Dex feat. Cille – Walking in the Sun

There’s a sample here you may recognise.

Tim: There’s a sample here you may recognise.

Tom: Never mind that. Who sets their alarm clock for 7:03am?

Tim: Someone who wants to wake up at seven and whose clock is three minutes fast, but thinks it’s too much faff to work out how to change it. (This may or may not be why my alarm goes off at 7:06 each morning. (Really, it does.))

Anyway, the main problem with this tune, as far as I’m concerned, is that sample. You see, it’s a perfectly competent – more than competent, in fact, and I might even say very good – dance tune, and I like it a lot.

Tom: I like it too – and Dex clearly does, since he’s able to provide the kind of DJ dancing that I haven’t seen in a long while. It’s enthusiastic, to say the least.

Tim: BUT, I keep listening out for that little bit of Children. “Will it come back? There was only a bit of it, so it might not. But oh, there’s a bit. When’s it going to be next?”

Tom: “Children” is sampled so much that it’s almost become generic – and that’s a shame, because the original is an absolutely cracking track. But to just put this little short snap of it in? It just seems so bizarre.

Tim: Yeah, and I don’t know if most people will do that, or if it’s just me, but it means I’m so busy listening out for a few particular piano notes that everything else sort of passes me by, and that’s a shame, because this is otherwise an excellent piece of dance music, if perhaps six months early and/or late.

Mischa Daniels & Sandro Monte feat. J-Son – Simple Man

Two dance producers, one previously-heard vocalist, no real surprises.

Tim: Two dance producers, one previously-heard vocalist, no real surprises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKzKboNTtxI

Tim: Standard robotic voice that we’ve come to expect from ‘this sort’ of musician (if you know what I mean) (i.e. not particularly musical) (i.e. not remotely musical if he doesn’t have his auto-tuner); decent enough tune, at least once he’s shut up and given what for the main synths; anything else to add?

Tom: You missed the standard euphoric build (as wonderfully deconstructed by Brett Domino at the end of this medley) and the standard breakdown in the middle. It’s… well, it’s standard, isn’t it?

Tim: Standard.

Moa Lignell – When I Held Ya

It appears to kick most of this year’s British X Factor contestants into a cocked hat.

Tom: Our regular reader Roger writes: “I have not followed Swedish Idol 2011 closely… if I had I would have sent you this almost a week ago.”

You’ll probably spend the first verse thinking ‘I hope this kicks in a bit more’…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHocCTns8YU

Tom: …and then it does.

So her name is Moa. This is a song she wrote herself. It appears to kick most of this year’s British X Factor contestants into a cocked hat.

Tim: Yes. Although she does appear to be wearing the same trousers as kicked-off-in-sex-and-drug-fuelled-disgrace twat Frankie Cocozza, but I think that says more about him than her.

Tom: It must be quite a feeling, that – writing your own song with just a guitar, and then getting proper producers to add all the instrumentation and professionalism that makes it sound like a pop song. It’s not bouncy, it’s not dancey, but it is really rather tuneful.

Tim: Yeah, it’s nice – gentle sort of stuff, sung and played well enough to safely get you through to next week. Some of the judges scare me, though, but that’s hardly her fault.

Eric Saade feat. Dev – Hotter Than Fire

Genius. Like it.

Tim: Lead single, out now, from Saade, Vol. 2, which comes out at the end of the month, and continues the ‘this is my sound’ dance theme that started with Vol. 1., leaving behind the pop stuff that got him started.

Tom: That starts with a bang. And they sing each other’s name! That’s a bit nicer than, say, Flo Rida just shouting out.

Tim: I like it. Did I prefer Manboy? Perhaps, but I’m getting used to this Eric Saade, and I actually don’t think it’s any bad thing at all.

Tom: I was skeptical this time, but that quiet build into the first chorus? Genius. Like it.

Tim: Good, isn’t it? He’s still got a decent hook, the lyrics are all family-friendly, there’s not a massive use of our good friend the auto-tuner, there’s a nice beat so it’ll go down well in a club, and what with the fairly well-known Dev on-board for this I think this could do rather well.

Tom: Agreed, and I rather hope it does.

Tim: He’s apparently in favour of Hearts in the Air being his first proper international single, which is a perfectly decent choice, but I reckon this ought to be be an excellent second release.

Westlife – Lighthouse

Ah, that’s right nice, that is.

Tom: This is it, then, the first single from Westlife’s final album. Before the inevitable reunion, Greatest Hits, and new album in five years’ time. And it’s part-written by Gary Barlow, so I’m expecting great things – although after The Collective, who knows?

Tim: Ah, that’s right nice, that is.

Tom: Piano melodies that sound like Elton John. Westlife-classic harmonies. Uplifting chorus leading into a soul-stirring chord progression. Video with lots of depth of field and beautiful scenery. Middle eight to break it up. No spectacular key change here, but that’s not too much of a shame.

Tim: Not much left for me to add there, but it’s got the sort of drums in the chorus that make you what to air-drum along to them. That’s a Good Thing. And that piano really does sound like Elton John, doesn’t it? Huh.

Tom: I mean, what more do you want? This is a textbook Westlife song, and I mean that as a sincere compliment: it’s not going to be the closing number for their farewell tour, but I can see it closing the first half.

Saturday Flashback: Yelle – Ce Jeu

I can’t tell if it’s 60s, 80s, or modern.

Tim: Friend of the site Ed has demanded that we review this band, suggesting a rap song they did, Je Veux Te Voix, or this one, the video of which has considerably fewer terrifying cast members. So we’re going with this.

https://youtu.be/GxFa9HLdhIY

Tom: That’s… well, I can’t tell if it’s 60s, 80s, or modern. Perhaps that’s just the video’s effect, though. I must thank the numerous YouTube commenters pointing out the brief flash of nipple there. I might have missed it otherwise.

