Rikke Lie – Such A Lovely Day

Title speaks for itself, really.

Tim: Title speaks for itself, really.

Tim: If I were in a bad mood at the moment, I would hate this. I would think, “OH MY GOD I HATE YOU AND YOUR STUPID BLOODY HAPPINESS SHUT UP WITH YOUR SMUG BOYFRIEND”.

Tom: It is unremittingly chipper, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be the kind of track that’ll actually put you in a good mood though – it’ll only enhance an existing one. Like Pyro, it can only control the fire, not create it.

Tim: Well, quite, and fortunately, I’m not in a bad mood – seem to be on a break from my usual cynicism right now, which is nice – and so I love this. The build-up to the chorus is where it really gets going, and a smile leaps to your face, and there are no problems anywhere. ANYWHERE. Because it’s just such a lovely day, you see.

Oh, and while we’re here, I think you should take this opportunity to apologise for suggesting she used autotune in her last song, as we have since had the situation clarified.

Tom: Yes – sorry, Rikke! I don’t know whether it’s a good or bad thing that I can’t tell the difference any more.

Lili & Susie feat. Diamond Dogs – Bailamor

Let’s treat ourselves to a good bit of euphoric trance.

Tim: It really is the season now for a good bit of euphoric trance, so let’s treat ourselves.

Tim: You could just dismiss this as the usual sort of stuff that’s generally to be found in the middle of Now That’s What I Call The Trance Annual 2011, or alternatively you could really enjoy it, like I do.

Tom: There’s no reason I can’t do both. And while it hits every item on the euphoric vocal trance checklist, it’s not particularly hard – if it weren’t for those synths in the background, this’d just be regular schlager.

Tim: Admittedly, there’s not a huge amount to write about it, largely because it is the sort of stuff that’s what I said earlier, but I suppose that just leaves more time to listen to it.

The video looks like them rehearsing for a big performance, which is good, as long as they’ve got one coming up. Otherwise it’s just a bit sad.

Tom: It’s actually just their regular morning routine. FACT.

The Wanted – Glad You Came

“We are The Wanted, and we make videos in which WE ARE MEN.”

Tom: I’m fairly sure this will be one of anthems of the summer.

Tim: We are The Wanted, and we make videos in which WE ARE MEN.

Tom: Not because it’s particularly good – it’s not – but it’s not bad, and it’s got all the by-the-numbers ingredients.

Tim: Look at our RIPPED TORSOS on the beach, where we play football and dive into the sea because WE ARE MEN.

Tom: Synth pads, clap-along percussion, lyrics about drinks and love, and a massively heterosexual video just to make sure that all the stereotypical Club 18-30 types feel comfortable dancing to it.

Tim: Then we go to clubs and HAVE SEX in the toilets with PRETTY LADIES. GRRR. MEN IS WHAT WE ARE.

Tom: Notice how I’ve avoided all innuendo so far?

Tim: Have you? Sorry, I was too busy watching the MEN of The Wanted doing tricks on a BMX, as all grown men do at pool parties.

Saturday Flashback: Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette – Hello

I defy you not to start at least tapping your foot.

Tom: This track entirely passed me by until I was in America last month. Now, the official video‘s good – high-budget and incredibly well produced, if a bit clichéd – but it’s interrupting the track regularly to spoil the YouTube jukeboxers. Here’s the track, uninterrupted. Don’t forget that this is meant to be mixed into a DJ set, hence the long intro and outro:

Tom: I defy you not to start at least tapping your foot when that beat kicks in.

Tim: It is a good track – although one I often misattribute to MGMT, for no particular reason that I can discern.

Tom: Now, normally I’d complain that there’s very little change throughout – after it kicks in, it’s basically the same song until the end. For some reason, that doesn’t bother me – even the vocal effects that make it less repetitious don’t bother me. Maybe it’s because I’ve listened to a bit of glitch lately.

Tim: I’m happy with it – repetitive it may be, but it’s not bad stuff that’s being repeated. And it is, after all, there to make people dance. And jump. Up, and down, and up, and down, and up, and ooh look we’re repeating ourselves.

Tom: This would get me straight on to a dancefloor, bouncing up and down.

Tim: In a repeated manner, no doubt.

Mylène Farmer – Lonely Lisa

“If you liked Oui Mais Non, it’s very much in the same vein.”

Tom: This one’s sent in by Europlop reader Alex, who writes: “Basically if you liked Oui Mais Non, it’s very much in the same vein.” Now, we did like that track, although we did complain that it went on a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVIM4vuVbbk

Tom: Well, the new one is an improvement, I reckon. It doesn’t go on too long, although I reckon it could still do with a couple of adjustments: first of all, lose the odd talky bridge; second, add a bit more… er… ‘oomph’ on that last chorus.

Tim: I like it a lot, and it seemed to get even better on successive listens. But yeah, a bit of oomph wouldn’t have hurt.

Tom: As for the video: I don’t think there’s much I can say other than it’s ‘arty’. CGI jewel-encrusted camels are something even 50 Cent hasn’t thought of, though.

Tim: And a mysterious bloke who looks a little bit like Ewan McGregor did as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do Jedi ride camels regularly?

Tom: Only when they’re forced to. Forced! Like, the Force in… oh, suit yourself.

Beyoncé – Best Thing I Never Had

I was really enthusiastic about this – and I can’t explain why.

Tom: Let this one run for a minute or so before you start to judge it. It’s a slow burner.

Tim: Ooh, that chorus is good. Like, actually good.

Tom: By the time it got to the bridge, I was really enthusiastic about this – and I can’t explain why. It’s not close to anything we normally review, but it’s got this steady, inexorable build to it that means that the final chorus is a proper lighters-in-the-air moment.

