Maja Amcoff – Dopamin

“Seven writers credited on this track, and that’s the best they could come up with?”

Tim: Her follow-up to June’s debut, Alltid Som Du Vill, which we reckoned had a decent pre-chorus but a not particularly pleasant instrumental dance chorus. Is that remedied here, though?

Tim: Pleasingly: yes.

Tom: Disagreement: no. Why do you like this?

Tim: Considerably more reliant on your regular physical instruments, and when it does verge into dance beat territory, it’s pretty good – certainly vastly more listenable.

Tom: I just don’t like that instrumental. It doesn’t seem to fit with anything else I can hear – and to be honest, the rest of it doesn’t feel particularly inspiring either.

Tim: It might not fit in brilliantly, or be hugely inspiring – you’re right, there’s a slight disjoint, and there’s not much of a melody – but at least it doesn’t make me want to switch the track off.

Tom: There are seven writers credited on this track, and that’s the best they could come up with?

Tim: I suppose that’s a fair point, but I’ll still happily listen to it a good few times, as there’s nothing else to really complain about. I’ll call it a reassuring follow-up.

Paul Rey – What Good Is Love

“Should there be rules about massive choirs?”

Tim: Well, Tom? What good is love? I ask because Paul Rey off Sweden seems quite keen to find out.

Tom: That is the best chorus I’ve heard in a while. A long while. Normally I would be complaining that there’s nothing else in the song – because there isn’t – but that chorus is so good I don’t care. I couldn’t just remember it afterwards: I was singing along before the song ended.

Tim: It is indeed wonderful, but I have a question: are there rules about when you can use massive choirs? Because part of me thinks there should be, that you ought to somehow earn them and build to them rather than just plonking them in midway through the song with a “let’s liven this up” attitude. Now don’t get me wrong, I like it here, but I’m not sure it should be there right from the first chorus.

Tom: It totally should, because otherwise — huh, yeah, I see where you’re going with this.

Tim: Right? It works, yes, but then it’s got nowhere really to go, or build to. I can’t help wondering if I might prefer it if, say, that first chorus was just him, the second chorus introduced the backing males on his “what good is love when it’s over”, and then the choir crusaded in triumphantly out of the middle eight.

Having said that, of course, if that was the cut we’d got, I might be arguing for the exact opposite right now, and that it should be there from the start. I’d like to try it, though.

Tom: Some songs are growers. The catch with just listening to tracks one or two times before talking about them here is that we don’t know if that’s the case – but in this case it’s the opposite problem.

Tim: Like, a shrinker?

Tom: This is an absolutely brilliant track on first listen, but will I get bored of it, and start to hate that incredibly catchy chorus? Ask me again in a week; in the meantime, this is on my playlist.

Alan Walker – The Spectre

“It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and it’s got me properly excited”

Tim: New one off the accountant-named DJ, or rather a newly-released reworking of an older track with added vocals, and I’ve got a favour to ask: can you listen to it without watching the video?

Tom: Totally heard “ice cream” in the lyrics that first verse, until “your name” followed it and my brain worked out what I’d heard.

Tim: Thing is, I reckon this track is great. It’s the first solo material he’s put out for a while, and it’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and it’s got me properly excited. Thing is, though: while I know I do like the music, part of me thinks I might be getting more excited because of the video, which I also love – the mix of crowd footage, flames and lasers, choreographed dancers and all that weird processed bits with the planet and eyes and stuff.

Tom: Well, you’re in luck, because I reckon it’s good too — although it dips a bit too much for the second verse. But I think it’s good because it reminds me of two things: first, the ridiculous synth melodies of 90s and 2000s europop, and second, good chiptune music. (The two are related.) That melody is really, really good, and he knows how to produce a floorfiller.

Tim: Good to know. And even now as I listen to it without the video, I can confirm it is very much still a great track.

Incidentally, in you’re wondering as I was, the whole vigilante and/or criminal mask/hoody vibe came from growing up in online gaming communities, where “anyone can put on a mask”. Makes a vague sort of sense, I guess?

Tom: More like “I’ll keep my face off the internet”. Wise man.

Tim: …says the professional YouTuber.

Niall Horan – Too Much To Ask

“It’s even got some rude language!”

Tim: Track one was a pile of garbage, track two gave us a slight amount of hope for the album, and track three…

Tim: …is actually pretty damn good! And it’s even got some rude language!

Tom: Wait, really? It’s… “competent” is the word that comes to mind, and I think I mean that in the sense of Matt Cardle.

Tim: Matt Cardle’s a decent comparison, yeah, and while I’ll agree that it maybe didn’t deserve the exclamation mark, this is decidedly not the Niall I was thinking of when I said that This Town was exactly the sort of track I’d expect Niall to release. It’s a grown up, developed track rather than some melty pile of poo – it says “hello, I’m actually joining in this music scene that people who don’t just like me for being ‘the cute little nice one’ listen to”.

Tom: And I’m sure they’ll love him for it. But I can’t remember any of this track now it’s over, and I can’t remember having any sort of emotional reaction to it either.

Tim: Fair enough, though for me at least that’s a product of the genre – it’s still light guitar pop, and I don’t think he’ll move on from that at any point soon. At least it’s decent light guitar pop, though. FINALLY, Niall, you’ve done good.

Saturday Flashback: Cascada – How Do You Do

“It makes me smile every single time.”

Tim: And now, for no reason whatsoever other than “well duh, why not?”, let’s have some beautifully textbook mid-’00s Eurodance.

