Saturday Flashback: Owl City – When Can I See You Again

“I loved it on first listen.”

Tom: I’ve been lukewarm on Owl City in the past; his tracks can seem a bit like they’re written for young kids, and they frequently leave me… well, a bit cold. Not this one. I loved it on first listen.

Tim: Even though it’s quite clearly written for young kids, given the film it’s from?

Tom: Well, that makes it more remarkable — given that it’s a movie credits song. Sure, there’ve been good credit songs in the past — but for every “Men in Black” there’s a “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head)”. And if you don’t get that reference, try and keep it that way.

Tim: I don’t, and I shall. But I’ll also take this opportunity to recommend It’s Raining Sunshine for pure sugar overload. This is very good, though – I especially like the last line of the chorus.

Tom: And yes, you could just as easily level the usual criticisms of Owl City at this–

Tim: Well, given the film it’s from, you could certainly make your ‘made for kids’ argument again, although that’s never bothered me.

Tom: — but somehow it manages to transcend them. Listen to those string synths during the second part of the first verse: there’s a completely different counter-melody, with a different rhythm, running through this whole track and it works so, so well.

Tim: That’s very true, and I’d not immediately noticed that. It’s a nice theme, and a reminder that I’ve still not seen it – a situation I must change.

Mark Owen – Stars

“Tries to straddle the realms of both Pop and Art”

Tom: The Third Bloke from Take That — they are, in modern order, Gary, Robbie, Mark, Jason and The Other One — has a new solo album. And here’s the single.

Tom: It’s one of those songs that tries to straddle the realms of both Pop and Art with both its music and video. And it’s… well, it’s OK, I guess? It’s the kind of downbeat pop that it’s difficult to fit into a format like ours: we’re set up around Big Key Changes and Pop Moments.

Tim: Hmm. Safe to say there’s not much of either of those to go around. Chorus is nice, though.

Tom: There’s certainly the Big Instrumentation here, but minor-key guitar’s always a difficult sell to the public. (And that odd prononciation of Ver-ti-go won’t help with the pedants.) The fans may well like it, though–

Tim: Fans? Really?

Tom: –and as a solo artist he’s got a bigger leg-up than most.

Lisa Miskovsky – Wild Winds

It’s lovely.

Tim: Lead single and title track from her upcoming album, this is. And it’s lovely.

Tim: The production is lovely, the singing is lovely, the backing sort-of-singing is lovely, all the tiny details buried in it are just lovely – it’s all gentle, peaceful and, well, lovely. This is the sort of track I like to put on, move over to another tab and have it as backing music. It’s just…well, it’s nice, isn’t it?

Tom: Oddly enough, that’s exactly what I did: after the intro, I put it into a background tab and promptly got distracted by other things. It’s… well, yes. I hate to overuse the word, but “lovely” pretty much sums it up.

Tim: Annoyingly, I can’t think of much else to say, possibly because this is just calming my brain down so much. It’s basically everything I want in a song like this – it’s meant to be a calming, peaceful track, and it manages that absolutely perfectly. I really can’t fault it at all – not even the fade-out ending, which here just seems to serve as a reminder to skip back to the beginning. Indefinitely.

Electric Lady Lab feat. Sukker Lyn – Broken Mirrors

“A cracking bit of electropop.”

Tim: We’ve not written about these guys for quite a while, despite them putting out a couple of fairly good tracks last year; nevertheless, here’s this, which is new and out now.

Tim: First question: why is that break in the middle so ridiculously long?

Tom: To stop people just ripping it off YouTube. Welcome to the future.

Tim: We’re really still on that, in the age of lyric videos? Oh well.

Second, third and all other questions: how brilliant is the rest of it? The messed around sampled chorus bit, the way they’ve laid their own chorus lines on top of it, the wavy singing in the verses, and the wonderful “and this is where the chorus goes”.

Tom: It’s a cracking bit of electropop; I’m not sure about the rap bit, but it’s brief enough and surrounded by so much top-quality production that I don’t really mind it.

