Tom: D Wayne Love? That’s a reference hardly anyone’s going to get, but I’m going to make it anyway.
Tim: Fair enough. This lad, though, is Dutch, with vocals provided by Jack, from our fine country, and the track popped up on my New Music Mix playlist last Friday. And I think it’s time we had a serious discussion about pineapples and the like.
Tim: First things first: I really like this track. The production’s fantastic, vocals are great, decent lyrics, and a good melody. I like the genre as well, but let’s face it: it’s a ludicrous genre.
Tom: Well, there are a lot of ludicrous genres out there. And is this really a genre, or just a taste for a particular style of synth patch? We didn’t start calling it “questionable-Jamaican-rap-middle-eight-pop” after Peter Andre blazed a trail in the 90s, did we?
Tim: No, but then questionable Jamaican rap middle eights didn’t make their way into multiple tracks every week for over eighteen months (and counting). Maybe I’m only now waking up to the cynicism inherent in the music industry, but I can’t help thinking that if this track had been produced two years ago, we’d have had a country guitar in that post-chorus instead. Suddenly, though, Kygo stuck that Passenger remix online, and everybody’s idea of heaven went from being on a tractor to being on a beach surrounded by cocktails and women in skimpy bikinis, and BOOM.
Tom: And I don’t really have much more to say about this track. It’s a decent track. It’s not going to be a floor-filler, but it’ll do in the middle of the set. You’re right, though: it’s following the path set by others.
Tim: Right, because next stop, every man and his copy of Logic Pro is downloading all the marimba and steel drum plugins they can get their hands on – this week alone, we’ve got soundalike tracks from The Veronicas, The Vamps and Maroon 5, and even I’m getting a bit bored of it. Will it ever stop, and when?
Tom: Whenever someone else releases something new, original, catchy and lucky.
Tim: I don’t know – to be honest, I don’t even know really what kind of point I’m trying to make here, other than playing this stuff out loud when temperatures outside are barely hitting double figures is inherently ridiculous, and inherently relaxing and reassuring at the same time. Until it gets entirely boring and uninspired (like that Maroon 5 track), then: BRING ON TROPICAL HOUSE AND FRIDAYS AND 🍍 AND 🍹.