Paul Oakenfold x Luis Fonsi – The World Can Wait

“Well, the first nine seconds were promising.”

Tom: Yep, Oakenfold’s back after years! Trance DJ. Prolific remixer. The last big song he produced was Cher’s Woman’s World. And he’s working with the vocalist that most of the world knows from Despacito. Surely, this will be a BANGER.

Tim: I don’t trust that intro.

Tim: Hmm. Well, the first nine seconds were promising, but then, really, Paul?

Tom: …so anyway, it turns out that for the last decade or so, Oakenfold’s also been writing film scores. And once you know that, this does sort-of makes sense.

Tim: Does it? After all, a couple of decades ago he was writing TV themes (twenty years ago today, in fact), and that one was a right old tune. But even if that’s the case – this isn’t a film theme, it’s a mild pop song.

Tom: The fans who made pilgrimages to Tomorrowland to see him are, most likely, going to be disappointed. But if this rolled over the credits of a movie? Well, I’d probably think “that sounds okay” as I got up and left the cinema. Or, these days, stopped the stream and checked my phone.

Luis Fonsi, Demi Lovato – Échame La Culpa

“This has a billion views on YouTube and you’ve probably never heard of it.”

Tom: This has a billion views on YouTube and you’ve probably never heard of it.

Tom: I’ve been travelling through southern Florida the last week or so, spending a lot of time listening to Spanish-language pop stations. Tim, there is an entire, massive pop music market that no one in Britain has heard of, and it’s got some really good songs going. This hit number one in nearly every Spanish-speaking country (and Lebanon, oddly) — and it didn’t even break the UK Top 40 when it was released back in November.

Tim: Hardly surprising – Despacito may have gone and got massive, but only after Justin got on board, and it became May when people were up for summer party tunes.

Tom: Yes, yes, but: it was massive in all the Spanish-speaking countries before that. And there are a LOT of them. Anyway: I’m not treating this one as a Flashback because the inevitable more-English remix has just been released.

Tim: Ah, well, there you go.

Tom: And, somehow, it’s just not quite the same. Maybe they should have got Bieber in again.

Tim: What, and have him singing about Doritos again? No thanks.

Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee – Despacito

“A tad spoiled by Daddy Yankee doing the school register”

Tim: It’s been out a few weeks already, and is already phenomenally successful, but I made a discovery the other day that surprised me. Let’s listen to it first, though – here’s the Bieber-less original.

Tom: Blimey, they filmed in La Perla and made it look beautiful. I mean, it is beautiful, but let’s hope tourists don’t get confused.

Tim: A decent song, nice summer dance track that’ll take over the world, albeit a tad spoiled by Daddy Yankee doing the school register at the beginning and shouting all over the place in the middle.

Tom: You may enjoy this school register. Anyway, yes, the music.

Tim: Haha, I do like that as it happens. But yes, it’ll do – got me excited and dancing around in a bar late last Saturday night anyway, which is a good sign. But, as alluded to earlier, there are multiple versions of this. The standard we have here, the one with Justin Bieber singing some of the lyrics in English.

Tom: Which, let’s be honest, is the only reason the UK’s heard of this at all. Which is a shame, because this is a pretty good latin-pop track, albeit indistinguishable from many others for us dullards who don’t speak Spanish. What else was there?

Tim: An urban version, a god awful dance reworking by Major Lazer, and, most interesting for me, a ‘Versión Pop‘, which is the same as this but with Daddy Yankee removed. Perfect, I thought, I’ll have that. Except: it’s a bit dull. It drags, it’s uninteresting. Somehow, despite making a part of it vaguely unlistenable, Daddy Yankee (can’t believe I’ve typed that name four times now) actually saves it. Who’d have thought it?

Tom: Whoever called in Justin Bieber, apparently.