Tim: Speaking of the rap bit, quite why Sukker Lyn starts out and finishes with a shout-out to over-50s holiday and insurance group Saga is beyond me, but I suppose if they want to increase their audience then using that and a fairly obscure 1980s track in the chorus (Broken Heart by White Lion, if you’re interested) is the right way to go about it, and the more success these guys get the better, as far as I’m concerned.

Tom: I’m going to ignore that deliberate misunderstanding of yours —

Tim: Oh come on, it was HILARIOUS.

Tom: — but yes, you’re right, they’ve done a damn good job with it.

Tim: Maybe more acts should do that in future – perhaps ARTPOP could begin with a song dedicated to all the fans of Alan Titchmarsh. That’d be nice. And suitably weird, I suppose.

Meow – Radio Silence

“Nice track, this.”

Tim: Half British and half Norwegian, this is a new electropop duo with an utterly ridiculous name.

https://soundcloud.com/meow-uk/radio-silence

Tim: Nice track, this, not least for that chorus, with it’s fairly determined earworm hook in it which is refusing to go anywhere and the second half of it which is really very very good indeed.

Tom: Agreed: that chorus comes out of nowhere, and while it it isn’t a match for the rest of the song, I think the clash works.

Tim: It’s got a weird mix of mood in it – I’m not sure if I’m meant to hear it this way, but while its obviously a fairly downbeat track for the most part, that “radio radio radio” seems like a sudden glint of happiness in the middle. Sticks out a bit, but not in a bad way, I don’t think, because it’s an excuse to just yell out that bit and get everyone in the train carriage to look at you (which may or may not just have happened).

Tom: There are worse songs to be singing along to. At least no-one joined in.

Tim: And in the end, if a song can make you sing along involuntarily, I think that’s a pretty good song. Though not always.

Tom: Crikey, there’s a blast from the past. One of the few songs on that album where it’s difficult to tell it apart from the original.

Tim: WHAT A TUNE.

Krista Siegfrids – Amen!

“She’s divorced and back out on the pull.”

Tim: Tom, you’ll be glad to heard that Finland’s somewhat manic wannabe fiancée has given up on the whole marriage idea, largely because it didn’t work out for her – two months later, she’s divorced and back out on the pull. Let’s see how she gets on, shall we?

Tom: Crikey, you know the intro with that distorted version of her Eurovision track? That’s pretty much how I heard it the first time.

Tim: Well, as far as I’m concerned that divorce has done wonders for her, musically at least, because I really like that.

Tom: Really? Sounds to me like she’s trying to be a Gwen Stefani knockoff, and she’s not really managing it.

Tim: You think? Obviously it wouldn’t have suited a Eurovision entry (though as it turned out, neither did Marry Me, which was a bit of a shame), but it’s a big pop number with a lot going for it.

Tom: I suppose the Big Pop Bits aren’t all that bad, but those verses just clunk so badly that I can’t say it holds together as a track.

Tim: I disagree – I reckon it works well. Sounds almost Gaga-ish, or at least round about 2010-era with verses taken from Ke$ha back around then as well.

Tom: Which means she’s about three years too late. You’re right with both of those comparisons, it’s just that they seem to have lost a lot in translation.

Tim: Hmm. All your negativity’s got me slightly worried again about an issue I’ve mentioned before – would I like this if it was a Ke$ha track? I don’t know, but I do know that, whatever you say, I like it as a Krista Siegfrids track, which is what it is. Amen for that.

Tom: I’ll just pray it doesn’t get airplay over here.

Tim: Well, that’s probably a given.

Saturday Flashback: Haloo Helsinki! – Huuda!

Tim: Exclamation marks!

Tom: Yes! And if you couldn’t tell from the band name, these guys are Finnish. Before you press play, though, I’ll let you know that on most occasions, if I got pointed to this I’d likely spend at most twenty seconds listening, think “what a racket” and then switch off. Don’t do that.

Tom: I wasn’t convinced until that pre-chorus, which was delightful; I suspect you’re a fan of the chorus?

Tim: Absolutely. The verses can, quite clearly and accurately, be described as a racket, but the rest is something else – the chorus is pure pop, albeit slightly aggressive, and the lovely descending post-chorus is delightful. And speaking of delightful, the lyrics: ‘huuda’ means ‘shout’, the pre-chorus is also about changing the world for the better, and the chorus itself goes something along the lines of ‘shout for joy, shout for freedom, etc.’ All jolly lovely.

