Icona Pop – All Night

“It has a melody.”

Tim: I think we need to face facts: Icona Pop’s release strategy is all over the place. Girlfriend was plugged as their next single to be released in America, but that seems to have been forgotten about now (though the video got put online at the weekend) and they’re back, in America at least, with this one. It’ll probably arrive here sometime this decade, but who knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NzaKXXlPqw

Tim: I’ve decided I really like Icona Pop now. When I first heard I Love It, I thought it was a bit iffy – maybe too shouty and a bit of a racket. It still is, to some extent, but actually when you put it next to the rest of their output it fits in nicely, just on the heavier end of the scale, and if you’re in the mood (yes, there’s that qualifier) for loud pop they actually fit the bill almost perfectly.

Tom: True: there are some tracks you can only appreciate when you’re in the mood for them. This one’s on the more mainstream side of their output, though — it has a melody — and I’ve got to admit that works for me.

Tim: The songs are well-produced, and they know exactly what they’re doing with them – creating party tracks that are there to be danced to.

Take this, for example. Yes, you could assume that the whole “with love this deep we don’t need no sleep, we could do this all night” is the whole bedtime stuff…

Tom: “Bedtime stuff?” I’m sorry, are you nine years old or something?

Tim: Well, I was trying to keep this family-friendly, but okay: the rumpy-pumpy.

Tom: Anyway, I reckon it’s more about…

Tim: Perhaps partying the night away, throwing your arms all over the place and finally emerging from the club just in time to get a kebab for breakfast? Whichever floats your boat, I guess.

Tom: Personally, I’ll stick with option 1. Particularly if option 2 involves a kebab.

Monsieur Adi feat A*M*E – What’s Going On

Tim: Monsieur Adi, a French DJ who likes his synths with a big helping of strings, as heard on this remix of Pompeii. A*M*E, a London-based singer who pretty much all pop music blogs have been championing and who is best known for being on Duke Dumont’s Need U (100%). Together, this.

https://soundcloud.com/monsieuradi/whats-going-on-ft-a-m-e

Tom: That is indeed a big helping of strings.

Tim: A bit of backstory: the vocals are a cover (ish, sort of, vaguely) of Soul II Soul’s Back To Life (However Do You Want Me); that got significantly remixed by Monsieur Adi a few years back into something similar to this, and that’s now been re-fiddled with and tidied up a bit, given new vocals and will shortly be released as an actual single.

Tom: Familiar enough that the audience will like it; not familiar enough that this’ll be called sacrilege. It helps, of course, that’s it’s a damn good remix.

Tim: It is good; I’d go so far as to say very good, in fact. The strings work very well for me – under the verses they’re almost what makes the song, and their near ever-presence provides something to hang onto as the rest of the song mutates around them. From the beginning of the singing we go from high-pitched keyboards synths, a basic drum beat, then a combination of the both in what would be called the chorus if there was any semblance of a regular structure to this. For the later instrumental section we pay a brief visit to the Tron soundtrack, and then coming back for the closing part we get everything thrown in at once.

Tom: When the sixteenth-note drumbeats kicked in — the Tron bit, I think, by your definition — I actually muttered “bloody hell” under my breath.

Tim: It’s all rather brilliant, and while the vocals are perfectly good, it’s the production which really makes this, and on those terms it’s one of the best we’ve heard all year, I reckon. This deserves to be huge; I really hope it is.

Tom: Agreed.

Saturday Flashback: Kurt Calleja – This Is The Night

One track comes on and you suddenly realise that everything’s brilliant.

Tim: Tom’s away at the moment, unfortunately, so it’s just me, but hopefully I can cope. You know how sometimes you’re out for an evening, and it seems a bit iffy, but then one track comes on and you suddenly realise that everything’s brilliant?

Tim: Well, I didn’t really mention it, but I went to see the truly wonderful Hera Björk performing in a club last Friday, and I never had that feeling at all, because this Eurovision track was playing as I walked through the door and I instantly had confirmation of what I’d already suspected: the night was going to be utterly fantastic. And it really, really was.

Sadly, that night in Baku wasn’t really The Night for Kurt, as this only came 21st out of 25, but as for last Friday – that really was the night. Hera is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

C2C feat. Derek Martin – Happy

“A gospel song run through a turntable and a sequencer.”

