Saturday Reject: Jimi Constantine – Party to Party

Is he drunk?

Tim: Finland’s favourite topless Weird Al soundalike failed to get past the semi-final, which is a shame.

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

Tim: I say shame, but it isn’t really. Well, sort of. The thing is, the song is actually quite good, as evidenced by the studio version (even if the spoken ‘not gonna live forever’ does bear more than a passing resemblance to a spoken ‘dirty Cinderella‘), but the performance on the night seemed more like he just wanted to have a laugh than actually perform properly.

Tom: Is he drunk? He’s off-key frequently, shouting a lot, and seems to attempt the key change a verse early (at 1:46) before realising that no-one else is doing it.

Tim: It does seem like that, doesn’t it? The thing is, that sort of this is all well and good if he’s touring, say, and playing to a load of fans who know what they’re getting, but it isn’t really going to win over a nation of people who want someone who can be counted on to present a good image of their country.

Tom: Interesting how low-budget the set is, too: they’ve got him a couple of banners, as if it was some kind of trade show.

Tim: You think that’s low budget? You’ve been watching too much Melodifestivalen, mate. Finland pushed the boat out big time compared to other countries – Ireland, for example, just used the normal Late Late Show set, and as for Belgium, I think they just looked for the nearest cupboard (and yes, that really is their entry).

Back to Jimi’s performance, though, despite all the drunken antics I still enjoyed it. Sure, it would have been nice if it was a bit more musical, and he could have got together with the backing singers beforehand and decided who was taking charge after the bridge, but there was an energy there that really wasn’t present in many of Finland’s other competitors.

Tom: An energy best summed up by the young girl averting her eyes and possibly crying in the last few frames of the clip. She speaks for Finland.

Jimi Constantine – Dirty Cinderella

Seriously, put a t-shirt on, mate.

Tim: Some Finnish pop punk for you, by a bloke who wants to be their entry to Eurovision (although not with this song).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRXBW1ER7c

Tom: Amazing how much the definition of ‘punk’ has changed over the years, hasn’t it? Even pop-punk used to have a bit of attitude – Sum 41 may not have been anything near the Sex Pistols, but at least they at least pretended to have the spit-in-your-face attitude. This is more pop than punk.

Tim: The voice reminds me of a couple of Weird Al songs, I think, and the music underneath has a proper tune to it.

Tom: Good grief, now you mention it he does sound like Weird Al. Something about the slightly-nasal tone, I think.

Tim: The autotune’s laid on a bit heavy, but it doesn’t grate too much (except the ‘ella’ on the last proper line of each chorus).

Tom: True, but the chorus itself starts to grate a bit for me. It’s a nice tune, but the lyrics could use a bit of work. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I can’t help muttering “oh, get over yourself”. Also, he says “could care less” when he means “couldn’t care less” and damn it, that annoys me.

Tim: You bastard, I hadn’t noticed that. Still, overall, I think it’s quite enjoyable, even though, like you say, the lyrics won’t win him any awards, and it’ll be good to see what he comes out with in January.

Tom: Get him a decent lyricist, and I’m looking forward to it.

Tim: As for the video…

Tom: It’s very much a “how close can we get to porn before the music video channels won’t show us” effort, isn’t it?

Tim: Pretty much, yeah. Seriously, put a t-shirt on, mate.

Tom: Right there is a man who shaves his armpits. And, one would presume, everywhere else. Now I’m all for a bit of manscaping, but he does look a bit like a Ken doll.

Tim: It’s not the middle of summer, and right now it just looks a bit silly. In fact, my favourite part is when he gets a football kicked at his head for no reason whatsoever.

Tom: The impact’s right on the single drum hit in the middle of the silent bit, though. Top work, editor.