Tim: Not a lot to say about it, really – it’s a cover of Roxette’s (rather more successful) original song, and it makes me smile every single time it pops up on my phone.

Tom: There’s a lot to be said for a good cover like this: yes, Cascada could basically be any session singer, and yes, it’s a by-the-numbers remix — but in a style that I grew up with. Now I’m older, I’m aware that “repeating the chorus with one particular Eurodance synth patch” is not an objectively great bit of music: but that doesn’t stop me liking it. And let’s be honest, the talking bit does not fit in this song. But…

Tim: …it has a ludicrous dance beat, lyrics that are great to sing along with, and all in all I just love it. Unapologetically.

Tove Styrke – Mistakes

“Until I get used to this I’m just going to get grumpy at it.”

Tim: Just as you reported yesterday there wasn’t much around from Europe, YouTube threw this up in my recommendeds, and you’ll enjoy it a lot more if you take the pre-chorus as the chorus and the chorus as the post-chorus, at least for the first half of the song.

Tom: I actually swore out loud at that chorus.

Tim: As well you might, because just like yesterday, that’s a great pre-chorus section with a sudden dip.

Tom: Right. I know that pop’s going more experimental at the moment, and I guess that’s to be commended, but until I get used to this I’m just going to get grumpy at it.

Tim: That’s fair, although the second part, with the title in the lyrics, is still pretty good, as we’d hope for with it being the official chorus. It’s more than capable of holding up the song on its own in the closing section, with the built-up instrumentation underneath it.

Tom: Nope. Don’t like the simplistic synths — they’re like chiptune, but bad — and I don’t like the style. It’s just… not enjoyable.

Tim: MI don’t know, I can just about take it. But much like Kygo & Selena Gomez, though, for me it’s the pre-chorus that wins it, and wins it well.

Macklemore feat. Kesha – Good Old Days

“Basically four minutes of musical blueballs.”

Tom: As there’s not much in the way of good European pop music being released at the moment, I thought I’d take us over and have a look at what’s coming out of the US. And I’ve picked this one, not because it’s representative of what we usually talk about…

Tom: …but because it could be so much better if it were a bit more European.

Tim: Oh yes?

Tom: Because I’m listening to it through our pop-music lens, that’s basically four minutes of musical blueballs. Slow start. Great intro verse from a brilliant singer. Military drums starting to build. And then…

Tim: UGH. Kesha’s singing is nice, but by the end of the first verse I wanted something more. Macklemore came on, the drums started, I thought YES, let’s BEGIN…but then nothing. Just a massive anti-climax.

Tom: This could be (should be?) a banger. Instead, it just drops down again for the hook, every time. And I realise that’s a deliberate decision, and it’s all emotional, and it’s probably the point, but in my head this should have CHOIRS and BRASS SECTIONS and VIOLINS and basically a WHOLE DAMN ORCHESTRA.

Tim: Oh God, now I’m imagining this with a massive choir behind it, and DAMN YOU Tom now you’ve made me realise even more how much better it could have been. DARN IT.

MD Electro feat. Maria Marcus – Postcard

“What’s with the timing?”

Tim: I’ve long since given up trying to work out why beach dance music still gets put out well after summer’s over, but I do still find it weird. Here’s one example.

Tom: This is good! I wasn’t expecting this to be good.

Tim: I mean, in MD Electro (off Germany)’s defence, it’s a perfectly decent beach dance number – say, second or third release from an ATB album quality – with a good melody, decent production, vocals that hold up nicely, but damn, what’s with the timing?

Tom: Or that “postcard” echo in the instrumental chorus. Or that “you got me like oo-ooh” lyric. But you’re right: this is a good summer dance track, but it’s mid-September. Were they just procrastinating?

CHVRCHES – Call It Off

“There are some absolutely beautiful parts in here.”

Tim: This got sent in anonymously, and might need a bit of back story: ten years ago, Tegan & Sara released The Con, their first album to go big, and now want to celebrate that. As such, they’re putting it out again, but this time with other artists recording the tracks. Lengthy blog post here, example here:

Tim: It’s very, very different from the original, which was less than half the length and a completely different genre. This is…I want to say interesting, but I’m also aware that there’s an argument to be made for dull as well.

Tom: The two aren’t mutually exclusive. There are some absolutely beautiful parts in here: that steady build out of the middle eight into the final section is genuinely uplifting. It’s somewhat out of our remit, really; there’s an argument that this isn’t pop music at all.

Tim: It sounds like it would go on a typical CHVRCHES album, not as a song that would ever be released as a single, but as a nice closing track to round the album off with. For that, I quite like it (not least because it is the closing track on the album). Really don’t get the abrupt ending, though.

Anna of the North – Someone

Tim: Anna’s off Norway and has just released her debut album; here’s the lead single for you, which comes with an incredibly familiar intro.

Tom: That sounds like a lot of synthpop — both in terms of style and in terms of the exact synth patches used. But if you’re going to be inspired by any genre, this is a pretty good choice.

Tim: And right now I can’t place it exactly, but damn, if it isn’t just so recognisable. Regardless of that, though, and the fact that it’s a (deliberate or otherwise) second hand hook that permeates the vast majority of the song, I like the whole entity a lot – nice vocals, almost soothing and relaxing, really, and I’ll take that. A decent debut.

Tom: I’m not sure what’s going on with that… key change?… into the middle eight, but sure. It’s a good start.