Tom: Remember C2C?

Tim: Erm…

Tom: They’re the French turntablists I raved about a couple of weeks ago — and you were fairly nonplussed about — with ‘Down the Road‘.

Tim: Ah, yes, of course. What’s this then?

Tom: Well, here’s the next single: this has been out for ages in France, but the UK promotion’s just starting. Skip to 0:30 for the start of the track.

Tom: I don’t want to come on too strongly here, but this is my favourite track of the year so far.

Tim: Blimey.

Tom: It’s a gospel song run through a turntable and a sequencer; it’s like it taps straight into the musical-appreciation bits of my brain.

Tim: Hmm. Favourite track of the year, interesting. Not mine, but I certainly get what you like about it, because it really does have something of everything you need in a good get-up-and-go style track – it’s quickly movement, it’s got excitable vocals, nice squeaky-scratchy bits to think “ooh, that’s them, I like them”.

Tom: Frankly if this doesn’t want to make you dance like a loon — like a rather less professional version of the spectacular dancers in the video — I think there might be something wrong with you.

Tim: Well, it certainly passes the dancing in my chair test you presented last time, so that’s at least is one thing that’s not wrong with me. Good.

Backstreet Boys – One Phone Call

Nicely executed ballad, whatever way you look at it.

Tim: Another day, another pop act going…

Tom: Rock? Really?

Tim: No – actually in completely the other direction and bringing us a nice ballad instead to calm us down.

Tom: Whew. So, One Phone Call. Is this about heading to jail, by any chance?

Tim: And that’s quite nice, isn’t it?

Tom: Well, yes. Yes it is.

Tim: Nice message, until you consider the deeper implications – you’re the one person I’d call if I ever got in trouble, fine, but also you’re the one person I know who’s dedicated enough to put in the work to sort me out. Less of a statement of my love than that I recognise that you care for me, though I suppose that’s quite nice as well. Oh, I don’t know. Nicely executed ballad, whatever way you look at it, and a nice demonstration that they’re not just back here to jump on the back of One Direction’s sound.

Tom: Backstreet Boys are now, to an extent, Something for the Mums (and some Dads). And this’ll probably go down rather well for them.

Tim: Quite why they’ve put this out now is beyond me, because they’ve only just released In A World Like This to radio stations in America, but never mind – in the end Icona Pop’s strategy paid off, so what do I know.

Avril Lavigne – Rock N Roll

Another day, another pop act going vaguely rock.

Tim: Another day, another pop act going vaguely rock, another great lyric: “I don’t care if I’m a misfit, I like it better than the hipster bullshit.”

Tim: Lots of very rock n roll stuff going on here: musically we’ve got plenty of drums and extended guitar solos, and lyrically it’s CRAZY: ripped clothes, sticking middle fingers up, getting wasted – gosh, such raunchiness and clear proof that she is definitely rock n roll.

Tom: Do I detect a little bit of sarcasm there, Tim?

Tim: Me, sarcastic? Eh, possibly. Rock n roll or not, however, this is clearly still pop enough to be a recognisable Avril Lavigne track, and actually a fairly good one.

Tom: Yep: but a modern one in terms of production.

Tim: Indeed, and I say well done to everybody involved – even the lyricist, because I still like that hipster line.

Tom: Given that one of the credited lyricists is Avril Lavigne herself, and another is her husband Chad Nickelback – no, seriously – that’s a bit of a surprise.

Tim: UPDATE of a few weeks later: the proper video’s out. It is, quite frankly, incredible. A joy to behold.

Tim: BEARSHARK.

One Direction – Best Song Ever

And now you’ve FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE.

Tim: It’s an ambitious title for the new album’s lead single and film theme; are they genuinely claiming to be this good? (Spoiler: no.)

Tim: So, a song called Best Song Ever, and a video that may well make the shortlist for Worst Video Ever.

Tom: Crikey, that’s a video for the fans and no mistake. The actual track kicks in more than two minutes in. And, well, Zayn in drag is just confusing me.

