Saturday Flashback: Lindsey Stirling – Elements

Tim: I found this from the sidebar videos next to the Adrian Lux track we did a few days ago, and was intrigued by the description in the title of ‘Dubstep Violin’. Have a listen.

Tom: Ah! Lindsey Stirling. YouTube star, with astonishingly good production values.

Tim: And you know, I actually quite like it, in the sense of, “Ooh, that works. I’d not thought it would.” It’s a weird combination, but arguably no more so than symphonic metal, and that’s brilliant if you’re in the mood for it. Maybe it’s the novelty that keeps me listening, but the violin has a fairly soothing effect on top of the harsh dubstep grinding so I can listen to it easily enough.

Tom: It doesn’t last for me. Maybe I’m just used to pop tracks with vocals? It’s nice, I guess, but it needs to be the soundtrack to something else.

Tim: Perhaps, and I suppose that might be where the aforementioned production values come into it – if you’re standing in pouring rain, or surrounded by fire, or in the middle of an ice cave, you could just let the music accompany the scenery.

She herself was on America’s Got Talent a few years back; got through to the quarter-finals even though apparently Piers Morgan wasn’t a fan, and has since then gone on to do lots – she even has her own iPhone app, so that told him.

Tim: True, but so does T-Pain. That’s no guarantee of quality.

Tom: Hmm. Fair point, so as an actual indicator of quality, you could know that along with quite a lot of original violin dubstep stuff, she also does regular violin covers of various songs, some of which are worth a listen, and apparently does funny videos as well, though I’m not interested enough to check those out. So there you go.

Kelly Clarkson – People Like Us

“It’s Clunky Product Placement In A Music Video Time!”

Tom: It’s Clunky Product Placement In A Music Video Time!

Tim: Three things re the product placement: I think that’s the first time I’ve seen multiple brands in one video, it seems I don’t mind product placement so much when it’s for brands I admire, and is there really much of a Venn diagram intersection between BMW sports car buyers and Kelly Clarkson video watchers?

Tom: And, sad to say, it’s another by-the-numbers Kelly Clarkson track. Or am I being uncharitable?

Tim: Presumably, you’re comparing it to…

Tom: It’s just that Stronger was such a hit that it’s hard not to compare everything after to it — particularly when they feel as similar as this one. Even the video seems very much based on something that’s gone before.

Tim: Hmm. To that, I’d say this: most pop stars have at least one career high, that they will inevitably struggle to repeat. For some artists, their fans will disagree on which exact one (Live While We’re Young. or Little Things? The Silence, or Bad Boys?); for Kelly Clarkson, though, pretty much everybody reckons that Stronger was amazing. Two options, then: tell the fans ‘that’s that, let’s go miles elsewhere now’, or try to repeat the success. Here, the latter.

Tom: There’s nothing particularly wrong with it: it’s just very familiar territory.

Tim: True, but unless it’s completely new territory, it’s always going to be.

Jason Derulo – The Other Side

“Sounds like an Eric Saade track.”

Tom: The video’s been out for ages, but the UK single launch isn’t until next week. And as ever, Tim, the question with a Jason Derulo track is: Will he say his own name at the start?

Tom: Ooh. You see, with that opening line, I was all ready to dismiss this as generic auto-tuned nonsense. And yes, it is generic auto-tuned nonsense, but it’s good generic auto-tuned nonsense.

Well, okay, fine, it’s good nonsense. The auto-tune’s still crap.

Tim: Obviously. But there’s something interesting here – not about this track in particular, but more about pop homogenisation. Right when it started, I thought, ‘Huh. Sounds like an Eric Saade track.’ And right throughout, it could easily have been lifted right from Saade vol. 2. Is that a shame? That who was once europop’s most promising young hopes is now indistinguishable from Jason Derulo?

Tom: But you’ve got to agree that the pre-chorus is beautiful, right? It’ll do nicely on the dancefloor this — particularly when those ‘whoa-oh-oh-oh-ohs’ come in just before the middle eight.

Tim: Yes, and actually I think it’s great. It’s good modern pop music, a decent example of the genre. I like it a lot, much as I’d like it if it came from a certain Swede.

David Lindgren – Move That Thing

Crikey, that kicks in hard.

Tim: The new single release from Melodifestivalen finalist David Lindgren, here, and a healthy dose of EDM for you.

