Maja Francis – Girl Is A Gun

“Enough to get in your head but not quite enough to grate.”

Tim: You may remember Maja from a couple of months ago; I do, because I wanged on unduly about the use of camcorder fonts in lyric videos.

Tom: I don’t remember Maja, but I do remember your font rant.

Tim: The important stuff got through, then. Well, she’s back, and so is the font.

Tim: Now, last time you described the track as “a discount CHVRCHES”, which I guess could still be said here, but it does seem a bit unfair. Just because a song isn’t as good as the best output of the best in the genre, it doesn’t have to be described as an automatic negative.

Tom: True, I think that’s mostly because of Maja’s vocal quality: I don’t hear it as much here.

Tim: Good, because this is a really good track, and stands up well on its own.

Tom: Agreed: it’s a good chorus, repeated enough to get in your head but not quite enough to grate. I’m not sold on everything about it, but there’s certainly nothing unpleasant here.

Tim: From the moment it started I had an “ooh, yes” feeling, and that kept going right through to the end. I like it.

Maja Francis – Stressed

“It’s like a discount CHVRCHES!”

Tim: If you’re like me, you might get annoyed by the lyrics video, which has that font previously found on camcorders but now exclusively and overly used to signify that we are officially Back In The Eighties. You might then also start wondering which is more annoying: using that font and applying a home camcorder effect to the video, making it look crap, or using that font and not applying a camcorder effect to the video, making it out of place and somewhat half-arsed.

Tom: I… I will be honest, Tim, I didn’t wonder any of that.

Tim: WELL THEN, I guess you’re just not like me. Chorus, though, made me forgive and almost forget all that.

Tom: It’s like a discount CHVRCHES! I’ll admit that chorus has a couple of lovely moments in it: the whistle-register bits and the percussion in the back both hit home for me. But it’s not stuck in my head afterwards, and it didn’t really grab much of my interest beyond that. Why did it make you forgive and forget?

Tim: Because that’s a very enjoyable chorus, which as far as I’m concerned makes the whole thing worth it. Stylistically I’m not sure the gentle plinky guitar strumming quite fits with all the synth beats that dominate, and I’d rather it didn’t take until we got to chorus until a melody as good as that arrived, but since it does: I’m sold.

Maja Francis – Saved By The Summer

“Disgraceful behaviour.”

Tim: There’s a couple of lines here that remind me of Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human, but I promise it’s a lot more upbeat than that was.

Tim: Well, first off, since when was it acceptable to pull multiple petals off at once when you’re doing the loves me/loves me not thing? Disgraceful behaviour.

Tom: Any time you know the result you want, can see how many petals there are, and can calculate quickly. I’m more worried about when it’s become acceptable to apply a VHS filter to a vertical video.

Tim: Other than that, though, I’ve not really got any problems with this. Sure, there could be a bit more melody in the post-chorus (if indeed there can really be described to be any in the first place), but the actual sound of it is good enough that I really don’t care.

Tom: I am wondering why you described it as “upbeat”, at least until it got to the middle eight and final chorus. It takes a while to get there, but yeah, sure. It’s not an immediate replay, but it’s certainly not bad.

Tim: Though I do wish it was a little less Rag’n’Bone Man-y.