George Ezra – Paradise

“He’s the one with the weirdly deep and resonant voice that sets me on edge a little.”

Tim: Today, in “interchangeable middle class British white solo males”: George Ezra!

Tom: Oh, yeah, he was the one who… no, that was… wait, didn’t he… yeah, no, they’re all interchangeable, carry on.

Tom: I remember! He’s the one with the weirdly deep and resonant voice that sets me on edge a little. Seriously, I had to check whether the unofficial upload you’ve linked to there had been pitched downwards to avoid copyright detection.

Tim: Nope, that’s just his voice.

Tom: Also, I thought there were two singers for a bit. There aren’t, he just changes register really quickly. Anyway. Yes. The song.

Tim: Decent launch track for a second album, I’d say – it’s up and off right from the get go, a shout and call back to get the audience involved, and most importantly of all, a chorus I’m still humming well after the track’s finished.

Tom: I despise that chorus. I’ll agree with all the points that you have above, but I still despise that chorus just for the line “your bloody veins”. First: ew. Second: what do you even mean by that, that’s an accurate adjective but it’s got horrendous subtext. Come to think of it, a lot of the lyrics here seem a bit… off, but it’s “bloody veins” that really grates on me.

Tim: Yeah, that lyric does put me off quite a bit, most because ‘bloody’ is comparatively rarely used to mean ‘full of blood’, so it just sounds confusing if nothing else. Everything else, though, I’ve no issue with (and I don’t mind his voice). So sure, the resurgence of guitar pop may have been and gone a couple of years back, but when it’s a rocking and basically just plain BANGING as this, I can always find room for it.

Tom: Sadly it turns out that, for me at least, they aren’t all interchangeable. If they were, I’d probably be OK with this too.

Example – The Answer

“So far, so standard Example”

Tom: Today, in “artists you remember from a few years ago and are surprised they’re still going”: Example!

Tom: Great verses, although that’s admittedly partly because it sounds a bit like a couple of Chainsmokers tracks.

Tim: YES, that’s why it sounds good – I was thinking “yep, so far, so standard Example”, without realising it was Chainsmokers I was thinking of.

Tom: That first verse and build is a really promising opening to the track.

Tim: Hmm, in the sense that “something interesting could happen”, though I wouldn’t say ‘really’.

Tom: Shame about the chorus and middle eight, really.

Tim: Really really.

Strobe! feat. KIDDO – Feeling Good

“Change those synths a little and it’d be full 2015.”

Tim: Miserable Monday, middle of January, and so I’d like to share this, as Strobe! (a.k.a. two guys called Petter & Isak) and KIDDO have a way of dealing with sadness.

Tom: That’s a promising intro there. I didn’t expect it to be almost-tropical though. (Almost. Change those synths a little and it’d be full 2015.)

Tim: Admittedly, it’s not the song I thought it’d be when I saw the title and first pressed play – it’d probably struggle to get on a lot of daytime radio playlists – but it’s still a good listen. Production’s good, melody’s good, and so even if I can’t quite endorse the message I have a lot of time for it.

Tom: It’d sit nicely in the background of one of those chillout playlists you get on Spotify. I suspect that sounds more harsh than I intended.

Tim: I’d even go so far as to say it has some nice Galantis-y elements in there (and Galantis when they’re good), which as regular readers will know is a heck of a compliment. So me? Well, at the risk of sounding predictable: I’m feeling good.

Saturday Flashback: Noisettes – I Want You Back

“Question for you, though.”

Tom: You’ve talked about songs in unusual time signatures: here’s something where — I think — the chord progression is 4/4 in swing time, but the percussion sounds a lot like 2/4. It’s also really, really good:

Tim: Well yes, I mean the underlying bass notes right from the off are basically Doctor Who, so obviously.

Tom: I can hum the chorus after one listen, but I’m not tired of it. I immediately want to hit replay. This passes all my Good Pop Tests. Question for you, though: what decade’s style is this imitating? I can hear some Motown in here, some 80s influences, and some modern indie pop.

Tim: I’m not sure it’s necessarily imitating any particular style – sure, components from all over the time periods, but I’d say it’s just compiling them, stirring them in a pot and seeing what the recipe generates. Works well.

