Saturday Flashback: Alvin & the Chipmunks – Always On My Mind

“de-Chipmunked”

Tom: Are y…

Tim: YES I KNOW but let me speak. Squeakiness is a cheap easy gimmick – bit rubbish, but it seems it sells well enough for them to keep doing it. That’s why they’ve made over fifty albums (including many Greatest Hits albums, several Christmas albums, and indeed more than a couple of Greatest Christmas Hits albums). A typical reaction is to listen for twenty seconds, think “oh this is a bit fun”, skip to the next track and repeat until bored. One other reaction, had by SoundCloud user chipmunkson16speed, is to think “what would happen if I slowed this down?”

Tom: Huh. They covered the Pet Shop Boys version, not the original. That dates this record, certainly.

Tim: So, as it turns out, a de-Chipmunked Chipmunks cover is the version of Always On My Mind that you never realised could be so good.

Tom: Hold on, no. We’ve talked about this before. This is no Willie Nelson.

Tim: Oh, and I’m not remotely suggesting it is. My point is just that it’s just so unexpected – the slightly whiny backing vocal sounds a bit off, but otherwise I find this really enjoyable. It’s worth remembering that this was recorded back in the days before digital pitch shifting, so this is, roughly, what was originally recorded, and it does sound good. The most surprising thing is that even though the whole Chipmunk song idea is so cheap and cynical, the singer, whoever he is, is singing it with no small amount of emotion. No need to do it, there’ll never be any recognition, but he still went for it.

Tom: I’ll grant that, but I suspect a lot of that emotion is brought in by the graininess that comes from all the processing that’s been done. Although I’ll grant you the harmonies are pretty good.

Tim: A sad post script, though: according to the Alvin & The Chipmunks fan wiki (because of course there’s one), the Reception section for this one’s album consists of one single sentence: “This album did not chart.” Oh well.

HRVY – Phobia

“It’s not entirely awful!“

Tim: Hey, remember HRVY, in whose debut track we could find nothing good whatsoever? WELL, apparently his contract didn’t include an “ABANDON SHIP GET OUT NOW” clause, as he’s back with a follow-up. And…

Tim: It’s not entirely awful!

Tom: It looks like they actually filmed in Times Square when it was quiet, which is a bold move, he must be up way past his b… sorry, I just got interrupted by the chorus, and it’s actually good!

Tim: Isn’t it? There’s energy to it, there’s a fairly decent melody, and the lyrics, while being based around an admittedly poor base concept, aren’t all that bad. In fact, I could actually see myself not skipping this if it came up on a playlist. I’m not sure I’d choose actively to listen to it, but I do genuinely enjoy the melody of the chorus.

Tom: It does a Thing near the end of the chorus — I think it’s probably a shift to minor key, but I don’t have the music theory to say what exactly — and it’s lovely.

Tim: Judge me if you want, but I’m glad he didn’t pack it in and go back to Instagram.

Ed Sheeran – Bibia Be Ye Ye

“They might not be your typical Ghanaian issues.“

Tom: Oh, no, no, you’ve picked an Ed Sheeran song. Now I have to deliberately listen to an Ed Sheeran song.

Tim: Now now, open mind please. Ed proudly stated at the beginning of the year that ÷ contained music of a wide range of genres and influences, having spent six months travelling the world – we’ve already seen tropical pop, standard guitar pop and traditional Irish, and now that Despacito has in just seven months broken the all time record for YouTube plays, he reckons it’s time to give the summer foreign one a push.

Tom: Now, not only have I deliberately listened to an Ed Sheeran song, but I’ve found it not completely objectionable. I am not happy with today.

Tim: Please Tom, remember that we have a very strict “no such thing as a guilty pleasure” rule here. My cynicism from earlier was probably unfair, actually, or at least wrongly reasoned – it was more likely chosen because it’s revealed itself as a fan favourite (not something I’d considered previously about putting your whole album out at once – you can see which tracks people love and focus on those, rather than guessing).

Tom: You can also force the charts company to change their rules.

Tim: Well that’s a rant I’ll save for another day. And it’s a good video as well, not least because it’s all about folks in Ghana rather than him (title means All Will Be Well), even if the lyrics about throwing up hungover in a taxi and leaving shoes by an oak tree might not be your typical Ghanaian issues.

Tom: I was wondering about that.

Tim: I don’t know, maybe it is culturally way off lyrically, but it sounds good to me. I’ll take it.

Lana Del Rey feat. A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti – Summer Bummer

“That is a bloody awful title.”

Tom: That is a bloody awful title.

Tim: Can’t disagree with you there. We’ve previously had Summertime Sadness, with a slight lack of love for the season; big question is whether there’s been any change of heart yet. (Spoilers: no, and this contains strong language throughout.)

