Rasmussen – Go Beyond

“Stylistically it’s similar but PUMPED UP”

Tim: You may remember Rasumussen from the fairly impressive slightly Viking-y Higher Ground at Eurovision last year; here’s his somewhat belated follow up.

Tim: And I LOVE that.

Tom: And I’m indifferent! Business as usual, then. Why do you like it so much?

Tim: Stylistically it’s similar but PUMPED UP, and I don’t think that ever fails to improve a pop song (Time To Say Goodbye doesn’t count, wasn’t a pop song in the first place). We’ve similar millennium old instruments, even if they are almost entirely synthetic this time round, and they always work well for me.

Tom: So that does all make sense: but imagine if you hadn’t thought much of Higher Ground? Then PUMPING IT UP would just seem… well, still not that impressive. Admittedly I can remember the chorus after listing, which is usually a good sign, but this time I just don’t want to.

Tim: Higher Ground was one of my Eurovision favourites last year, and this just builds on that.

Saturday Flashback: Sam Smith – Too Good At Goodbyes (Galantis Remix)

“Still a largely dull track, but there are significant improvements”

Tom: I’m assuming you know the original Too Good At Goodbyes, Tim.

Tim: Correct. As with much of Sam Smith’s output, it is dull, tedious, insipid garbage, albeit slightly redeemed by the backing choir in the chorus and middle eight.

Tom: In which case, you should get ready for the biggest case of pop mood-whiplash you’ve had in a while. Because Sam Smith’s sad, slow, soppy song is about to become a BANGER complete with a euphoric build that sounds like a washing machine spinning up.

Tim: That…that is an unusual yet entirely correct description of that euphoric build.

Tom: I learned it from Brett Domino.

Tim: It’s still a largely dull track, but there are significant improvements – not least, chopping over a minute off the runtime.

Tom: Here’s the thing: I have no idea how, but I’d managed to miss the original Too Good At Goodbyes entirely. I just, somehow, never heard it. So when I heard this on the radio somewhere, I remembered the name of the track, searched for it later, and found the original instead of this. It was one of the most disappointing listens I’ve ever had.

Tim: Whereas this is…well, still one of the most disappointing Galantis listens I’ve ever had, but it’s still better than the original.

Galantis feat. Sophia Carson – San Francisco

“It’s good! I like it! That’s unusual! “

Tim: This slipped me by when it came out last month because it was the Friday before Christmas, but here it is – Galantis’s latest, featuring the same singer who was on Alan Walker’s latest track as well. Coincidence? Very probably.

Tom: That’s the best introduction and first verse I’ve heard in a while. Full marks for having the confidence to use just a vocoded acapella: with a bad melody that would have completely killed the track. But it’s good! I like it! That’s unusual!

Tim: So, Galantis haven’t had a proper hit since Love On Me, the brilliant track that came out…a little over two years ago. I would argue that’s a shame, but then I think back and much as I typically very much enjoy their output – it’s not exactly memorable, is it? I think this kind of demonstrates why.

Tom: That’s harsh but not entirely untrue. I really did enjoy this track, almost as much as I still enjoy Satisfied. But I think it’s fair to say that given both tracks are about two and a half minutes, Galantis knows exactly how long people will want to listen to their tracks for. That repetition of “San Francisco” got old on a second listen. But hey, at least I gave it a second listen.

Tim: It’s okay, it’s standard as Galantis fare seems to go nowadays…but it’s not anything really special. I miss that, really, I do.

Hugo Helmig – Young Like This

“I’m well aware I’m going into Grampa Simpson territory”

Tim: It almost saddens me to say this, but we’re dragging out the ‘we’re young so let’s have fun’ trope again.

Tom: Two rhyme schemes I hate in a row! “Young like this / dumb like this” may be the most irritatingly trite lyric I’ve heard in a while.

Tim: I dunno, I think it’s alright. But it’s the message I want to discuss, because, while I’m well aware I’m going into Grampa Simpson territory, here’s the thing: it’s bullshit.

