Da Buzz – Can You Feel The Love

“Flood damage? I’ve got my SUMMER DANCE ON.”

Tim: Before you get your hopes up, this is not a danced-up version of the Lion King classic. Because that would have a Tonight on the end. Though it does have a Tonight in the lyrics. Oh, just have a listen.

Tom: That’s… well, it’s competent. It’s certainly not Elton, though.

Tim: Well, no. What it is instead is a (possibly three months too early) summer party banger that is absolutely and entirely what I feel like hearing right now, though I’m not sure I knew it. Rain? Flood damage? Transport chaos? Pah. I’ve got my SUMMER DANCE ON, and I’m forgetting about that, putting this on loud and having fun instead, dreaming of being up all night and in the Mediterranean. PARTY.

Tom: It certainly has that sort of association, but it’s a mid-set “keep the dance floor churning” track to me, something to be mixed into a big set, rather than a standout track on its own. There’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s nothing outstanding about it either — even that key change seemed a little prosaic, and that’s a bold thing to say about a key change.

Tim: Incidentally, if you did get your hopes up at the start and do want a danced-up version of the Lion King classic, you could do far worse than to hear this version by Harajuku. And please, do that. It’s wonderful. Or wonderfully awful. I don’t know which.

Tom: Ooh, bonus points for using Elton’s original lyrics, but Almighty Records’ version – it’s on Spotify – was obviously much better. In fact, just put that whole album on instead.

JTR – Ride

“What pretty much every boyband song has been ever since What Makes You Beautiful arrived”

Tim: What do you know, it’s a new boyband to fill the void left by The Wanted. Three brothers (John, Tom and Robin – clever name, right?), Sweden-born and Australian X Factor 2013 alumni. Fancy a listen?

Tim: And that is basically…well, what pretty much every boyband-with-instruments song has been ever since What Makes You Beautiful arrived.

Tom: Except this actually has the “useless record scratch” effect, last heard in Mmmbop. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Tim: It is possible that we’ve reached boyband saturation point? Synth-based The United aside, there’s really not much at all to distinguish between this lot, The Vamps, Lawson, The Fooo, Union J, Satin Circus, Youngblood and however many more; one notable exception there, because they’ve now ditched this and recently came out with a fair old racket.

There really is nothing new or original to be said about this song. (Actually, that sentence would work just as well without “to be said”.) It’s good to listen to, it could have come from any one of a number of bands, it’ll probably sell to a legion of fans calling themselves, I dunno, JTaRds? That’d work.

Tom: Oh dear. That’s not a good name, but I can see it sticking.

Tim: Meh. As you were.

Gravitonas feat. Army of Lovers – People Are Lonely

“Reassuring miserable folks everywhere”

Tim: Two Alexander Bard projects joining forces here, coming out with a sound that’s exactly along the lines of what you think it’d be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5O9_gMMLaQ

Tim: “People are lonely.” What a wonderful message to send out, reassuring miserable folks everywhere that actually everybody’s the same. I suppose there are two ways to play it out – very upbeat and happy, with a “we’re all like this, let’s revel in it!” or a gloomy number that just plays to the nihilist in us all. Since neither Gravitonas nor Army of Lovers typically go in for happy pop, we get this, which works just as well as any smile-on-your-face track would, right down to the Pet Shops Boys style spoken bit in the middle eight. In fact, the whole thing’s got a slight Pet Shop Boys feel to it, and it’s really very enjoyable indeed, despite it also being thoroughly miserable.

Saturday Reject: Elisa Lindström – Casanova

“That song IS Melodifestivalen.”

Tim: THIRTEEN WEEKS TO GO, THOMAS!

Tom: BRING IT ON!

Tim: For those that weren’t with us last year, this is the part of year when we scour the various national competitions to weed out the songs that are very good, but apparently just aren’t quite good enough to be sent forth to represent their nation. God only knows how this one wasn’t good enough, but it came sixth in last week’s Melodifestivalen heat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0OSxRa6DO0

Tim: Because seriously, that song IS Melodifestivalen. The lights, the confetti, the generous key change —

Tom: The wind machine. Oh, that wind machine.

Tim: — the beat-perfect choreography and most of all the aggression in it. Not an angry aggression, not an unpleasant one – instead, a performance that states, in no uncertain terms, that THIS IS POP. This is MUSICAL PERFECTION. This is UNBEATABLE.

Tom: You say “unbeatable”, but…

Tim: Sadly, Sweden disagreed.

Tom: Yep. We’ve established before that schlager doesn’t really do well at the final. Are they right to reject it as a winner? Probably. Does it deserve to be abandoned? Hell no.

Kristina Maria – Move Like A Soldier

“Then that hit, and I started paying attention again.”

Tim: This a great track, from a Canadian 24-year-old; annoyingly there’s no decent YouTube version of it (this one’s a radio rip and doesn’t finish properly, and there’s one that’s sped up by about 20%) but there’s a good version of it here, so listen to that if you want to experience it fully.

Tim: And I bet you didn’t expect that drop, did you?

Tom: Blimey, no. I’d actually got distracted by that point in the track and tabbed off to something else — and then that hit, and I started paying attention again.

Tim: It made me realise I’m actually quite a sucker for a big female vocal with an equally big two-step chorus, because I also recently found out about another excellent track from a Faroese singer, which we’ll get to in due course, but mainly there’s THIS. The underlying dance line is pretty good already, and her voice on top is, well actually it’s exactly the sort of voice that would have done well on Krista Siegfrid’s track we did a few days ago – big, bold, and easily able to complement the heavy backing.