Tim: Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually think it was possible for Lana to get any more miserable. And yet, somehow, she manages it. It’s rare for me to welcome the appearance of a guest rapper, as we all know, but at least here it breathes life into the song. The whole thing…I don’t know.

Tom: Well, it’s a style, certainly. And there are some absolutely beautiful moments in here: that piano backing, pretty much all the pre-chorus and the first part of middle eight, and… hmm. Well, not the big parts of the song.

Tim: I don’t know if she regrets painting herself into a corner with the “yeah, I sound miserable, live with it”, but I can’t help thinking it means some songs just don’t work.

The main line “don’t be a bummer babe, be my undercover lover babe” would be fine, if it actually sounded like she wanted him to stop him being a bummer.

Tom: I just sounds wrong every time for me. It’s a silly word in the middle of such a dark song.

Tim: But that’s the thing – lyrically, it’s not dark. Give it the music it deserves, and it’d be fine. As it is, it sounds like she wants him to join her in the bath as she picks up the toaster, and I really don’t think this works.

Saturday Flashback: Ben Haenow – Lions

“This calls for goddamn flamethrowers.”

Tim: Remember when I said his disappointingly quickly abandoned album was really quite good? Well here’s an example of why. (It starts out a bit strummy and rubbish, but you won’t regret sticking with it.)

Tom: That does start out strummy and rubbish, you’re right, and then…

Tim: WHAT A CHORUS. I mean sometimes you have a lighters out moment, but this calls for goddamn flamethrowers. I can also recommend Way Back When and Testify, but this is the real highlight for me. It’s all about the chorus – of course it is – which can sometimes be a problem, particularly if the verses are a bit weak.

Tom: Which they are here. Quite a bit.

Tim: Yes, fair point, or at least the first verse. Fortunately, we’ve got a fairly strong second verse, and also a middle eight that’s almost as good as the chorus, and the chorus itself which is just damn fantastic.

Tom: I think I’m just not sold on that chorus the way you are. I will agree with you that the middle eight — and the added backing over that final chorus — are good, but it takes a long time to get there.

Tim: It’s a great song, and it’s such a shame it never got any real recognition.

Tom: It’s no Second Hand Heart, though, is it?

Tim: Well, that’s just stating the obvious.

Vance Joy – Lay It On Me

“Pure drama.”

Tim: You might not remember the name, but you’ll probably remember his song Riptide from a few years back, as it went top 10 basically everywhere and has been a staple of chill out playlists ever since. Our reader, Henrik, sends this in as his latest, describing it as “a song that is just pure drama.”

Tom: That’s a bold statement, and I’m not sure it’s a good one. Is it pure drama?

Tim: He’s not wrong.

Tom: I’ll be honest, I misheard “put it in my coat” in the first verse as “put it in my cock” and I was very confused. Anyway.

Tim: Quite the builder there, but it’s odd, as it’s a build that I didn’t really notice until it had basically entirely built – more a sort of gradual growing through childhood than the teenage growth spurts most songs come with. That’s fine, but it did mean that I slightly faded out at the start, and got a sudden shock when I heard the big brass blast at the chorus.

Tom: Yep, that’s about what happened to me. This sort of jaunty brass-pop isn’t really my thing, but I can appreciate how well it’s put together, and that middle eight — when the backing singers come in — is admittedly pretty damn good.

Tim: Listening a second time, paying attention to it properly, I discover that actually it’s beautifully crafted, and a joy to listen to. And “pure drama” is an excellent way to describe it.

As far as the video goes: I’m sure it’s lovely, but I’m too distracted by the fact that he’s the spitting image of that guy off Game of Thrones and Iron Fist, and all I’m really wondering is why his hand never starts glowing yellow. But that’s just my problem.

Ben Haenow – Alive

“A lot of missed opportunities here.”

Tim: Would you like to see the single most convincing argument ever for lyric videos to be professionally made?

Tom: I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?

Tim: I mean really, if you’re going to make a copyright infringing lyric video, at least put some effort to get the timing, and indeed the lyrics themselves, right.

Tom: I get the feeling the tool they used didn’t let them.

Tim: Hmm, possibly. But ANYWAY, let’s talk about Ben Haenow, because upsettingly basically nobody else is. Winner’s single aside, he got just one track from his (really quite good) first album released, with roughly no promotion at all even though it featured actual Kelly Clarkson, and then got binned off by Syco just three months later. Not quite a record – Steve Brookstein only lasted seven months, but then he’s Steve Brookstein.

Tom: And meanwhile, Fleur East is… well, still technically going.

Tim: Well fortunately, Ben’s a nice chap, and so is BACK with this, a darned good track.

