Mohombi – Infinity

“Where is all the wind coming from?”

Tim: 2016 arguably has two massive musical clichés. One, the “boom-wherp-boom-wherp” dance line I mentioned on Wednesday; the other, a pineapple. So Tom, I have a proposition for you. Let’s EMBRACE it – the summer, the warmth, the citrus feeling, the upcoming weekend – and introduce TROPICAL FRIDAYS.

Tom: Oh crikey. I’m okay with that, but let’s see how long it lasts. Tropical house can’t be a thing forever.

Tim: We’ve already had and Matoma this month, so I say we head to Tesco, grab a bunch of coconuts, and just make it official.

Tom: That is very tropical.

Tim: So let’s get the obvious right out of the way: the narrative of the video doesn’t really make any sense at all – why has he chopped all his belongings in half?

Tom: Why have they pixelated all the drinks?

Tim: Why do we have palm trees, a beach and midday outside his windows but sunset and rain outside her indoors orchard?

Tom: That sounds like a euphemism.

Tim: Oh, it does a bit doesn’t it? Sorry. But also: where is all the wind coming from, given that the windows on the far side of his room are closed? And most of all, why can’t they both just climb out of said windows and meet up behind the house rather than smashing the entire damn wall down with a curiously not-chopped-in-half sledgehammer that he apparently keeps lying around in his living room?

BUT ANYWAY, we’re not here purely to question the video – we’re also here to discuss the music, which is, well, entirely typical of the genre. All the bits are there – marimba, steel drums, and I think we’ve even got some pan pipes in there at some point.

Tom: There’s definitely a bit of 90s influence in here too. That’s not a complaint, just an observation.

Tim: All in all, a great start for our new regular feature.

Tom: I give it a month.

Tim: Oh, you haven’t seen how much tripe we get sent. Next Friday’s a STORMER.

Mohombi – Universe

“A party track with pretty much everything, really”

Tim: I know we’re back to Monday, but let’s have a party track. The here, to be specific, the title track off Mohombi’s second album, which was released back in July.

Tim: A party track with pretty much everything, really, from the strings with attitude right through to the bagpipes (or at least the synth line that sounds like bagpipes), because why not?

Tom: It really does pay off in the last chorus, doesn’t it? It took a long time to get there, though.

Tim: And to be honest, before hearing this if you’d said to me “Tim, here’s a party track that’s improved by the existence of bagpipes,” I’d have sensibly told you to do one (whilst admittedly enjoying DJ Sakin’s Braveheart rework). But here, the bagpipes work.

Tom: I’m not sure how you forgot Dario G’s Carnaval de Paris, notable for using both accordion and bagpipes and still, astonishingly, being really good.

Tim: Oh. No, I’m not sure either. Though working here it might partly be that they only occasionally take centre stage, often being drowned out by everything else that’s going on in the chorus, or it might— actually, I’m going to interrupt myself, because that chorus: what a chorus it is. And what a pre-chorus. And, indeed, everything else about this track, because it’s just brilliant, really.

Tom: I’m going to pull the reins back just a little here, and say: it’s okay. I just don’t see where you’re getting the astonishment from, though; but then, it was the other way round on Friday with Sharks. It’s almost like music opinions are subjective, or something.

Tim: Who’d have thought it?

Mohombi ft. Nicole Scherzinger – Coconut Tree

This song is undeniably enjoyable.

Tim: You know Swedish-Moroccan person RedOne, or at least you certainly know his work. If we had one, he’d probably be Europlop’s Official Favourite Producer, due to his output consisting of work such as The Silence, Straight Through My Heart, Oui mais… non, Alejandro and many others. Now it turns out he’s even better than we thought, because he can make one of the Pussycat Dolls listenable.

Tom: Bloody hell, that’s a bold claim.

Tim: This song seems to be just about two people having fun lazing around on a beach, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind doing that right now, so I’m a little bit jealous really. Still, I won’t begrudge them a decent review, because this song is undeniably enjoyable.

Tom: “Under the coconut tree / you be chillin’ wi’ me”? Really? This isn’t the 90s, and this track isn’t sung by Peter Andre.

Tim: What – you won’t allow that but you’ll happily let Olly Murs off rhyming feet with beach? Back in the world of listenable music, though, Mohombi is half-Swedish and half-Congolese, and I think both sides come out in this track.

Tom: I can’t deny that – and you’re right that Nicole Whatsherface is actually listenable here as well.

Tim: The singing is full of energy, the music is vibrant, and if they don’t do something good with the video I’ll be very disappointed, because there’s certainly potential here.

Tom: It just seems like someone took a track from fifteen years ago and updated it with modern production – and my brain can’t quite get around the discontinuity. Even the bridge, lovely as it is, is definitely old-school. There’s even a bit of ‘Agadoo’ in there, I think.

Tim: Really? I can’t hear a problem, although I’ve got to admit I do have quite a soft spot for Agadoo. This is definitely the sort of song that would get me going if I was feeling a bit lethargic; for that it gets full marks.