Tom: Crikey, that kicks in hard.

Tim: With the plethora of tracks that get released every month, it takes a lot these days to stand out with tunes of this genre, and to be honest I kind of think this has it. Not enough to be an international breakout, mind, but good enough to get heard on the dance floor fairly regularly. The title on its own, or at least the repetition of it in the chorus, is probably good enough to get some people dancing, and if not then the decent tune underneath it all should do it.

Tom: I’d say it risks getting a bit too repetitive: the trouble with starting off with that level of intensity is there’s not really anywhere for the song to go. Even at three minutes long, I felt it was starting to outstay its welcome. That said, what a welcome.

Tim: The only thing that’s bad is the awful autotune near the beginning; that aside, I rather like this, and would happily RAVE to it.

Tom: Oh, I agree. RAVE ON.

Adrian Lux – Damaged

“A somewhat ethereal quality to it.”

Tim: The song’s been around a couple of months, but the video’s a bit recent; I awaited until now to bring it out because it turns out I like watching the video more that hearing than song.

Tom: Is that a…

Tim: Compliment? I’m not sure.

Tim: I’m not even a big fan of skateboarding, so I don’t know what it is about that video that gets me, but I was sort of mesmerised by it. Though that might be the song, because there’s another (completely different) video for it here, which has a similar effect.

Though I don’t know, I might just be in a mesmerisable mood. Either way, I like the videos, and that enjoyment permeates through to the song. First time I heard a while back it didn’t do much for me, but now, well, I quite like it.

Tom: I think “mesmerised” is the right term: it has a somewhat ethereal quality to it that means it might not be the best for the dance track, but would work well in the middle of one of those chillout-dance compilations.

Tim: Ask me tomorrow morning, when the video isn’t fresh in my mind, and I don’t know what I’ll say – the vocals are a little sour for me, and the backing could possibly do with being lightened up a tad – but right now I’m happy with it, and would definitely dance to it. So that’s good then.

(time passes)

Tom: So what do you think now?

Tim: I like it. It’s good.

HAIM – The Wire

“As far as I’m concerned, their best single yet.”

Tim: If you recall, these are officially the Sound of 2013 and are now here with, as far as I’m concerned, their best single yet.

Tom: Is… is that a compliment or a slight? Because if their other singles have been dire…

Tim: Oh, a compliment – cast your mind back to January, you’ll remember that we both enjoyed their track Forever from last year.

Tim: And what do you know? Turns out that 2013 is remarkably similar to 1999, or if not then Shania Twain’s fallen through a wormhole (also not a slight, by the way).

Tom: It’s definitely got a touch of pop-country about it. And that final chorus, where everything comes together, is just gorgeous.

Tim: There are some brilliant parts to this – the lead back from the middle eight is particularly great – but all over I’m very hard pressed to fault this. Currently on my fourth repeated listen, and it’s showing no signs of growing tired yet.

Tom: I’m not quite that enthusiastic, but I agree with you that I can’t really fault it.

Tim: I really, really hope this does well, so I’m slightly saddened by my inbuilt pessimism that is almost certain that this won’t be playlisted by Radio 1, might get the odd play elsewhere, and then will just about nudge its way into the top 40. I so, so hope I’m wrong, though, I really do.

Tom: You’re almost certainly right.

Tim: Dammit.

Saturday Flashback: Litesound – We Are The Heroes

Mediocrity, but I really like it.

Tim: Last Saturday, a track from Eurovision 2012 that didn’t do anywhere near as well as it should have done. This week, a track that was my third favourite that year but didn’t even qualify to the final. I present to you: Belarus.

Tim: Yes, it’s basically a Nickelback track popped up slightly, and I suppose hits roughly the right level of mediocrity to garner nowhere near enough votes, but I really like it, and I do wish it had done better.

Tom: Oh my word, you’re right. He’s even got some of the same vocal inflections, where he doesn’t quite get the right note to start, and then rolls his voice towards the right pitch.

Tim: They didn’t wear the best outfits on the night – mostly chain mail, which hasn’t really worked as a fashion choice for at least half a millennium – but that shouldn’t be a reason for them to be knocked out, surely? Oh well, Europe’s loss.

Tom: It is generic, it is a bit Nickelback, but it’s not inherently a bad track. It is, as you say, just a bit generic.