Tom: You are entirely correct, although how much of that is based on the no-doubt-reasonable explanation you’re about to give, and how much is based on me being in my thirties now, I’m not sure.

Tim: Hugo (from Denmark) is university age right now, and yes I will accept that it is good to have fun at university and engage in one’s youth. But it is arguably so much better to have fun in your early to mid twenties, when you don’t have to worry about essays and dissertations, and the worst that’ll happen is you’ll get a stern ticking off for turning up to work with a hangover. You have experience and knowledge under your belt to stop you making a complete prick of yourself and dying, and you’re also not so worried about waking up tomorrow needing reading glasses and a toupee that you feel you need to get it all out of your system.

Tom: Harsh.

Tim: But fair. Basically, RELAX HUN, you’ve got at least a decade left of enjoying yourself, so stop moaning.

Tom: Welcome to your thirties, Tim.

Tim: A pleasure to be here.

Kevin Walker – Send Me A Card

“Boy is it jaunty.”

Tim: Kevin’s still jumping back and forth being being a singer and professional footballer; here’s his first track since his 2015 Christmas one, and boy is it jaunty.

Tom: Here’s a complaint I’ve never, ever made before here: I despise the rhyme scheme of this song. I don’t know why, but that “all / wall / tall” just grated in the first verse and I could never let it go after that. This is a really petty complaint, I know, because like you say, the rest of this is pleasantly jaunty.

Tim: Okay, Tom: you often mention your Good Pop Song tests – do you immediately want to press play again, can you remember the chorus afterwards – and they’ve kind of buried their way into my head as well now. And with this one, I was ‘yes, but no’.

Tom: The exact opposite for me: I didn’t want to press play again, but I could remember that damn chorus.

Tim: Except, half an hour later, i had a tune going round in my head, and I couldn’t place it, until I realised it was this one. So does that count? Because I do absolutely want to keep pressing play here – the melody is great, decent enough lyrics, and all in all it just makes me feel good. Happy, in fact.

I think that’s because there are a lot of familiar components in there – nothing copied, but things like the layered vocals, the call and return in the middle eight – going together to make a song that’s basically just reassuringly enjoyable.

Tom: I’ll grant you that my heart did soften a bit for that final chorus. He needs to go to a harmony line (or perhaps even just up an octave) on that last note, though.

Sval – Breathe Easy

“That’s a good introduction!”

Tim: Bit of lovely pop for you today, from Sval who’s been off for aaaaaages, but has now started singing in English for us.

Tom: That’s a good introduction! And a promising first verse.

Tim: Isn’t it? A quiet verse perhaps, but with that intermittent high note that reminds remind of a lovely Sound of Arrows track, so that’s fine by me, and then that’s just an all-round great chorus.

Tom: It is, although I think again you’re being a bit too generous with “great” there. It’s good! It’s not bad! I mean, it’s not awful, certainly. It’s, sure, it’ll do.

Tim: The clapping back in from the middle eight works well, although it’s possibly a tad uninspired, and everything’s just pretty good, really. It’s a nice track.

jens – Any Other Way

“One of the strongest closing sections I’ve heard in ages.”

Tom: What, he couldn’t afford a capital letter?

Tim: ‘jens’ is off Norway, bringing us this, with a promising start, dipping occasionally, but with one of the strongest closing sections I’ve heard in ages.

Tim: Am I wrong?

Tom: Thanks to a particular cadence and chord in that first verse, I kept singing “I Can’t Go For That” over this for a while. But, you’re right: that’s a really strong recovery out of the middle eight, and it almost saves the rest of the track.

Tim: The less enjoyable parts for me come at the start of each chorus, with the iffy vocoding; on the other hand, from 1:45 onwards it barely puts a note wrong. There’s almost a slight genre shift, really – from brooding electropop to regular upbeat pop, and I love that. The backing vocals that come along thirty seconds before the end? Marvellous.

