Alle Farben & James Blunt – Walk Away (Martin Jensen Remix)

“It’s the remixed bit that makes it.”

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.

Anna Naklab feat. Alle Farben & YOUNOTUS – Supergirl

“It’s a curious track, largely due to the lyrics.”

Tim: Anna’s a German singer who’s been a featured vocalist on a dance track before, but this is the first track with her name on the door, as it were. It’s a cover of a 2000 rock track, and it’s a bit lovely.

Tim: It’s a curious track, largely due to the lyrics. They’re interesting, in an “I Will Always Love You” fashion, because the main line is HAPPY and GREAT and SUPERGIRL, but actually it’s a bit grim. We’re just putting off everything that’s shit and hoping that we won’t have to deal with the inevitable fall out, pretending we don’t know what inevitable means.

Tom: Ah, the “Semi-Charmed Life” effect.

Tim: Pretty much, yeah, which in turn leads to further discrepancies in the lyrics; compounding that, though, we’ve subdued vocals throughout on top of high, happy and relaxing instrumental lines.

Tom: Yep: it’s the kind of thing that’s going to turn up on a “chilled dance” album at some point. Maybe not in the first CD, but it’ll still get picked for it. That’s probably harsher than I intended it to be.

Tim: Possibly, because it is that relaxing part that stand outs for me, and I love it. THANKS BEATS 1 FOR INTRODUCING IT TO ME YOU’RE GREAT!!