Le Kid – Europlop!

Le Kid – Physical

Tim: About eighteen months ago Le Kid brought out a track called Human Behaviour – I’ve no idea why we didn’t cover it, but anyway. Since then, they’ve been pushing themselves onto the German market, and this is a played around with and jumped up version of that song. Have a listen, why don’t you.

Tim: So, it’s The Offspring’s message wrapped up in lovely pop for the rest of us.

Tom: “It all just happens again, way down the line”?

Tim: You see this is why we tend to stick to Europop – I did of course mean the Bloodhound Gang, as also mentioned on Saturday. ANYWAY, what an interesting video – I can certainly understand why they went for humans dressed as animals rather than actual horses and reindeer and pigs and stuff, but it doesn’t half make for a slightly unsettling watch.

As ever, though, the music from these guys is really rather great.

Tom: Yep, although I do still expect something a bit more bubblegum from them — not that this isn’t sugary as it is.

Tim: For some reason, the song it puts me most in mind of is Little Mix’s DNA, and while it’s not quite as good as that, that song was bloody brilliant so I think that’s praise enough for this song.

Tom: Huh, really? I hear DNA as being a lot darker than this.

Tim: Oh, it absolutely is – this just seems to be what you’d get if you turned the happiness and sweetness up a little bit on that. It’s very enjoyable indeed, and right now I’m hoping that once they’re done with Germany they’ll have a go here. Because I would BUY EVERYTHING.

Tom: You know that we have the internet these days, right?

Tim: The…the what now?

Le Kid – We Are Young

“It’s a more mature sound”

Tim: It’s getting on for eighteen months since we’ve had any new material from Le Kid, so this really should be quite good, shouldn’t it? And with a title like “We Are Young”, we’ll have at least a vague idea of what we’re likely to hear. So, the big question: it is as good as it should be?

Tim: Yes. Yes it is.

Tom: Damn right. The opening sounded a bit Aqua-ish – good, if derivative – but the rest of the track went in a different direction, and a good one at that.

Tim: It’s a more mature sound than we had on their previous album, you could say, and it’s bloody good. It’s another one that reminds me of Icona Pop’s I Love It, but is a bit less full on, and, well, in this case I almost could say that about it – it’s a fantastic ‘get up and go’ song.

The only problem is the occasional reminder of Pitbull with the “cause all…”, but I can easily cope with that when the rest of it is so great.

Tom: Wait, that’s a reminder of Pitbull? Man, he must be pretty much taking over your brain. You should get that seen to.

Tim: You’re right, actually. Sorry.

Tom: Mind you, my problem with the track is that it does start to repeat itself a lot, even in just three and a half minutes. It’s not a bad thing to repeat, but it could use some more switching up.

Tim: There aren’t a lot of songs where I could describe their repetitiveness as a good thing, but here I think it is, because that hook is really catchy and enjoyable. This is a great track, and pretty much exactly what Le Kid’s new track needed to be.

And hey – from the start of it, it could even qualify as “guitar music”. OKAY I’M DONE WITH THAT.

Tom: Good.

Le Kid – We Are The Drums

Somewhat restrained for a Le Kid offering.

Tim: Their first album’s finally out next week, and here’s a new single from it.

Tom: Wait, haven’t they been putting tracks out for months? Took them long enough to get an album out. Let’s have a listen, then.

Tim: Somewhat restrained for a Le Kid offering, I feel, but none the worse for it. I was a little disappointed at the started when it sounded all autotuney and horrible, but then it goes all happy and poppy and lovely so it’s okay.

Tom: I was really quite worried with that first bit, but fortunately they pulled it back quickly enough. It isn’t quite as bubblegum as their earlier tracks, but then an entire album that was as sweet as ‘We Should Go Home Together’ would just be too much.

Tim: The whole ‘WE ARE MUSIC’ vibe seems to indicate no small amount of ambition, and according to their website they’re ‘getting ready to show Le Kid to the world’. While I can’t quite see it getting properly playlisted on Radio 1 any time soon, perhaps they’ll find a place on Scott Mills’s Ready for the Weekend or something (where, in fact, both September and Cascada got their Radio 1 debuts).

Tom: You know, I can see them getting a respectable following over here.

Tim: I would be very happy if they did. Going back to their website quickly, it also promises that “every follower of ours who wants to help us spread the Gospel of Le Kid has a special place in our hearts, and will be able to sleep with their Le Kid member of choice in five years time”. If that’s not encouragement to tell people about them then I really don’t know what is.

Le Kid – America

A bit mellower than other tracks of theirs we’ve reviewed.

Tim: We were prodded to review this by regular reader Roger; let’s do so.

Tom: Ooh, new Le Kid. This should be good.

Tim: A bit mellower than other tracks of theirs we’ve reviewed.

Tom: It is, isn’t it? Good luck to them with the video for this.

Tim: I can’t really imagine soapy sailors or giant liquorice allsorts going too well with this, but it’s but no means a bad, or even mediocre, track. Nice, gentle, poppy, mainstream – it’s not hands-down fantastic, though, and I can’t get excited about it like I did the rest, unfortunately.

Tom: It’s let down by that chorus hook; “in America, America”? It’s not singable like their other tracks.

