Tag: Mørland

Mørland, MIIA – How To Lose Something Good

“A proper singalong chorus, big production underneath it all.”

Tim: The song provides instructions on how to lose something good, as you’d expect the title; allow me to give you instructions on how to improve things instead: press play.

Tom: Clever.

Tim: Oh, thank you very much.

Tim: As is frequently pleasing, it starts good and just keeps getting better. A proper singalong chorus, big production underneath it all.

Tom: That’s true, although I was mostly singing “Love Me Like You Do” instead. (Similar cadence, similar vocal quality, and and even similar syllables. I know, and I’m sorry.)

Tim: Hmm, maybe – although think about it, that’s a strong compliment. Once it’s warmed up and the first chorus has hit, everything throughout the song is just wonderful, and I’ve no desire at all to switch it off. Sounds like damning with faint praise, that, but it really isn’t: this is a very good song.

Tom: I do agree: but it took a while to hear the track for itself, rather than the song that my brain was autocompleting in its place.

Mørland – Leo

“A tad mawkish? Possibly.”

Tim: I heard this and thought “oh, wow, someone’s actually written a same sex love song, that’s brilliant”; turns out it’s about his son, but I guess that’s still quite nice.

Tom: He’s done the same thing as Matt Bellamy, I think, and sampled the fetal heartbeat as an introduction.

Tim: A tad mawkish? Possibly, but with instrumentation like that underneath it I really don’t care, because it is utterly gorgeous. Strong piano, percussion where it’s right, and OH, that string section under the chorus is just so lovely.

Tom: And the composition’s pretty good there too.

Tim: It’s interesting, because it almost distracts me from his vocal line completely, with that fading out as soon as I realise how lovely the melody is and focus on that. I don’t know if that’s a good thing for the song as a whole, but it sure as hell pleases me. It’s lovely. And, however overstated the lyrics may be, it’s also got a sweet message, whoever you think he’s singing it to.

Tom: It does, but to me that word you used earlier — mawkish — sums it up well. It feels like he’s the worst version of those parents who constantly post dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of photos of their kid on Facebook. Great, you wrote your kid a song. With his name in it. Well done.

Tim: Sidebar: Mørland wrote my favourite of this year’s Eurovision rejects; that’ll be up here on Eurovision day, so do check back, you won’t regret it.

Mørland – Skin

“A perfectly respectable grown up ballad.”

Tim: Last year, Mørland helped bring Norway to ninth placed at Eurovision with A Monster Like Me; this year’s he’s giving that sort of thing a miss, though, choosing to release music the normal way, with a lovely pretty video.

Tom: That is a pretty video. Very well done to that director, and to the drone team.

Tim: Now, it might just be the high notes in the chorus that remind me of Take That’s Shine, but that stands out to me as a perfectly respectable grown up ballad that a guy in his mid-thirties would put out.

Tom: He also looks rather like what would happen if you put photos of all five of Take That into a face-morph program. There’s a bit of Robbie in there, and a bit of Gary, and a bit of the other three that I can’t remember.

Tim: There’s a Jason, I think? And a Marc as well, I know that because of the unusual spelling. But anyway, I’m not entirely sure what I mean by “grown up”, but, well, that second part in particular after it’s all gone quiet, doesn’t really seem like anything just you’d get from a younger artist – there’s too much…I don’t know what.

Tom: Pathos, I believe is the term, and I reckon that’s the first time I’ve ever described a pop song with that word.

Tim: You know, that’s exactly the sort of word I was wanting, because yes, it’s there in buckets, and the song is very much the better for it – deep and meaningful, and beautiful to listen to.