Tim: Part of it, for me, is that it’s not typical Beyoncé. That’s also one of the reasons I really liked Rihanna’s most recent one – woke up to it on the radio, thought ‘ooh, this song’s good’, then Dev stuck his general rubbishness in and said it was Rihanna and I sat up with a ‘WHAT’.

Tom: Pity about the “sucks to be you right now” lyric, which rather spoils the moment for me, but I can live with it.

Tim: Meh, I’m not bothered. I do sort of wish the verses could be as energetic as the chorus, but, as you said, I can live with it. Very much, in fact.

Tom: I’ve just figured out how to save the verses: sing the verses of ‘I Want It That Way’ by the Backstreet Boys over the top of them. Seriously, try it.

Movetron – Lanteisiin

A bit of Ace of Base about it

Tim: Movetron is a rather pleasant-sounding Finnish group have been going, on and off, for quite some time (as in started in 1994), but things have been a bit quiet recently. Now, fortunately, they’ve resurfaced with this.

Tim: Fortunate, yes?

Tom: That’s got a bit of Ace of Base about it, and that’s a good thing.

Tim: I have absolutely no idea what any of the words mean, nor even the title, as the entire internet seems to draw a blank, but that just means there’s more room to enjoy the music.

Tom: As a regular “track to listen to”, it probably wouldn’t get me playing it often – but by the time the post-bridge chorus came along, I was rather enjoying it and I reckon it’d fit rather well on a dance floor.

Tim: This is happy, dancy, energetic music that I could jump up and down in a club to for a considerable amount of time if this was left on repeat, and I probably wouldn’t even notice.

THAT, I’ve just decided, is what a good club track should be about – getting you dancing, and keeping you dancing, and by that definition this is a good club track. I demand more of this sort of thing, and so I say to you, Movetron people: please don’t go away for another two years again.

Hera Björk feat. Haffi Haff – Feel The Love Tonight

Well, this has got to be good.

Tim: Eleven months ago we reviewed the 2010 Iceland Pride track and somewhat liked it; a little under ten months ago we reviewed a Hera Björk track and loved it more than anything else in the world. Now, we combine the two, with this year’s Iceland Pride track, sung by the delightful Ms Björk.

Tom: Well, this has got to be good.

Tim: You’d think, wouldn’t you?

Tom: Oh.

Tim: Let’s not mince words: it’s disappointing. Right from the start with the autotune on her voice, it’s very disappointing indeed.

Tom: Who’s this Haffi Haff bloke? Because he appears to have dragged Hera down to his level.

Tim: No one particularly special – had a few tunes out that aren’t really worth linking to – but yeah. I wasn’t expecting another Because You Can, of course I wasn’t, and I accept it has to have a proper clubby sound to it, but it’s just so generic.

Tom: Not even an operatic bridge? Really? This could be anyone singing.

Tim: It’s a shame – she has such a fantastic and capable voice, and it’s wasted on this Rihanna/Britney/Beyoncé/J-Lo/anyone soundalike.

Avril Lavigne – Smile

Avril Lavigne has made some good songs. This is not one of them.

Tom: Avril Lavigne has made some good songs. This is not one of them.

Tom: “Last night I blacked out I think / what did you, what did you put in my drink”. A classy date-rape reference there.

Tim: Ah, rohypnol. Every man’s choice when they want their reluctant girlfriend to, um, get a tattoo. Riiight.

Tom: I think the very last frames of the video sum it up for me. She’s smiling at the camera, showing the heart – don’t ask me how that metaphor works – bouncing along after doing all the rolling-on-the-floor shenanigans. She backs away – and the video director doesn’t quite cut away soon enough, as the smile disappears from her face in an instant and the spell’s broken.

I know that’s how all music videos work. I know it’s acting. I know you can’t possibly be that genuinely happy all the time, particularly when you’ve heard your own song for the fortieth time that day and don’t have the energy left. But that’s what this feels like to me – by the numbers pop-punk. Dare I say it – it’s got a bit of the Nickelback about it.

Tim: Re: the metaphor, I sort of get it, but IT’S THE WRONG SONG. What we have in the video – and the whole heart-collecting thing would actually be quite a good video – is a girl who’s had her heart broken and is gradually getting better. By the end of the song, she’s fine, she’s over him, let’s have a one night stand with a randomer thank you very much. This song? Not remotely like that, and it’s STUPID. It could even just work if they changed the word ‘stole’ to ‘broke’. But no. STUPID AAARGH.

Saturday Flashback: Loona – Vamos A La Playa

“Let’s go to the beach and have a party.”

Tim: The third and final Flashback for the time being coming from French radio, this cover of a 1999 track by pretty-much-one hit wonder Miranda came out last September.

Tom: I’d completely forgotten this song! This was on the radio when I was about 15, I think. I liked it back then.

Tim: In case you didn’t get it from the video, the general message here is: let’s go to the beach and have a party.

Tom: “La Playa”. Got it.

Tim: It has an infectious hook, a pleasant summer feel to it and gentle product placement in the video.

Tom: As well as the typical “let’s see how close can we get to showing nudity before the TV channels won’t show us any more”.

Tim: Well, naturally. It is, basically, entirely generic. In a good way, though, because this sort of tune is nice: it’s happy, upbeat, and if you complain about it you can sod off and be miserable elsewhere, thank you very much.

Tom: The bits that aren’t the chorus are really terrible, and that rising-siren sample in the background really annoys me. Right, I’ll sod off elsewhere.

Tim: Good, because you’re wrong. Though, if you want to hear the original again, it’s here, with a fairly heated multilingual argument about whose version is better in the comments and with some vastly less attractive models in the video, so you probably wouldn’t like it.

Tom: Can’t hear you. I’ve sodded off elsewhere.