Tim: No doubt the various toys and things in the video would make sense if my French was at a decent enough level to understand this (though I’m not sure anything could justify two dinosaurs mounting each other); musically, though, well, it’s alright. It’s admittedly not what I’d choose to put on a playlist, but I’d be happy hearing it at, say, a house party or something.

Tom: See, I rather like it. It’s happy, bouncy, and even ends on a little whistle.

The Collective – Teardrop

Utter crap, and its being for charity does not excuse it.

Tom: It’s the Children in Need single, and it’s…

Tim: …an absolute fucking disgrace? I know that’s a rude word, and sorry, but Jesus Christ, what the shit is bloody well going on, and why did…well, just why?

Tom: Well, it’s no McFly, is it?

Tim: Understatement of the decade, right there.

Tom: I know there’s been a share of downbeat Children in Need singles over the years – the glorious version of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ being the standout one. But surely none of them have been quite as … meh as this one.

Tim: This is, oh, God it’s awful. My feeling right now, is just total incomprehension. How did this happen? What was Gary Barlow thinking when he put this together?

Tom: It’s a fairly well known track, I suppose, and I feel like I should give it the benefit of the doubt as it’s for charity and all that.

Tim: No. No, no, no. Charity: good. This: utter crap, and its being for charity does not excuse it. Okay, sensible critique: first off, no one there seems to care. There’s no emotion, no feeling, just a group of music performers reading a few words out. And speaking of the words: they’re weird. Apparently a poem written by a teenager*, towards the end there’s the ‘be anything you want to be’ idea which is nice, but thrown in randomly is something about a wise man telling the time on a cheap watch, and at the start we’ve got Ms Dynamite giving us a grammar lesson. Seriously? I mean, W T ACTUAL F is going on?

* I can hear the planning meeting now: “OMG, I love that idea, it’s so amazing, think of all the emotional depth there’ll be, it’ll totally appeal to all the poor kids out there.”

Tom: That final chorus does have quite a triumphant edge to it, but it took a long, long time to get there.

Tim: Yeah, and it’s all very well putting the upbeat music and lyrics at the end, but if everyone’s feeling suicidal by then all you’re really doing is damage control.

Tom: So here’s my thought: yes, give to Children in Need. But do it by grabbing the old McFly track instead. It’s a lot more fun.

Tim: Hell yeah it is. In fact, let’s watch it now.

Tim: Okay, I’m happy again.

Tom: As am I.

Rasmus Seebach – Sirenerne

Moving around, never really settling down.

Tim: Similar in style to the first single of his we covered (recently translated into English, actually, which we should perhaps have mentioned), and I like it just as much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1LtI0IkmsU

Tim: So similar, in fact, that the opening seems almost identical.

Tom: I quite enjoyed suddenly picking up “split-second” in the lyrics.

Tim: I have no problem with that opening, though, as the whole thing is pretty good. It’s the whole moving around, never really settling down into one type of tune or another style that’s going on that really seems to work.

Tom: That’s worked before for me – and when it finally kicked in with the big synth parts, sirens and drum beats I was really rather getting into it. But then it went all downbeat again and I just couldn’t muster the energy to keep enjoying it.

Tim: There’s a few weird things which kind of get in the way – yes, I know it’s called ‘Sirens’ so there’s a sort of sense to them, but it seems a bit unnecessary – although it’s not enough to put me off it by any means, because I’m happy with this.

Tom: I’d be happy with a calm version and a remix. The switching – this time – just doesn’t seem to suit it.

Vienna – Drowning

“Better than I expected.”

Tim: This has been out a month or so now, but it only recently turned up in our inbox. Apparently, they’re a new Swedish band, this is their debut single, and there’s more information on their Facebook page (though actually there’s barely anything). I have no idea if they’re likely to be successful, but let’s have a listen anyway.

Tom: That’s… better than I expected.

Tim: And that is why we should have have a listen. It’s really rather good, isn’t it? I do love those long vocal notes in the chorus – really give the song a big, sort of, well, bigness, really.

Tom: Erudite, there, Tim.

Tim: Thank you very much.

Tom: It is a bit downbeat, though, and I think that’ll work against it; I’m not sure I’d want to listen to it all that often.

Tim: Ah, see I think that in a way that helps – having heard this, it’s hard to imagine a happy song with this sort of vocal.

Tom: Not sure about the classical guitar backing, either – I just keep wanting it to kick up a notch and it never does.

Tim: Could an album of downbeat songs work? Probably. Let’s see what they come up with next. Oh, but please let’s have a decent ending next time.

Daníel Óliver – Takin’ It Back

He is, indeed, takin’ it back.

Tom: “It’s better then Superficial,” says an anonymous Europlop reader, “different from what other artists in his category seem to be doing. He just moved to Stockholm… I hope he’ll get big in Sweden!”

Tom: The overwhelming message I got from this song? He is, indeed, takin’ it back.

Tim: It does seem that way, doesn’t it?

Tom: It’s big but not particularly lush; despite loud bass and percussion, it seems fairly simple even through the spacey middle eight.

Tim: Yeah. It’s nice, though – a short message, conveyed successfully. It doesn’t need to be big and complicated, and it certainly couldn’t have lasted much beyond the three-minute mark.

Tom: Just when you want it to come back with a massive final chorus, it… well, it doesn’t. Then, a few bars later when you expect it to… it still doesn’t. And then, when everything drops down to silence and you think this is going to be massive… it isn’t.

Musical blueballs, Tim.

Tim: Damn those blueballs.