Tim: I like the literalness of the video with them being actual heroes, and I particularly like the woman who’s just pulling at her seatbelt wondering why it won’t fall apart. Clearly an overconfident flyer who didn’t pay attention to the flight crew’s instructions. Also the explosion that hits with the second chorus is wonderful, and almost as good timing as another Belarus music video, from three years back.

Tom: Full marks for them not being superheroes. Not so full marks for endangering wildlife.

Tim: Okay, I know that’s a serious article, and I read that Pat Stanley is from Leicestershire, but I can’t help but read “next year I’m going to have dead cows” in a Somerset accent, and now I’m giggling stupidly. SORRY PAT.

Kelner – Deeper

A decent dance beat, and a melody that’s varied and pleasant.

Tim: “Deeper is a song about helping someone who has reached the bottom – because you believe in them,” says vocalist Kenneth Gutterup, 25% of this Norwegian band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ8uCpcc1W0

Tom: What an odd video. I wonder how many of their younger fans recognise what analogue film is?

Tim: Oh, let’s not go there. They’ve previously been doing mostly rock stuff, but this seems to be their first ‘proper’ single, for what that’s worth, and it’s fairly dancey instead. By and large, I really like this – I doubt you’ll need me to specify the bits I don’t like, but since they’re not a massive disjoint that spoils the rest of the song I can live with them easily enough.

Tom: I know the bits you mean — the not-quite-dubstep, almost guttural sounds — but I thought they worked rather well, myself. As, indeed, does the rest of the song: a decent dance beat, and a melody that’s varied enough and pleasant enough that I find myself nodding my head along.

Tim: Hmm. I might not choose to play it all that often, mind, but based on this I can imagine them bringing out a decent album, and if they did I wouldn’t skip over this.

Beatrice Eli – It’s Over

“Bit too slow, bit too dark.”

Tom: Our regular reader Roger sends in this one. There’s a free festival in the Swedish town where he lives; Beatrice Eli performed and, in his words: “this was my biggest surprise!”

Tom: Hmm. Well, I can be charitable and say “it’s not to my taste”.

Tim: Fair enough. Care to elaborate?

Tom: Bit too slow, bit too dark: those would be OK if it went somewhere, but it really doesn’t. What do you reckon?

Tim: Well, the verses leave me cold – I wasn’t really getting anything much until the chorus, but that I actually rather liked. My main problem is the middle eight, which is just a bit dull – if that was livened up a bit to match the chorus slightly, or just given a little bit of variation, I’d be all for this. As it is, well, five out of ten. Not bad, could do better.

The Dolly Rockers – One More

That sounds like a Vengaboys album track.

Tim: The Dolly Rockers, for those that don’t know, are a girl band that have been around about seven years now, first appearing in the audition stages of X Factor 2006. A mere three years later, they came out with Je Suis Une Dolly, a lovely track with lines like “we flash our pants when we Can Can” and “I’ll voulez vous you by the Chardonnay”.

Tom: Blimey. I dislike them already.

Tim: Yep, figured. That was quickly followed by Boys Will Be Boys, and four years later, here’s another track.

Tom: Ooh. Okay, perhaps they’re forgiven.

Tim: I know, right?

Tom: That, Tim, sounds like a Vengaboys album track. Listen to it. The woah-oh-ohs, the occasional creak in the main vocals, the theme being about love and alcohol. The odd first half of that middle eight doesn’t match, I’ll grant you, but other than that it’d sit quite nicely next to “Uncle John from Jamaica”.

Tim: Hmm, you’re not far wrong there. But you know what I really reckon? Replace the first half of the middle eight with a copy of the second half, cut the final couple of choruses, maybe stick a key change in there, and you’ve got yourself a bloody fantastic Eurovision song. I don’t know what it is that provides that quality, but I press play, and I start smiling. That’s it.

Tom: Hmm. I don’t think it’d be popular at Eurovision — I’d be surprised if it survived the semi-finals — but I agree with you about the feelgood factor.

Tim: It might be the way it kicks off with a bit of the chorus, Wings-style, which immediately lifts the mood; possibly it’s the contrast between the pre-chorus and the chorus; may also be the intense short and repetitive melody of the chorus. It’s probably all of those things added together, really. It’s great girlband pop. I love it.