Tom: This is successfully fusing a lot of good music into something that might well be better than the sum of its parts.

ROTBLOND – Küssen

“YES. Or, rather, JA.”

Tim: Let’s have a weekend! More specifically, let’s have a weekend soundtracked by German dancepop!

Tom: YES. Or, rather, JA.

Tim: Küssen, if you can’t guess, translates as Kiss, and while I can’t find any of the lyrics online it’s probably a safe bet that it’s about getting off with each other. (Any German speakers reading this, please pass on any info about this, it’s been 15 years since my last German lesson.)

Tom: I’m pretty sure it’s actually about someone (presumably, the listener) getting off with them, rather than each other, but I’m sure you can interpret it how you want.

Tim: It’s a fairly decent dance track, really – yes, it could be brightened up by a key change (one at 2:41 would sound absolutely cheap and also absolutely fabulous) – but it’s got a beat, vocal skills, a decent melody and nothing hugely wrong with it. Not exactly the highest of compliments, but it’ll do for now.

Tom: “Nothing hugely wrong with it” basically sums up my thoughts too. It’s a decent mid-cheesy-playlist track, and that’s fine.

Tim: Oh, and speaking of key changes, while I know I said I wouldn’t harp on about the film, Hugh Jackman’s one in From Now On is truly excellent. Nope, I still haven’t stopped listening to that soundtrack.

Amanda Delara – We Don’t Run From Anyone

Tim: Bit of a weird thing: the music video for this only covers 90 seconds or so of the song; specifically, the second verse/chorus and the beginning of the middle eight. It does, therefore, cover all the most important parts, but you still might want to check out the whole track.

Tom: I wonder if that’s a one-off decision, or a new strategy from record companies to prevent people just ripping stuff off YouTube?

Tim: So here’s the thing: that song’s great – the vocal is great, the production’s great, everything about it is great.

Tom: I’m very surprised you think that — I’ll grant you it’s a great chorus, but the verse is a bit too slow and plodding for me. That said, I found myself automatically singing along with the “we don’t run from anyone” in the post-chorus during the first listen, so that’s a good sign. You think everything about it’s great, though?

Tim: Including that string section that’s beginning to appear at the end of the video (and really kicks on the main song at 2:37), which is just so, so reminiscent of the “your song is on repeat/dancing to on to your heartbeat” melody from Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson’s Symphony that I don’t quite get how no-one noticed it.

Tom: I mean, I didn’t notice it, so… I don’t know, maybe Lana Del Rey has a point.

Tim: Other than that, though: like I said, fantastic track.

Owl City – Lucid Dream

“I’m having trouble believing you’re being serious here.”

Tom: Owl City’s singles tend to be EITHER brilliant bubblegum pop bangers OR dull introspective wishy-washy rubbish. With a title like this, from an album called Cinematic, I’m not hopeful.

Tom: Huh. Turns out he can do both at once.

Tim: You what? Instrospective it may be, but dull and wishy-washy?

Tom: Well, yeah. This needs someone like Avicii or Axwell to just take one pass through it. Give it something to actually make a crowd go off, and and you’d have an absolutely spectacular dance track.

Tim: Are we…are we listening to the same song? That post-chorus is fantastic, and if we were on a dance floor I would absolutely lose my nut to this.

Tom: Would you? Because, yes, it’s not bad, but after one of the most spectacular and promising builds I’ve heard in a while, we just get… well, mush is the word that comes to mind. Or alternatively, you take the verses down a notch, and you’d have a lovely… well, still a dance track, just one for the end of the night.

Tim: See, I’d have the opposite suggestion – turn the verses up, to keep the energy up throughout and not have that dip between the choruses.

Tom: As it is, it occupies a middle ground that – for me – is a bit disappointing.

Tim: I’ll be honest: I’m having trouble believing you’re being serious here. That chorus is just fantastic – yes, there are improvements that could be made, but for the most part this is brilliant.

Tom: Give it those improvements, I’d love it. Right now, it just doesn’t work for me.

Post Precious – Sign of the Times

“This isn’t a full-on IN YOUR FACE remix.”

