great number.

Tom: I still can’t see her last name without thinking of Papa Lazarou out of the League of Gentlemen.

Tim: Oh… 🙁

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-41US89HB0

Tim: What a chorus, really. And what a tune underneath it. And what an everything, really. A song about giving love everything you’ve got, and a song that musically does exactly that.

Tom: Ooh, I’m not sure about that. It is a good chorus, I’ll grant you that, but it’s not going to light up a dance floor — and that verse just lost my attention.

Tim: Probably not light up a dance floor, no – but I reckon it’d do very well as a getting worked up tune, before your night starts BANGING.

Tom: And what’s with that odd “la la la” middle eight? It’s like several different bits of song all glued together.

Tim: I don’t know, I think it works. It’s very much headed back to the dancefloor following the power-pop that was Survivor, is out now in Greece and presumably she’s hoping it’ll be a big dance hit over the summer. I certainly hope it will, so here’s to not holding back, right?

Tom: I just wish the writers hadn’t.

Saturday Flashback: The Bloody Beetroots & Greta Svabo Bech – Chronicles of a Fallen Love

“Bloody hell.”

Tom: The Bloody Beetroots? That’s a heck of a name.

Tim: Yes, that is what these Italians call themselves, and unusually the producers and the singer are getting equal billing. But enough of the formalities: I heard this on Teen Wolf a few months back, while we were in the middle of Rejects season, so here it is now because I really like it.

Tom: Crikey, I got distracted and drifted off during the first bit of that, only to be suddenly startled by that instrumental bit. Bloody hell.

Tim: First off: points for the video, as I do like it when the camera cuts match the beat of the music, and it annoys me that it doesn’t happen more often.

Tom: It’s a stylistic choice: some directors and editors will prefer to make a film with a soundtrack, rather than the other way around. Either can work.

Tim: Now the main part: you might remember a couple of weeks ago we had a track that was similar to this – female vocalist on a fairly quiet verse, big thumping beats to the chorus.

Tom: Yep, and I remember thinking that it was rather good while you didn’t like it.

Tim: Back then I found it almost unpleasant, and I don’t know why, but I don’t find this anywhere near as jarring. It might just be that it’s not quite as intense – in fact it probably is that because I could listen to this quite a lot, whereas I got tired of the previous after a few listens. A lot of that, I think, is the way the top synth line often sounds vocal-y – it almost serves to relax the track a bit. Either way, or neither, GREAT STUFF.