LIAMOO, Steerner, Hechmann – Broken Hearted

“I’m damning with faint praise again, aren’t I?”

Tim: LIAMOO, a Swedish singer we’ve not properly featured before as I’ve never really liked any of previous tracks – bit too heavy on the deep twisted vocals, a bit light on any pleasant melody.

Tom: In which case, thank you for not sending them over to me.

Tim: You’re very welcome. Finally, though, he’s up with a couple of producers, Swedish and Danish respectively, and provided something altogether more listenable.

Tom: Somebody once told me” is a brave choice for a song’s first lyric.

Tim: I don’t know, I’d say the fact that the melody, tone, timing, mood and everything else allow it – for starters, I’d not even clocked the resemblance. But anyway: occasionally the single two word combination ‘guitar pop’ can be enough to put me right off a song without hearing a single note, but I think this is a right cracker of a track. Admittedly towards the end of it, and in the dance post-chorus breakdowns, there’s a whole lot more to it than that, with it arguably verging off into a different genre altogether.

Tom: This does risk falling into an uncanny valley between two genres: but, hey, it worked for Avicii.

Tim: But even before all that comes along it’s a strong sounding number, with a good melody and enough going on in the background to keep it interesting.

Tom: I don’t think it’s going to light up the charts anywhere, but sure, it’s listenable. It’s going to sit in the middle of an ‘upbeat guitar pop’ Spotify playlist. I’m damning with faint praise again, aren’t I?

Tim: Yes, but at least there’s still deserved praise there – when that massive drum build comes along after the verse and, yes, it’s dance banger time. Enjoyable throughout, I like it.

John De Sohn feat. LIAMOO – Forever Young

“I have a feeling it’d be one of those songs where the best bit is the middle eight.”

Tim: Sadly, this isn’t a dance version of the One Direction classic; nonetheless I think you’ll like it.

Tom: You made my eyelid twitch slightly there, Tim. Well done.

Tim: You think I’m joking, but I do listen to that version way more than is probably healthy.

Tim: I’m sure I’ll get bored of moaning about it eventually, but I’m still not enjoying the habit of cutting off the song before a middle eight comes along.

Tom: There’s probably some thoughts to be had there about reducing attention spans, about the requirement of always-on streaming where your audience can’t get bored, about the slow death of the album… or it might just be fashion these days. I can’t say I like it either, though.

Tim: Sure, we shouldn’t necessarily keep doing things just because they’re traditional, but they’ve always provided opportunity for messing around a bit, getting a little bit more creative, or revealing that the target of the song is also a teenage dirtbag. Abandoning that makes the songs that much less interesting, and it is a shame, particularly when the rest of the song is as good as it is.

Tom: Is it really, though? That chorus is basically just going up and down scales. It’s not bad, but I have a feeling it’d be one of those songs where the best bit is the middle eight.

Tim: And yet we’ll never know. I want to hear more, I want to see what else is possible, because the track’s great – it’s just too short.