Tim: So, remember when Callum Scott took one of the best tunes of recent times and turned it into an unlistenable piece of guitar tedium?

Tom: I try not to.

Tim: Well, dialling in the extremes a bit, Post Precious have gone and done the opposite.

Tim: Like I said, we’re dialling in the extremes: Sign of the Times was actually quite enjoyable, unlike the garbage that Dancing On My Own turned into, but it’s still nice to see that there’s always someone on hand to improve it further, because this is an improvement.

Tom: Huh. I’m not so sure about that, because I really liked Sign of the Times. This isn’t a full-on IN YOUR FACE remix of the sort that, say, Almighty Records would provide, and I think it loses something from that. It needs to be BIG, to provide the same sort of kick that Harry Styles’ spectacular vocals did on the original, and it isn’t big enough.

Tim: There’s still good vocal work there, particularly towards the end of track (as in the original), but the potentially less enjoyable guitar work of the original has instead become a really rather good dance beat. Working within the limits of the original: this is a good dance track.

Tom: It just needs to go up one or two more notches.

Tim: Though I wouldn’t mind turning down that insanely repetitive single beat that starts 30 seconds in and never, ever lets up.

Tom: Oh now I’ve noticed it, and the track is ruined. Never mind.

Ben Zucker – Was für eine geile Zeit

“He’s never smoked and drunk massive amounts of whiskey – his voice is just naturally like this.”

Tim: This guy’s off Berlin, and this is his second single, following last year’s fair well performing “Na und?!” According to his Wikipedia page, he’s never smoked and drunk massive amounts of whiskey – his voice is just naturally like this.

Tim: Isn’t that good?

Tom: Oh, that is a heck of a voice. Admittedly I want to clear my throat now you’ve pointed it out, but yes, that’s a proper Blues Singer voice being applied to pop, which is fun.

Tim: Title translates to “What A Great Time”, and the song’s basically about a load of friends getting back together for a party, and, whether it’s intentional or not, the musical progression of this song sums the whole situation up perfectly. We start out as a fairly standard light rock track that you get when everyone’s “hey, how are you doing, what are you up to?”, gradually becoming a little more boisterous for the “wait, you really did do that? With her?” period, before the massive breakdown when basically everybody’s losing their shit on the dancefloor, and he’s doing that with her all over again.

Tom: That sounds like a personal story there, but, yeah, sure.

Tim: A great time indeed, and Ben, you’re very welcome to nick that concept for the music video.

Tom: This isn’t immediately going on my playlist, but there’s nothing wrong with it either — I just feel it needs something a little bit more.

Tim: Well, this isn’t the version I first heard and which inspired me to post this; that version is the Darius & Finlay Edit, which adds in a fabulous string backing and has an even better post chorus, but sadly it’s not on YouTube. If you’ve got a streaming service near you, do yourself a favour and play it now. You won’t regret it.

Saturday Flashback: Martin Garrick feat. Usher – Don’t Look Down

“He decides to weirdly harass a girl he finds attractive.”

Tim: Another victim of the Safari tab cull (it was fun when it reached 69, but then it was just silly), and I’m fairly sure I had this one up mostly for the video, which was created for the “happened a couple of times then they realised no-one was really interested” YouTube Music Awards.

Tom: Hey, don’t knock them — they gave us the spectacular video for Kygo’s Stole the Show.

Tim: So Martin’s a bit upset, with no-one really appreciating anything he does, and probably also being paid sod all, so he decides to weirdly harass a girl he finds attractive. As you do.

Tom: Except, even more weirdly, that is not Martin. That’s an actor called Aj Knight. But yes, either way, that’s still not a great plot.

Tim: Kind of like she’s Shania Twain, and he’s trying to show that he can impress her very very much indeed, but she’s all “mate, didn’t you listen to the song?” In the end, obviously there has to be a happy ending, which in this case is another girl finding him attractive even though he has no interest in her.

Not sure how happy that is, really, though I suppose it’s a good hook for a Basshunter-style sequel if nothing else, with “No Really, You Shouldn’t Look Down” telling the exact same tale but just gender-swapped, and with an unusual twist at the end that no-one sees coming.

Tom: Sure, we can do that:

Tim: Cracking track, mind.