Tom: And at three minutes long, I can deal with the slower parts. Sure, it’s not going on my regular playlist any time soon, but it gets a solid “Sure, That’ll Do” from me, which is practically an endorsement by my standards.

Saturday Flashback: U96 – Heaven

“WHAT A BANGER. ABSOLUTE TUNE.”

Tim: Dance cover of a classic song; despite the title, I can guarantee you it won’t be anything like what you expect.

Tom: You are right, I did not expect that. I should have done, given we’ve talked about U96 before. That is prototypical 90s Eurodance right there.

Tim: I’d ask why anybody would think to do this, but to be honest I just don’t care, because basically WHAT A BANGER. ABSOLUTE TUNE. You’ve got fifteen seconds of ‘this sounds familiar, where’s it from?’, before your first ‘OH LET’S GO’, then thirty seconds later you’ve stopped going crazy and can think a bit and you’re ‘huh, it’s…it’s…it’s…OH, it’s that, this is odd’ but before you can finish that thought it GOES OFF again, and after that it calms down briefly and you wonder why they’ve completely ripped it off but then RAVE ON MOTHERFLIPPERS and it JUST DOESN’T STOP so right now WHO THE HELL CARES.

Tom: Which, let’s be honest, is the standard I hold most 90s Eurodance to: is it a BANGER? This just about qualifies.

Tim: The next morning, on the mother of all come downs, you look it up on your phone, because obviously you’ve Shazzamed it, and you discover that Cyndi Lauper’s got a writing credit on it so everything’s beautiful. Like in heaven, really.

Isle of You – Change Of Heart

“Still good? I’d say still good.”

Tom: Why do I know that name? Have we talked about them before?

Tim: Indeed, and at the risk of setting undue expectations, they’ve been rather well received, largely because their synth-style sits bang in the middle of ‘yep, this is CHVRCHES’ territory. So, bearing that in mind…

Tim: Still good? I’d say still good.

Tom: I don’t like that pre-chorus or middle eight! There are plenty of bits I do like, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get over the rest of it.

Tim: Oh, shame, because I’ve little negative to say here It’s not as loud as previously, but in this case it’s not remotely a bad thing, because it gives everything a better chance to be heard properly and appreciated bit by bit. The great voice, the nice instruments, and generally just the…wholeness of it, which I’m aware sound ridiculous but basically I just think this track sounds good.

Tom: There are a lot of good elements but heavens, there are some irritating bits in here. Even the “change of heart” bit in the chorus, which initially sounded like a nice 80s throwback, started to grate for me by the end. This… is not for me.

Tim: But me? I press play, and I enjoy it. And that’s pretty much what I need from a track. Not to be blown away by it every time, but just to this “ahh, this is nice”.

Molly Sandén – Jag E (Vierge moderne)

“It can’t exactly be worse than Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme.”

Tim: Normally here I’d tell you what the title translates to, but I’ll explain later. Might as well just press play.

Tim: So, yes, I would discuss the lyrics, but they’re a bit of a surreal nonsense where she lists things she is, which include, amongst many others, a fruit, a sun ray, a bowl, and also a network of fish. There is a reason, though, which is that there’s a Swedish TV series where pop stars make songs from the words of poems.

Tom: Huh. I… I guess that’s a TV format. I don’t know what to say.

Tim: Nope, me neither, but since it can’t exactly be worse than Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme or All Together Now (I’m not linking to those, they don’t deserve it), we don’t really get to criticise.

Tom: Fair. Okay, so my standards for this have been knocked down from “big pop track” to “song made for a TV show”. Got it.

Tim: Given that restriction, as a song I’d say it’s pretty good. Sure, it may start out a bit ballady, but given the source material that’s hard to avoid, and it picks up soon enough into a pretty listenable song. Nicely rescued, record producer.

Tom: For the first time this week, you’re on my level of cynicism, and we agree.