“Fancy some nice dancey country pop stuff from two new Swedes?”
Tim: Fancy some nice dancey country pop stuff from two new Swedes?
Tom: The limitations of our format require me to say yes.
Tim: Good, because here it is.
Tim: Voices, yes, music, yes, good melody, yes, good post-chorus, yes – let’s face it, this is a very well-polished track, and there’s not really much else to say about it.
Tom: It’s in the mould of Avicii and all those that came after. There’s some good parts in here, although while I can’t see it being a Big Summer Smash, I’m willing to be proved wrong.
Tim: To be honest, this could work well combined with yesterday’s track – they’re two songs that both shout “yep, look at us, we are Swedish and therefore we make good music”. Sums up the country, the industry and indeed this site, yes?
Tim: Current reigning champion of Swedish Idol, and here’s his third single, the first that I’m decreeing to be worthy for here. I think you’ll agree.
Tim: As the saying sort of goes, don’t bore us, get to the at least the vocal melody of the chorus, and I guess you can bring the instrumentation later if you feel it’s needed.
Tom: As long as you have the voice to carry it off. And, as you’d expect from an Idol winner, he does.
Tim: Right there, we’ve a properly good dance pop track, I think? BEATS in the music, THOUGHTFULNESS in the vocals, and SUMMER in the lyrics, which along with a decent melody is all I really need right now. Any complaints?
Tom: Weirdly, no.
Tim: Ooh, high praise indeed.
Tom: This is solid dance-pop, and if a few of those synth patches and effects are a touch dated, I don’t mind.
“It just seems like they’ve taken a fairly average dance track and stuck some warbling on it.”
Tim: People’s Vote winner at Eurovision, so obviously they’re back with a follow-up. Namely, this one.
Tim: More than a little inspiration from early Alan Walker there, though those joik sections keep it very, very clear who’s running the show here.
Tom: It’s interesting how Avicii spawned a genre, whereas Alan Walker spawned a lot of people imitating his sound. I wonder what the difference is?
Tim: That one specific twiddly sound. It’s weird – Alan’s moved on, but he still seems to own it. Now, I was a big fan of these guys at Eurovision, because the song was just what the show needed, something fun, a good tune, with a little bit of novelty to get excited about. Here, though, I’m annoyingly not so keen, which is a shame as I’d like to be.
Tom: Yep, you’re not the only one. Joik is, uh, well, let’s say it’s an acquired taste, one that I definitely haven’t acquired.
Tim: It just seems like they’ve taken a fairly average dance track and stuck some warbling on it, and much as it’s cultural and all that, it just doesn’t do it for me.
Tom: Full marks for the grammatical pedantry of “whomever” in the lyrics, though.
Tim: Remember how we all got incredibly excited by the concept of Robyn releasing a new album last year?
Tom: Well, I remember you getting incredibly excited, sure.
Tim: …and then she brought us Honey, and it was largely garbage, because nothing nice ever happens to us in the world right now? Well, imagine if we lived in a lighter timeline, and that instead it had been full of tracks like this.
Tim: I mean, FLIPPING HECK that’s a beautiful chorus, isn’t it?
Tom: First chorus, I didn’t really think much of it. In fact, I got distracted by a phone notification. A minute or so later I realised that I was quietly tapping my feet and nodding along. By my standards, that’s a ringing endorsement.
Tim: It reminds me, in particular, of You & I, a song that seven years on is still one of my favourites we’ve ever featured here just because it’s so light, jaunty and upbeat while still being a great electropop number. And this song is the same. Sure, it’s a bit lower to start with, but OOOH when that pre-chorus comes along there’s a sense of ‘huh, what’s all this then?’, we get that brief solo piano bit and THEN IT BANGS, and ALL IS GOOD.
Tom: I can see why you compared it to Robyn. It’s not quite reached the heights of Dancing On My Own, but then, what can?
Tim: Seriously, Robyn, would this have been so hard?
Tim: Starts quiet, but builds. And then builds some more, and keeps building, and…oh, you’ll see.
Tim: Do you see?
Tom: At least partly, after I stopped trying to work out why she didn’t seem to have a left arm in that cover art.
Tim: Do you now, I’d not noticed that – it is a bit odd looking, isn’t it? I’ll confess I wasn’t entirely sold on this throughout the first verse – decent enough, but possibly closer to album track status. The pre-chorus got me interested, though, and then the chorus came in properly with the amazing orchestral backing.
Tom: It’s good! I’m still not sure it’s more than an album track, but I suspect that it’s a grower: after enough radio play it’d be stuck in my head.
Tim: Good. Because after all that, it’s standard good pop song progression, really, because this is very much a good pop song. Very good indeed.
Tim: Alle Farben, the stage name of a German producer called Frans. James Blunt, yes, that one.
Tom: See, overplayed cliché songs aside, James Blunt is a really good songwriter. This has quite a lot of potential.
Tim: Together, they made a song that’s a fairly decent dancey number, but it’s not particularly hefty, and it’s missing a little something. Martin has come along and provided that.
Tim: BANGER.
Tom: The start of this absolutely passed me by — to the point that I switched off completely and started absent-mindedly working on something else. And then that build started, and I realised that you’re right: this is a good combination.