Tom: Really? I mean, it’s not actively bad, but it seems like a lot of missed opportunities here. Each part of it seems to be just not quite there — the vocals are a bit buried in the mix, the backing almost seems discordant at times. What do you like?

Tim: There’s a slight Take Me To Church vibe about it – a (comparatively, but really not) calm verse, a quiet part and then going properly all in, deep, emotional and heartfelt, for that chorus. For me, that works so, so well, and I love it. Not as much as either of his previous ones, admittedly, but it’s still damn good.

Samir & Viktor – Vi gör det ändå

“They know what they’re doing, and they don’t mind.”

Tom: They’re still going! And this is going to be studio singing as well, so it might be half-decent.

Tim: “We’ll Do It Anyway”, reckon the duo, as they celebrate 100 million streams in the video for their new one. Didn’t know that was a thing, but I suppose it makes sense, really, with streaming having vastly overtaken purchases (at least in Sweden – as far back as 2014, streaming made up 80% of all music revenue there).

Tom: Fair play to them for reading out negative comments in the first bit of the video. They know what they’re doing, and they don’t mind.

Tim: Full marks for laziness in the video, which seems to consist purely of unused shots from previous videos, which I think is even lazier than using tour footage – at least with that effort gets put in to film it. Here: nah, let’s let’s rummage through the trashed clips.

Tom: Hey, they could have just used stock footage that wasn’t of them. At least someone bothered to root through the files.

Tim: Hmm, I guess that’s true. Songwise, though: well, it’s what you think of when you imagine a typical Samir & Viktor track, really. Loud, brash, just musical enough to count as a song (with a lovely surprise key change in there).

Tom: Harsh. “Just musical enough” is pretty close to “not musical enough”, and this is at least a traditional pop song, and one that at least made me smile on the key change. For a song to get any emotional reaction out of me is rare, so I’ll give this one at least some points.

Tim: Oh, I’m not saying it’s bad, just similar – sure, there’s some difference in the styling, as we had between Fick Feeling and (the considerably superior) Kung, but overall, it’s like they say in the lyrics: “they said I couldn’t dance, I couldn’t sing, but I wanted to show them”. But it works. Just about.

Charli XCX – Boys

“I’m just going to watch the video again.”

Tim: Last week you mentioned that Demi Lovato had a good few celebrity cameos in her Sorry Not Sorry video. WELL, care to count?

Tom: I am certain that some else will have counted already. I’ll let them handle it.

Tim: Apparently Charli got a mental image one day of Joe Jonas eating breakfast saucily and it kind of tumbled from there, leading to a collection of 60-odd pop stars and YouTubers, and one particular diver (can’t think why), all looking somewhat seductive. (If you want a guide to who’s who, BuzzFeed’s been helpful.)

Tom: See? Told you someone else had counted.

Tim: Nice thing, though, is that even though it does distract from the song the first seven, eight, nine, (I don’t know, it’s distracting me now and I’m in double figures) times you watch it…

Tom: Mate.

Tim: Not even remotely ashamed. But even though it is distracting, it’s still a pretty good song.

Tom: Really? The stripped-down (heh) instrumentation doesn’t really do anything for me — unlike Back To You, it never really turns into anything. Are you sure you haven’t just been fooled by the video?

Tim: Oh, I’m sure – for starters, the lyrics are unapologetic, and I love that because now I can use that as an excuse if I want and not feel entirely weird. Music’s also good – I’ve no problems with the level it stays at – and so I’ve no problems with the song at all. But if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to watch the video again.

Saturday Flashback: Deja Vu feat. Tasmin – No Rhyme No Reason

“Gloriously pumped up”

Tom: We’ve talked about Almighty Records many times before. Who are Deja Vu? No-one knows. Who’s Tasmin? Not a clue, she could even be a different session singer every time, or a famous singer working under the radar. What we do know is they do spectacular high-energy cover versions of pop hits.

So here’s my question, Tim: who’s being covered here? This is the big club mix I’m linking to, so you can safely skip to about 1:14 without missing anything.

Tim: I… have no idea. When the vocal started I broke out into a massive grin because it sounds like a gloriously pumped up ABBA song, but I don’t recognise it, and Google doesn’t recognise the lyrics. Is this…is this an original song?

Tom: Correct! You spotted the trick question. Although I was fairly sure it was a Steps song I’d never heard of. So, next question: do I really like this because it sounds like a good Steps track, or just because you can basically do anything in Almighty’s style and I’ll like it?

Tim: For me, the former – the massive grin came from it sounding like a big ABBA or Steps song, and there have definitely been Almighty tracks that I’ve not enjoyed due to not knowing the original. This, though, despite having no original to compare it to, hits all the right buttons.