Tim: Oh, well, what isn’t confusing about that? I will say, though, that they did a good make up job on Louis and Niall, so well done there. But as for the rest of it, man, what a group of utter arseholes they come across as.

Tom: I know, right? You ain’t Nirvana, and that ain’t your guitar.

Tim: OH, LOOK AT ME, I’M LIAM. I’M GOING TO KNOCK OVER A STATUE FOR NO REASON. OOH, LET’S ALL BE ROCK AND ROLL, LET’S CAUSE MEANINGLESS DESTRUCTION JUST BECAUSE WE CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. Spare a thought for the poor people whose desks you kicked over, possibly, or whose paperwork you threw all over the place? No, of course you didn’t. You’re too busy being SELFISH and FAMOUS and FRIENDS WITH JAMES CORDEN and TOTAL UTTER BELLENDS and now you’ve FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE. You BIG GROUP OF DICKS.

Tom: As for the music…

Tim: Okay, I can calm down for the music. It’s a bit different, isn’t it?

Tom: Um. Not really? It sounds like most other One Direction tracks to me. And yet again, we’ve got someone ripping off Baba O’Riley for their intro! That’s more blatant than most.

Tim: Strange, isn’t it? I make that the third time we’ve seen that in barely a year. But if I were feeling charitable (a challenge, given the video), I’d say it’s less a rip-off but more an indicator of what’s coming up: we’ve (fortunately) left the intense boringness of Little Things far behind us, and instead have this, probably the most convincing sign yet that guitar music is on its way back. One Direction are going ROCK, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.

Tom: I mean, theoretically there’s a great number of ways, but most of them will end up with jail time.

Tim: True, so let’s leave that thought there and move on. It’s apparently Harry’s favourite of all they’ve done, although on Radio 1 he was clear to point out that they’re not yet Slipknot, which probably doesn’t really need saying but there you go.

Tom: Oh, now that I want to see. One Direction putting on masks and shouting into mics. Yes please. I imagine it’d sound something like this. Or maybe this.

Tim: That Justin Bieber one is apparently not available to view on mobile devices, which makes me incredibly glad I’ve only got my phone with me right now. To aid One Direction in their journey, they’ve pulled together songwriters behind such rock and roll masterpieces as Westlife’s Flying Without Wings and Queen Of My Heart, and Kate Winslet’s What If, who have in fact done a rather good job with this.

Tom: As they should: One Direction’s management have their pick of tracks and songwriters right now. If they put out a dud, something’s gone very, very wrong.

Tim: The lyrics display a slight lack of memory – “I think it went oh-oh-oh, I think it went yeah-yeah-yeah” when clearly it doesn’t – but we can just put that down to how much fun can be had when dancing, and otherwise the lyrics are first rate – “her daddy was a dentist, said I had a dirty mouth”.

Tom: We have a completely different definition of “first rate”. And that autotune on “Georgia Rose” – 3:28 in the video – is abysmal.

Tim: Really? I can’t hear that. But anyway, combining those lyrics with the aforementioned rather good tune (and ignoring the abhorrent video), I’m all for this.

Scouting For Girls – Millionaire

Here’s a shock: it doesn’t have a plinky-plonky piano.

Tom: Oh my word, they’re still bloody going.

Tim: You’re surprised? Eight years isn’t a particularly long time for a band like this.

Tom: I just kind of assumed they’d slowly fallen into oblivion. Only they’ve not: they’ve got a greatest hits album, which is a bold move for a band that’s only had three actual albums. And, of course, the greatest album has an optimistically-placed new track on it.

But here’s a shock: it doesn’t have a plinky-plonky piano. Instead… it’s got a ukulele.

Tom: At least my normal criticism — that all their tracks sound the same — doesn’t apply here. It’s proper Radio 2 playlist material, this, though; if it got any more middle-of-the-road it’d hit the central reservation.

Tim: Nicely put; sometimes, though, middle of the road is alright, and I quite like this, in a pleasant and entirely inoffensive manner.

Tom: With one exception, of course: what is with the sudden bizarre electronic pitch-shift before the final chorus? It’s the one bit of the song that stands out to me, and I actually rather like it: I wonder what they could do when paired up with a producer that was less… well, generic?

