Tag: Beatrice Eli

Beatrice Eli – It’s Over

“Bit too slow, bit too dark.”

Tom: Our regular reader Roger sends in this one. There’s a free festival in the Swedish town where he lives; Beatrice Eli performed and, in his words: “this was my biggest surprise!”

Tom: Hmm. Well, I can be charitable and say “it’s not to my taste”.

Tim: Fair enough. Care to elaborate?

Tom: Bit too slow, bit too dark: those would be OK if it went somewhere, but it really doesn’t. What do you reckon?

Tim: Well, the verses leave me cold – I wasn’t really getting anything much until the chorus, but that I actually rather liked. My main problem is the middle eight, which is just a bit dull – if that was livened up a bit to match the chorus slightly, or just given a little bit of variation, I’d be all for this. As it is, well, five out of ten. Not bad, could do better.

Beatrice Eli – The Conqueror

“Both big and small and dark and sweet at the same time.”

Tim: Debut single from a Swedish singer, who has described it as an “off-centred synthballad” that is “both big and small and dark and sweet at the same time”.

Tom: What?

Tim: Yeah – sounds like a load of pretentious rubbish to me, but let’s have a listen anyway.

Tim: Hmm. I think that could be one of the hardest tracks to write about I’ve come across, actually.

Tom: Weirdly, I can see what those descriptions mean, now. It is a synth-ballad, it is indeed off-centre, and… well, it fits all that. I just can’t decide if it’s any good.

Tim: For a start, it seems instantly forgettable. That’s kind of a bad thing, but I think it’s due to the way the song fluctuates so much between various moods – an utterly downbeat verse, big charming chorus instrumentation but still with the same negative vocals, then added the sort of middle eight bit where the instruments more than cancel out the vocals and it all sort of merges together in a bit of a gloop, really.

Tom: I think I like it. It’s deep, and it’s moody. It’s the kind of music that gets you fired up, rather than dancing or happy. There’s not enough of that.

Tim: It was alright – I’d happily listen to it again, I know that much, but I don’t really know quite why, or what it is I liked about it.

Beatrice Eli – The Conqueror

Sounds like it’s going to go somewhere.

Tim: Interesting, this one.

Tom: I’m not sure about ‘interesting’, really. When it kicks in, the chorus sounds like it’s going to go somewhere and then… it doesn’t.

Tim: To be honest, I don’t really know what to say about this. I think it’s great–well, pretty good, at least–but I’m not sure how to justify that. Do I need to?

Tom: Well, yes, you do really. Because to me, it’s a lovely voice wasted on a bit of a downbeat, dull tune.

Tim: I mean, the voice is a bit weird, the music’s nothing huge, and yet it fits together nicely. Umm, ethereal? Is that the right word? Sort of, I suppose. OH, I DON’T KNOW. But I like this.