Tag: Molly Sandén

Molly Sandén – Jag E (Vierge moderne)

“It can’t exactly be worse than Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme.”

Tim: Normally here I’d tell you what the title translates to, but I’ll explain later. Might as well just press play.

Tim: So, yes, I would discuss the lyrics, but they’re a bit of a surreal nonsense where she lists things she is, which include, amongst many others, a fruit, a sun ray, a bowl, and also a network of fish. There is a reason, though, which is that there’s a Swedish TV series where pop stars make songs from the words of poems.

Tom: Huh. I… I guess that’s a TV format. I don’t know what to say.

Tim: Nope, me neither, but since it can’t exactly be worse than Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme or All Together Now (I’m not linking to those, they don’t deserve it), we don’t really get to criticise.

Tom: Fair. Okay, so my standards for this have been knocked down from “big pop track” to “song made for a TV show”. Got it.

Tim: Given that restriction, as a song I’d say it’s pretty good. Sure, it may start out a bit ballady, but given the source material that’s hard to avoid, and it picks up soon enough into a pretty listenable song. Nicely rescued, record producer.

Tom: For the first time this week, you’re on my level of cynicism, and we agree.

Molly Sandén – Satellites

“You know you’re about to get a good drop.”

Tim: New one off her excellent Like No One’s Watching EP, bit of good pop for you to start the week.

Tom: The trouble is, Tim, I’m in Germany at the moment. And thanks to a dispute between YouTube and the German music licensing authorities, I’m not going to be able to hear this before we go to press.

Tim: Oh. Ehh, we’ll figure something out.

Tim: Well, I’ll tell you right now that it’s pretty good – not quite another Like No One’s Watching, but still very good.

Tom: Where do Germans go to stream music, I wonder? They probably pirate it, like we all used to do. Describe the song to me?

Tim: It has one of those always pleasant chorus moments when you know you’re about to get a good drop, and it by no means disappoints, following up with a good DANCEY bit.

Tom: But, I assume, no key change. You’d have mentioned a key change.

Tim: Alas, no key change. Also slightly detracting: I’m not quite sure how well the Satellites metaphor stands up to scrutiny – I suppose you could describe them as dancing in the skylight, but are they typically just there for the first time? And do they frequently make ah-a-a-ahh noises?

Tom: In space, no-one can hear you ah-a-a-ahh.

Tim: Good point, I guess – they may very well do that after all. Mostly pedantry then, so: good pop song, I like it.

Molly Sandén – Like No One’s Watching

Tom: Our reader, Roger, sends this one in. “Molly sung this tonight,” he says, “it is quite good. I think you might like it.” And he’s BLOODY RIGHT.

Tim: Well, certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

Tom: That’s the first time in many, many songs that a long build has paid off so well. What an amazing chorus.

Tim: That really, really is – haven’t heard anything like it in a while.

Tom: Yes, the verse sounds a little bit like Lene Marlin’s Sitting Down Here, but that’s probably coincidence, and everything else makes up for it.

Tim: RUNNING OUT OF MUSIC, Tom.

Tom: You know what really got me? The second line of the chorus: not the “dance like no-one’s watching”: that’s fun, but ultimately it’s been heard a thousand times before. The second line, though: “make love like no-one’s judging”. That’s a really good bit of lyric-writing: take an old expression, turn it into something new and wonderful. Yes. That.

Tim: Cannot disagree with you at all, there, though to be honest it took me a couple of watches to get round to hearing the lyrics.

Tom: The hidden-camera shtick’s in the video’s a bit creepy, though. I’m sure it’s meant as “playful prank by boyfriend”, but man, is that ever horrible if you read it the wrong way.

Tim: Hmm, maybe. I do like the rest of it, though – not sure if my favourite reaction is the royal guard just checking his watch or the girl playing on her phone entirely not noticing her.

Molly Sandén – Unchained

“This is lovely, you see.”

Tim: One side of her new double A-side release (though surely there’s a better term we could be using for that now).

Tom: “Cheating”? If I remember my chart rules properly – although they may have changed now – it means that downloads of the second track get counted as downloads of the first for chart purposes, in the UK at least. As if the charts weren’t a lie already.

Tim: Ooh, biting words there. Anyway, that is what this is.

Tim: This is lovely, you see, because it starts off a tad downbeat after a breakup, but that chorus is just full of energy as it reveals she’s actually happy about it, really she is, and then when it comes in for the final part it’s all sorts of upbeat and cheeful, and you just can’t help becoming all “I won’t go back, I’m better now” with a great bit dollop of “let’s go for it” on the side. Erm, that ended up being a fairly long sentence; anything you’d like to say?

Tom: It’s nice to see a break-up song that’s neither a diss track nor a ‘I’m sorry, please take me back’. It’s about as positive as a break-up song can possibly be. I very much approve.

What’s the other A-side like, anyway?

Tim: Well, it’s called Mirage and it’s worth checking out for her fantastic singing in the choruses, but not for much else, unfortunately, as she heads off in the other direction following a different breakup. Or perhaps the same breakup, and we have here a dual release to accompany a dual personality.

Tom: Maybe it’s an album entirely of breakup songs. Maybe she’s Adele in disguise.