Tag: Erik Segerstedt

Saturday Flashback: Erik Segerstedt – I Can’t Say I’m Sorry

“By the numbers, where the numbers are very very good”

Tim: Erik Segerstedt, Idol 2006 runner-up and the E. out of the band E.M.D. while it existed; this was his first track released.

Tim: And that’ll do me fairly well. I’ve got no real reason to feature it here other than I was listening to my Melodifestivalen 1958-2013 album, which contained E.M.D.’s Baby Goodbye (also fairly good) and felt like exploring from there. Glad I did, really – this is a very good track, as far as the American pop/rock/tinge of country melange goes, with plenty of arms in the air moments, which the video takes full advantage of. It’s really a case of “by the numbers, where the numbers are very very good”, and I’m generally happy with that. You?

Tom: Much the same: that’s some proper mid-2000s piano-pop there. It’s like a lost Train single, even down to the over-emphasis on a couple of words in the verse to keep it interesting.

Tim: Yeah, that’s a good comparison – I was thinking late Bryan Adams, but Train works very well too.

Tom: I think I meant that as a compliment, because yes: it’s a lovely song.

Erik Segerstedt – Break The Silence

Predictable, somewhat dull, and guaranteed to make you like it.

Tim: A former bandmate of Danny from EMD has gone back to doing solo stuff; he’s also gone back to doing songs of Pop Idol winners. Formerly it was his own; now it’s a cover of South Africa’s Jason Hartman, from 2009.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0bi-bRDmjQ

Tim: You can tell it’s a winner’s song, can’t you?

Tom: If I had a lighter, it’d be in the air.

Tim: Absolutely – the happy key, the increase in emotion towards the end – all adds up to something formulaic, entirely predictable, somewhat dull, and guaranteed to make you like it. Because that’s what these songs do.

I have no real trouble with this, mind, but for your first release as a returned-solo artist, why cover this?

Tom: Most people in his home country won’t have heard it; and if it’s already been picked as a winner’s song it’s reasonably bankable.

Tim: Yes, I suppose on some levels it’s appropriate, but it’s also boring (and almost identical to the original). Give us something good.

Tom: Oh, he’s already managed that. Something new, now that’d be worth a listen.