Sunrise Avenue – I Help You Hate Me

“Isn’t that adorable? NO.”

Tim: Remember this lot, off the phenomenally good Hollywood Hills a few years back?

Tom: As ever, no, but I’ll roll with it anyway.

Tim: This is their first one in quite some time; treat yourself by pressing play, why don’t you. (Music starts at 0:35, if you don’t want the backstory.)

Tim: And what a sweet song that is, sort of – this lovely man offering to be a real dick just to rub in the fact that he’s dumped her. Isn’t that adorable? NO. But, it does make for some fun lyrics, as however iffy the profile picture line may be as a lyric, it did make me smirk a bit (as, in fact, did the very first line, just because it was an immediate swerve out from any expectations).

Tom: That whole opening was a swerve: I was not expecting the chorus to crash in on the very first bar.

Tim: No, but it’s a good chorus, all bouncy and fun. The rollerbladers are there because, well, I guess she has to have a pastime really–

Tom: That’s roller derby, mate. Careful confusing the two. You’re right that it isn’t relevant to the video, though. I was hoping they’d start knocking the band over a bit earlier rather than just cutting to black.

Tim: Yeah, that would have been fun. But all in all I quite enjoy this. It’s not as wonderfully intense as their previous work, but it’s a fun track, and often fun’s what you need.

Sunrise Avenue – Hollywood Hills

What a voice! That’s a voice that removes clothing. Er, in a good way.

Tim: Finnish, these chaps are. Don’t bother listening to the lyrics here – just hear the sounds.

Tom: What a voice! That’s a voice that removes clothing. Er, in a good way.

Tim: Right. Now the first time I listened to this, I didn’t really pay much attention to the lyrics or anything either, but just the music. I was left with an impression of it being a fairly dark tune, nice music, big energetic instrumentation – generally all the things that make a song good.

Tom: It really is quite something. This is a soul-stirrer: it’s the chord progression and deep vocals that make it work.

Tim: Then I looked up the lyrics and listened to it properly – go on, do it now – and discovered that this song is bloody amazing. It’s a farewell song with so much energy that really, really shouldn’t belong there, and yet it fits perfectly.

There’s a sense of ‘it was great’, but the slightly contrasting ‘I have to go, I’ve got no choice’ almost takes that away again. It should be a depressing song, and the vocals kind of add to that, but then the music jumps in as well and makes it uplifting, and a song you really want to sing along to.

Tom: It’s the kind of song that leaves you with a smile on your face – and you’ve no idea why.

Tim: Not much to say about the video, although I absolutely love the fifteen seconds or so just after 40 seconds in when the band’s waking up – it makes the building instrumentation all the more effective, and when it finally comes together it’s just YEAH!

Tom: The clock in the background is at a very different time each time it’s in shot. Yes, I notice these things. Ah well.

Tim: Me too – and given that there a quite a few close up clock shots, part of me wants there to be a really obscure hidden meaning, since the alternative is them screwing up. OOH, maybe it’s like The Da Vinci Code! Oh, God, shoot me now. Another thing about the video, though, is that the ending doesn’t seem quite as weird any more – I didn’t like it at first, but now it seems like a closure type thing, which is pleasant.

Tom: Otherwise known as ‘the quiet bit that the radio DJ talks over’.