Tom: And “Instead of letting me down, I should be feeling you up” is a brilliant lyric even if it doesn’t quite make sense.

Tim: It is. This track is wonderful, and I would love to dance to it.

Medina – Jalousi

“Despite being quite acousticy it doesn’t actually ever really get dull”

Tim: Danish for you now, with a title that translates as, believe it or not…

Tom: “Yes, lousy”?

Tim: Jealousy.

Tim: It’s very much not standard Medina, who typically does either big dance numbers or big downer tracks.

Tom: Huh. This is almost exactly in the middle of those two.

Tim: It is, yes – considerably middle of the road, and despite the other two options possibly being more enjoyable for us, this is still enjoyable enough. Certainly stands up to multiple plays, which is generally what matters. A good pop track, which despite being quite acousticy doesn’t actually ever really get dull, so well done there.

Tom: There’s some lovely moments in that chorus, enough to keep the song going — and that middle eight’s an interesting choice that works really well.

Tim: Indeed. Though if you want to bring back the big dance numbers, do feel free at any time.

Naomi Pilgrim – Rainmakers

“I have a lot of time for the chorus on this.”

Tim: So here’s some typically melancholy electropop for you, from Sweden, and it’s the title track of Naomi’s debut EP.

Tom: Strong, almost MGMT-like beat on there. That’s pretty good.

Tim: I have a lot of time for the chorus on this, which is nice because to be honest the rest leaves me feeling a bit cold.

Tom: I can see how you have that reaction, but it worked fairly well — perhaps, again, because it sounded like MGMT at first glance.

Tim: In fact, I was all ready to give up on it by the time we got halfway through the first verse, but then the lovely chorus came along and suddenly made things alright again. It’s arguably a bit too long, with the primary culprit being that middle eight, somewhat tedious as it is. On the other hand, when that lovely chorus comes back in and gets swaying all over the place I can’t help but somewhat forgive it.

Krista Siegfrids – Cinderella

“I couldn’t criticise her for not giving it everything”

Tim: Tom’s off again today, but he will no doubt remember Krista, the bride-to-be who’s been haunting his dreams for the past twelve months. Over the weekend, she appeared once again on Finland’s Eurovision selection program, but this time just to show off her new single. (Performance here.)

Tim: There’s not a massive amount to it, or at least there doesn’t seem to be, and that’s kind of a problem. There’s no way I could criticise her for not giving it everything she’s got with those big notes, but I think the song almost needs someone with a voice to handle those better. Compare this to, say, Unconditionally, and I can’t help feeling that her vocal hasn’t quite got the capability this song deserves – the big drawn out bits stop too quickly, really, when I’ve got a feeling they’d sound better if they were held out for a few more seconds. I don’t know. It’s decent enough, but may have had a little more potential.

Jannika B – Jääkausi

Those must be some very impressive lyrics.

Tom: Jacuzzi?

Tim: Not quite, no – if you can’t guess from the dots in the title (and you apparently can’t), this is Finnish pop, somewhat on the melancholy side but rather enjoyable.

Tom: Now, see, I’m in the US right now, and that appears to be pretty comprehensively geoblocked for me. Care to sum up?

Tim: Well, if you’d heard it you’d probably be thinking, what the hell happened there to make that key change happen, and those must be some very impressive lyrics. Well, I was, and fortunately there’s a rather competent Finnish lyric website and online translating tool available. Well, sort of – it choked a bit and is somewhat incomprehensible, but I did get that Jääkausi means Ice Age, and she’s singing to someone who she’s just realised isn’t going to change, and because of him she’s the goddess of persuasion.

I don’t really know, but basically, DRAMA. In case you didn’t get that from the music, and OH WHAT MUSIC. Nothing really happens until the first chorus (as is standard), but then it KICKS OFF. We all know I’m not generally one for an extended outro, but here I could listen to that last minute for at least another five.

Saturday Flashback: Sarah Dawn Finer – Moving On

“River Song?”

Tim: In 2008, Melodifestivalen celebrated its fiftieth birthday; sensing an clear opportunity for a cash-in, two weeks ago SVT released a ‘Best of’ compilation with 5 hours of tracks, and GOSH IT’S BRILLIANT.

Tom: Hold on, two weeks ago? That took a while. But that said, I’ve got to respect a five-hour schlager compilation.

Tim: Some of it, admittedly, stands up now as utter tripe, such as this, 1965’s victor. On the other hand, most of it’s like this, which took 6th place in 2009.

Tom: River Song?

Tim: I see where you’re coming from, but no – Sarah Dawn Finer, better known to a lot of non-Swedes recently as the person behind Lynda Woodruff. But she started out in music, and what a prime example of music this is.

There are a lot of good things that can be said about this, even before we get to the music: the way starts by pretending to be the god that makes the sun come up, the wind machine dialled up as high as it’ll go, and then some, the way she winks to the camera, the zombies that close in on the camera as she moves over, with a determined look on her face, to the highlight of the staging: that INCREDIBLE plinth, in case we hadn’t got enough of the deity idea already.

Tom: That is a hell of a bit of staging. And as for the music?

Tim: Oh yes, and it’s about as good a “pick yourself up and get going” power ballad as you’re going to find anywhere.

Tom: I’m not quite sure about that odd ticking noise in the first verse, and I’m sure there’s a vibraslap cameo in there somewhere. I’m also not quite sure whether it’s actually a decent song, but it’s certainly putting the effort in.

Tim: Basically, what an excellent entry it was.