Tag: Miriam Bryant

Miriam Bryant – Passa Dig

“that’s been put together by someone who knows how to produce a chorus.”

Tim: Starts out as a quiet and potentially dreary piano ballad; come the chorus, well…

Tom: Well, that’s been put together by someone who knows how to produce a chorus.

Tim: So that’s a decent song: I was plenty impressed when the chorus happened, the instrumental underneath all sounds great, and although that ending doesn’t really scream 2020, the sound of it is great. There’s one big flaw in it for me, though, which is that it feels way, way too long.

It isn’t, really, but I looked at the clock when the instrumental began and was very surprised I wasn’t yet three minutes in.

Tom: Yep. I was all geared up for that to be headed to the final chorus, only to find that the track’s only half way through.

Tim: Two reasons, as far as I can tell: one is that it’s got almost a full minute of instrumental fade-out; wouldn’t normally be a problem, particularly when it sounds as good as it genuinely does.

Tom: Yep: even if that pair of yelping synth notes start to grate after a while. Repeat to fade is a brave choice in 2020, but honestly, I think it does work here.

Tim: But then there’s the second problem. The main notes are all two beats long, and it just feels dragged out, almost literally at the end, as if someone had fed it into Logic and just stretched it out to half speed. It’s annoying, particularly because I could probably easily live with either one of those two: finish it after that last chorus, fine. Stick in an extra drum beat on the second and fourth notes, fine. But together? Agh, just can’t quite get it.

Miriam Bryant – Black Car

“Is she bathing in Bovril? I think she’s bathing in Bovril.”

Tim: You might have heard this before, as it was first released a couple of years ago, when it was very successful in Sweden, and won an award and everything. Bored of just being popular in Sweden, though, Miriam wants to go international and has chosen this to launch herself, bringing a fancy video along for the ride.

Tom: Is she bathing in Bovril? I think she’s bathing in Bovril.

Tim: Blimey, you must like your Bovril thick. Anyway, the titular black car is meant to represent “the place we met – the club we always go back to and where we had our first kiss”; I don’t quite get that myself, particularly not the way she’s smashing it up and burning it in the video, but I guess it’s her song so she gets to decide.

Tom: Anyway, that sounds like a lot of modern indie music. Switch the vocalist for someone with a northern British accent and you’ve basically got half the line-up for Glastonbury.

Tim: Yes, and I guess that might be why I like it – it seems immediately familiar, but not in a sense of “they’ve nicked this from…” but more in an “oh, yeah, this is right” sense. It’s gentle, it’s flowing, it’s almost reassuring, and I’m really quite enjoying it.

Miriam Bryant – Dragon

“I haven’t heard a better intro and first verse than that in a very, very long time.”

Tim: Miriam was last seen collaborating with Zedd, but now she’s back with the first single off her second album, and quite a good single it is too.

Tom: That is an AMAZING intro. Seriously, I haven’t heard a better intro and first verse than that in a very, very long time.

Tim: High praise indeed. It’s certainly got a promising intro, with both keyboard lines having potential. Hitting the chorus, that potential goes quite a long way to being realised.

Tom: It’s very much not four-on-the-floor, which confused me through that first chorus: once I learned to expect it, yes, it’s bloody amazing.

Tim: It is: the thumping that the lower piano line brought in is developed with other instruments in a way that quite definitely states I AM HERE, in rather a majestic manner entirely appropriate to the dragon she’s offering to be. Though quite how that fits with “you will never see me on the street” baffles me somewhat.

Tom: And “apple of the corner of my eye” is an interesting lyric, although, again, I’m not entirely sure what it means.

Tim: No. No, me neither. Oddly, unlike many songs with a big chorus like that, I’m not sat during the second verse just waiting for it to come back, which is nice, because it would appear the verse is rather satisfying as well. Perhaps I was hoping for a slightly bigger chorus the first time round after that hefty build, but all in all, this is a very enjoyable track.