I think it’s also because, after so much bubblegum, even something as bouncy as this still seems a bit downbeat.

Tim: Well, if you’re missing some of the over-exuberance of previous tracks, have a more dancey remix of Oh My God: here.

Saturday Reject: Le Kid – Oh My God

Dancing and singing liquorice allsorts, ejaculating cupcakes

Tim: You may be expecting a Saturday Flashback round about now, but no! Since there are now less than three months to go until Eurovision 2011, changes are afoot: most countries have begun their selection process, and some have already chosen. There is of course only room for one song per country (which is kind of the point, I suppose) and so some otherwise excellent tracks will fall by the wayside, destined for album track obscurity (and some terrible tracks will go forward, but that’s a whinge for another time). Anyway, we feel that many of those deserve more attention, and we start with a song that got kicked out of the first heat of Melodifestivalen in fifth place* a couple of weeks back.

* Melodifestivalen workings, for any who don’t know: four heats of eight; the top two go straight to the final, third and fourth go through to the second chance round (‘Andra Chansen’), from which another two go through to the final.

Tim: OMG indeed. A disappointing exit, as right from the get go it was by far and away the most enthusiastic performance there was that night.

Tom: Enthusiastic, to be sure, but I can’t help but start singing ‘Spaceman’ by the Killers every time they start on the ‘oh, oh, oh’ bit of the chorus. Or the ‘don’t stop, push it now’ from The Sounds’ ‘Tony The Beat’ over… well, all of it.

Tim: Hmm, maybe, but what with the colours, the outfits, the dancing and singing liquorice allsorts and the ejaculating cupcakes, it’s basically everything we know and like about Le Kid.

Tom: It is that. I can’t help but like it – although that is, as I’ve mentioned before, partly due to the attractive women in low-cut outfits. But despite all that, I think Sweden made the right decision here. It’s happy, it’s bouncy, but it ain’t a Eurovision winner.

Tim: Maybe it was just too much – who knows.

Tom: Where was the key change, Tim? There should have been a key change.

Le Kid – Mr Brightside

A present to keep their fans happy.

Tim: No soapy sailors this time round, as this is a free track off their website rather than an actual single – a present to keep their fans happy until they bring new stuff out in February.

Tom: Now, I really liked the bubblegum pop sound they had last time round – how much of that was due to attractive lead singers in low-cut outfits, I’m not sure, but I ended up listening to that track a lot of times. Hopefully this one’s similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYo823-O5QE

Tom: Oh yes.

Tim: Not half bad, really, and remarkably different from The Killers’ original, in the backing instrumentation at least.

Tom: The first few notes of it gave me a bit of worry, but I needn’t have – it’s a great cover of a great song; when all the electronic gubbins kicks in on “Jealousy–“, I just burst out into a smile.

It’s basically into repeat-until-fade half way through, and – most disappointingly – it doesn’t use the “I never–” refrain to end it. I like that part, if only because every time I hear it I think Brandon Flowers is singing “PAELLA.”

Tim: Of course you do. Needless to say, fans of The Killers won’t like it much, but we’re not here for them. We’re here because we like happy camp music, and this is very much it.

Tom: Damn right.

Le Kid – We Should Go Home Together

I can’t help thinking it’s a little bit too camp.

Tim: Five Swedes make up Le Kid, and they have a song entitled We Should Go Home Together. Released in Sweden last month, should be out in the UK next year. This is hard for me to say, as I think it verges on sacrilege here, but while I like this I can’t help thinking it’s a little bit too camp and cheesy.

Tom: Like hell it is. Yes, it’s camp, yes, it’s cheesy, but not by too much. Admittedly, I may be biased because there are several attractive women dancing in low-cut retro outfits. I’m fairly sure one of them flashed her knickers at one point. I wasn’t paying attention to soapy sailors.

Tim: I’m not sure why exactly, but there’s definitely something about it that makes me think, ‘People, are you sure you really want to be doing this?’ I know this is coming from someone who pretty much admitted to liking Rocket to Uranus, but I’m not sure if it’s the excessive woah-oh-oh-woahs, the synth backing, the soapy sailors, the cheeky sailor-girl costumes, the rescuing a drowning mermaid (what?)

Tom: You forgot the sailor eating a banana, and the phallic sittin’ on the riggin’.

Tim: It just all adds up to too much, really.

Tom: Like hell it does. You want to see too much? This is too much. That’s a video that’ll ruin your gaydar for days, in the same way that you can’t hear for a while after a loud explosion goes off near you. After watching that, you’ll look at the Village People and think “that’s just four men in costumes dancing, nothing camp about that at all”. That’s too much. This? Not even close. It’s brilliant. And the music’s pretty good too.

Tim: Good lord, man, where on Earth did you find that? It’s like something that shot out of John Barrowman’s arse after a night of rampant bumming.

Tom: That may just be the worst sequence of words you’ve ever written. It gets worse the more I think about it.

Tim: Thank you very much – I’m quite proud of that sentence. Anyway, it’s not the video that I really have the problem with – there’s just something in the music I’m not keen on. I don’t know.

Tom: I’ll chalk that down to musical tastes then, because I’m really enjoying everything about this. It’s just lovely.