Tag: Jenny Berggren

Danish Week: Jenny Berggren – Let Your Heart Be Mine

A shame she doesn’t move much

Tim: Another that didn’t make the top four, from the former Ace of Base singer turned soloist.

Tim: Dancey and rhythmic, this is a tune that forces my knee to jiggle, which is why it seems a bit of a shame she doesn’t move much at all, really.

Tom: It’s almost as if that pounding beat has overpowered her voice: I don’t think she could have put more into it, but somehow it seems like she should have done.

Tim: Right – and I don’t quite know what’s with the weakest-prison-ever thing at the start of the performance, but once they’ve got rid of that there’s no excuse not to put a bit of energy into it.

Tom: Even the wind machine seems a bit half-assed. There’s plenty of energy in it – it just can’t be heard over the THUMP THUMP THUMP.

Tim: As for the key change: it comes when expected, but is it just me or does it seem wrong? I get the feeling it might have been better going a couple of notches higher.

Jenny Berggren – Gotta Go

I’m entirely in favour of this song.

Tom: Europlop reader Roger writes in, noting that we haven’t commented on Jenny Berggren’s new album. She’s the lead singer of Ace of Base, and put out a solo album at the end of last year. And Roger’s right – we missed it entirely.

‘Gotta Go’, he says, “is not the song with the highest star rating, rather it is one of those I like the most”.

And you know what? I like it too. And that’s not just because her surname is nearly a palindrome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQOgvwXTM4

Tom: By the time the beat drops back in at 0:45, I’m entirely in favour of this song. It’s one of those tracks where the melody doesn’t seem to entirely connect with what the instrumentation is playing – almost like it’s a mashup! – but I don’t mind at all.

Tim: It is a bit odd, that – it’s almost disorienting, and I’m not sure I like it. It’s as though there are several tracks competing with each other for attention.

Tom: That said, the beat does drop back in a lot of times. At least four, if you count the bridge. There’s a lot of quiet bits coming back with a slightly-too-triumphant whoomph. Even the bridge seems to treat itself by dipping the drums out twice.

Tim: That, however, I do like, because even if it’s only an illusion, it does give the impression like it’s constantly building to be massive at the end, although the ending is then a bit disappointing.

Tom: It might be a bit full of itself, and the last chorus might not be triumphant enough – with this much palaver in the song, it needs a key change.

Tim: You’re right – what it needs, actually, is a Linda Bengtzing style key change – not just after the bridge, but later on, ideally on the ‘late’ at 3:36.

Tom: Despite that, I still like this song.

Tim: Good. Me too.