Tom: Shame about the middle eight, where it all falls apart for a bit – going SHOUTY and then all quiet.

Tim: Yes, although speaking of that quiet bit, there’s a new track, Vapaus käteen jää, which is similarly quieter and rather pleasant to listen to; it doesn’t really sound anything like the rest of this so check it out, why don’t you.

One Direction – Nobody Compares

Top of the range pop music, I think you’ll agree.

Tim: This isn’t a current single; in fact, it’ll probably never be a single at all as it was an iTunes bonus track off their most recent album. However, let’s write about it now, because to be honest there’s not a lot of music I can find right now that seems worth covering after tracks that begin with a 7’8″ Ukrainian giant, but this is.

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

Tim: Top of the range pop music, I think you’ll agree.

Tom: When you’re the biggest boy band in the world, your team get the pick of every songwriter and producer in the world: even your iTunes album tracks are top-quality pop music.

Tim: Very true. A banging instrumental, a chorus with multiple memorable hooks in it and a basically nonexistent middle eight that automatically make the final section seem amazing. Top that off with lyrics about lipstick taste that are weirdly intimate, and you’ve got yourself a nearly flawless track, I reckon.

Tom: How do you compete with that? You have to step outside the formula: if you’re trying to be like One Direction, you can never quite match up. (We’re looking at you, Levine and Bannatyne.)

Tim: Weird side note: looking for this, I found a YouTube channel with “official” music videos for various One Direction album tracks such as this; they’re entirely fan made from actual footage of the band singing other songs, put together so it looks vaguely like they’re singing this. Some people are weird. Just, really weird.

Tom: Teen crushes are scary.

Loreen – We Got The Power

To be honest, I’m not all that keen.

Tim: You’ll have heard this on Saturday night; it’s a bit different, isn’t it?

Tom: I’ll say this much: the Eurovision interval act is a hell of a plug for a new single.

Tim: So, what to say? It’s the lead from her second album, out later this year, and to be honest I’m not keen on it.

Tom: I wasn’t expecting that from you. Why’s that?

Tim: I like Loreen – I like the type of music she’s come out with, and her first album was very good. There’s still plenty of material there to plunder, so I can only assume this is a sort of change of direction; that’s a real shame, because if all her new stuff’s going to sound like this then, well, then I won’t like it very much.

Tom: It certainly is a change, but it’s one I’m rather happy with it. Drumline backing and a sinister guitar may not be high-energy pop, but it’s certainly music that I enjoy listening to. This is a cracking pop song, even if it’s more minor-key than we’re used to.

Tim: I want arms in the air, spaced out dance music, not military-drumming stuff that only really inspires me to get up in order to skip to the next track. Am I demanding too much?

Tom: No, but you are demanding something different.

Janet Leon – New Colours

“That absolutely, totally, works with my brain.”

Tim: You, incorrectly, didn’t think much of Janet’s Melodifestivalen entry, Heartstrings; others apparently did, or at least enough to pay attention to her, as her follow-up is the official single of Stockholm Pride 2013, coming with an appropriately colourful lyric video.

Tom: That is excellent. To the point where I immediately downloaded it after listening through once.

Tim: Crikey.

Tom: It’s that good. It’s a very rare song that makes me do that, but this is that rare song. This is the kind of pop that absolutely, totally, works with my brain.

Tim: High praise there, for what is indeed a lovely lovely song. The lyrics don’t really tell the happiest story, although they sort of do because when a desire is sung like this then let’s be honest it’s going to happen, isn’t it. Janet is going to get her new colours, whatever they may metaphorically be, and then she’s going to parade around with them all and shout about it. Until then, though, she’s just going to make music like this.

Tom: She’s welcome to. Seriously, I don’t think I have any criticisms about this song. This is certainly the best pop song of the year so far — at least to me.

Tim: Powerful, beat heavy, club friendly, and happy. A good chorus that we can all sing along to. A massive closing section that everyone can go crazy to. Basically, music that is FUN.