Tim: Probably, and I sort of hate myself for saying this, come out with something that’s ‘relevant’ and likely to be Radio 1 playlisted. Still, this’ll do.

Saturday Flashback: Bjørn Olav Edvardsen & Arcteec – Mountains

“Hello, dance-flavoured ballad.”

Tim: What would you say to a dance-flavoured ballad?

Tom: “Hello, dance-flavoured ballad”?

Tim: Because that is what Norwegian Idol graduate Bjørn and dance person Arcteec joined forces to bring us back in March. (And you’ll want to skip to 1:40 in the video – all that happens before then is him walking to a train station in black and white.)

Tim: Right then. I’m not sure if part of this is the wonderful scenery in the video, but I think this track is just lovely.

Tom: See, I tend to be a sucker for Americana: Googie architecture and desert road trips in a video will mean I’ll feel much better about it. You’re right that rhe scenery here is gorgeous, though; it gave me a serious case of wanderlust although I’m not sure it affected my opinion of the music.

Tim: I’m a little unnerved by the structure of it, with it ending after the second chorus without a single thought for the surely requisite middle eight and closing chorus.

Tom: I’m increasingly of the opinion that, unless you’re chucking out a Proper Pop or Proper Schlager song, composers should be able to play about with the structure if it works for them. It didn’t put me off.

Tim: No, it didn’t put me off – it was more of a ‘wait, why has this finished?’ disconcertment.

The 2-step backing of it means it wouldn’t be the easiest to dance to, but as a song to listen to it’s very enjoyable indeed. The earnest high pitched vocal goes nicely with the ever-present but not too intrusive backing track – it’s almost unusual to have a dance track that isn’t constantly screaming for attention, and it make a nice change, I reckon.

I’m bringing it up now because Oslo Pride happened recently and the SX Summer Radio Remix got put out as the official song, and it’s…well, it’s alright.

Tom: That’s… that’s just the same track with a THUMPING BASS, surely?

Tim: Pretty much: they’ve stuck a big four to the floor beat on it to make it club friendly and played around with the chorus backing a bit, but it doesn’t really work for me – the drawn out vocals of the chorus just don’t mesh with a regular dance beat, which is a shame. I don’t know what they could have done with it to make it work given that restriction, so maybe they should have left it as it was; it’s not like they destroyed the original, though, so let’s push play again, shall we?

Neon Jungle – Trouble

“Crikey, Tim, too soon. Way too soon.”

Tim: Quick heads up for you: if you find Icona Pop a little too brash and aggressive, you might not be a fan of this next track. But, I’m in the mood for brash, aggressive girl bands, and so this is what you’re getting.

Tom: I noticed that the album’s not out until the 1st September, and thought ‘crikey, that’s a long way away’. Six and a bit weeks. This year’s moving fast.

Tim: Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way: the stupid amount of random rubbish near the end of the video in very irritating, the ‘rap’ bit in the middle is horrible and that ‘acting’ at the start is enough to make me want to move to Florida and claim that they were threatening me.

Tom: Crikey, Tim, too soon. Way too soon.

Tim: Ehh, maybe, but justified? Also maybe.

Tom: You’re right, the rap is awful — not Gazza awful, but pretty awful, and they’ve gone way too overboard on the “don’t let people nick this from YouTube” button.

Tim: It’s very loud, not even particularly musical and most days I’d probably hate this and I wouldn’t blame anybody for switching off after thirty seconds. But like I said, I’m in the mood for loud stuff right now and this satisfies that mood, which I suppose means I’m in a perfectly good position to judge this for what it’s probably meant to be, and for that I like it.

Tom: The thing is, Icona Pop’s big track is like this, but positive: more harmony and more happiness, despite the crashing cars. It’s pleasant to listen to, while this… this just isn’t.

Tim: It’s worth noting that this is absolutely, massively, completely not what The Saturdays, Little Mix or MKS are doing right now, so presumably they’re hoping there’s a gap in the market for this. Is there? I have no idea. All I know is that tomorrow I’ll probably be amazed I wrote anything positive about this track.

Tom: I’m pretty amazed right now.

Tim: Right. Passage of time, twelve hours later, three thoughts: what a racket, you’re probably right about it being too soon, and wow, what a racket.