Tim: Exactly: it’s the remixed bit that makes it. We’ve still got the emotion that James provides in his voice, and fairly regular undertones in the verses, but underneath the chorus and following we’ve now got a fabulous dance breakdown that sounds just brilliant. Yes, it vanishes disappointingly after just two goes, but it’s a decent length to start with, so I’ll forgive that this time.
Tom: The verse does suffer from the melody being mostly one note — the same note that’s being played in the background. It’s a style, I guess, although I can’t say it’s one I enjoy.
Tim: To be honest, much as his vocals work slightly okay here, I’m not sure the world needed a new James Blunt track. It did, though, need this track, and if James’s presence is the price we need to pay for that, then that’s fine by me.
“Sod it, we’ve got no idea what to do, let’s just DANCE and GET SMASHED and DEAL WITH IT TOMORROW. DANCE DANCE DANCE.”
Tim: Hogland is, according to the first link that comes up with a search, “a Swedish music producer and DJ whose melodic songs have captured the ears of several million listeners”. Isn’t that nice?
Tom: Unless you’re one of the millions who want their ears back, sure.
Tim: Yep, fair. I must confess I’m not of of those several million listeners, as I’d never heard of him until this came up on a playlist last night, but see what you think.
Tim: For me, you see, my ear is well and truly captured, because that’s flipping brilliant.
Tom: You’re not wrong.
Tim: Right from that start, that guitar line promises a lot, but even with the piano tinkling, the occasional booming drums and the silence that comes along in the build up, you never really get an idea of the enormity of what’s to come until it hits, and you’re left being whacked round the head with a fantastic breakdown, the likes of which you’ve not heard in a long, long time. It’s just brilliant.
Tom: It seems to takes a very, very long time to get there: objectively, it doesn’t, but I expected the drop to hit much earlier. That’s not really a complaint: it’s decent, and the anticipation’s mostly worth it.
Tim: I’ve not been so excited on hearing an artist for the first time since Alan Walker did Faded, and I am hugely looking forward to checking out the rest of his work. I don’t even mind that the lyrics offer no resolution at all – just a “we can try, but, you know…” – because that’s followed immediately by that enormous dance breakdown.
Tom: Hmm. I’m not quite as convinced as you. There’s some really good stuff in here — but when it gets to the actual breakdown and instrumental chorus, it feels a bit generic and a-few-years-ago to me. There is, I’ll grant you, a huge amount of potential in here: if they can make a song that builds this well and also that sticks the landing, I think it’ll be spectacular. Until then, well, yes, I can see why you’re excited.
Tim: Right? So as the lyrics effectively end up being: sod it, we’ve got no idea what to do, let’s just DANCE and GET SMASHED and DEAL WITH IT TOMORROW. DANCE DANCE DANCE.
Tim: Just a few days on from their last one, here’s a new collaboration, hurrah!
Tom: They’ve found themselves a pretty good niche: find a good collaborator, work with them on a track, make a good dance tune. I don’t think there are many artists who work like that — DJ Khalid aside. But there’s a chance that this could be by-the-numbers: they’re not all hits, particularly when there’s such a short release schedule between them.
Tim: A fair possibility, but we’ve not had anything that’s complete garbage for quite a long time. Let’s try this one.
Tim: And, true to form, that is entirely not garbage.
Tom: Like the Kygo track yesterday, I wasn’t convinced about this until that build to the chorus.
Tim: Admittedly, the vocal styling might not be fully appreciated by some, as in the wrong place I wouldn’t like them. On the other hand, this is very much the right place for them – stuck just in front of a properly banging post-chorus with a great melody.
Tom: I was surprised by that post-chorus itself, though: on first listen, I thought it seemed a bit spartan and harsh. But by the end of the track: yes, I think this works. I suspect you’ll have the same problem as me, though: no middle eight.
Tim: Well, yes: obviously my usual moan about a lack of middle eight applies here, but I’m increasingly convinced that may be a lost cause, so I’ll just appreciate what I’ve got, simply because it’s very good. Very good indeed.
“Standard Kygo. Perhaps, even, above average Kygo.”
Tim: Advance warning for you, Tom: I’m in beautiful sunny Majorca right now, so there’s a strong chance (alright, a certainty) that most of the music this week will be summery dance tunes.
Tom: There’s a chance of rain here, Tim. Every day this week.
Tim: Well, with this you can pretend otherwise.
Tim: Standard Kygo. Perhaps, even, above average Kygo. A good vocal feature, a good chorus, a good theme running through it, and most importantly of all a good breakdown after it.
Tom: I wasn’t convinced until that build towards the chorus — and then, yes, I think “standard Kygo” fits it well. It’s a pretty good standard, though, isn’t it?
Tim: It really is. And who cares if you’re not okay, as long as you can dance all over the place? I had, for some reason, got it into my head that Kygo was in a bit of a funk right now, releasing disappointing tunes. But no – as this shows, that’s not even slightly the case.
Tom: This hit the internet on Friday, and I guarantee that — if you haven’t heard it by now — you’ll be surprised by the sample.
Tim: Yep, that did indeed take me by surprise. DOesn’t sound entirely out of p[lace, mind, once I’m expecting it.
Tom: Unfortunately, that sample’s the only good bit of it, as far as I can tell.
Tim: Also true.
Tom: The lyrics sit in a weird uncanny valley between rap and actual singing. The producer’s choice to near-constantly move every sample around in the stereo space is just irritating. This was the lead single off the album? Granted, Tim, we’re not the target audience for this. Presumably the kids will love it.
