Tag: Timoteij

Timoteij – Wildfire

“I’d imagine she didn’t learn the accordion as a child”

Tim: Timoteij have been off for a while, during which they’ve misplaced a member, but now they’re back with this, which happens to be their first English track, and not all that bad as it happens.

Tom: And they still sound like an old brand of shampoo.

Tim: It wouldn’t particularly surprise me if the video was a case of “let’s go somewhere sunny because it’s cold in Sweden right now and we can write a holiday off against taxes”, but I see nothing wrong with that if something like this comes along as a by-product.

Tom: I was briefly convinced it was all done with bluescreen, but no: they actually appear be there. Although just a reminder: deserts get cold too.

Tim: A nice dance/pop track, and who can dispute the fun factor of an accordion, especially when it’s basically as big as the person playing it? I do wonder with stuff like this though how they decide which instruments to have on display and which not to – with no disrespect to the member involved, I’d imagine she didn’t learn the accordion as a child, so if you’re going to pick one at random to learn just enough to give a convincing impression, do you just pick it out of a hat?

Tom: Hey, it’s not like they shipped a laptop and a drum machine out there.

Tim: Anyway, that’s hardly important; basically, good track, and a nice video with plenty to ponder.

Tom: Like “were they trying to make it sound like Only Teardrops, or was it an accident?”.

Tim: Hmm, maybe. Anyway, good work.

Timoteij – Jag Kommer Hem Till Jul

“Still on the port, Tim?”

Tim: Let’s have another!

Tom: I should be clear here: as Tim Drunkenly Rants About Christmas Songs Week continues, I’m not just playing the cynical, bitter straight man for the hell of it. I really am cynical and bitter. Every damned producer releases a horrible cash-in Christmas track, and they’ve scarcely got any thought behind them.

Right. Deep breath. Onward. Still on the port, Tim?

Tim: Certainly am. Lovely stuff.

Tim: Now, annoyingly, I haven’t a clue what the lyrics mean, although I can tell you that the title translates to “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, which is nice. My initial thought was to, quite sensibly, assume that it’s a direct translation of Bing Crosby’s 1943 wartime classic.

Tom: I think that’s unlikely somehow, given that’s it’s a completely different song.

Tim: Well, you say that, but I’m not convinced.

I do think that that would make it a bit depressing, though, and really doesn’t fit with the sleigh bells and all that, so I’ll reluctantly change my mind and assume it’s an original track with the basic meaning being “missing you at the moment, but it’s going to be awesome, and I’ll be there.”

Tom: And even I have to admit that it succeeds at that: it is nice, and well sung, and pleasant. In a world where Stop the Cavalry can be a Christmas classic, there’s no reason this couldn’t be.

Tim: It’s lovely. There’s no big overstated key change like yesterday – obviously there is one, but it’s presented calmly and gently. We’ve got a nice festive ballad which works perfectly well, and would fit wonderfully behind a video of gift-giving. Behind a video of a gym workout, not so much, but let’s just ignore that, shall we?

Tom: Hey, you work with the footage you have. Bit of a creepy stare at the camera right at the end, though.

Timoteij – Faller

CATCHY.

Tim: CATCHY.

Tom: NAMED AFTER A SHAMPOO.

Tim: FALLER. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. OM MU OH MI EN.

Tom: The language research skills are up to their usual standard, then?

Tim: Now, that’s probably (alright, definitely) not the actual spelling, but I’m too busy waving my hands around and shouting it out tunelessly but joyously to use my vague knowledge of Swedish to write that it’s actually “om och om igen”, or “again”.

Tom: To be fair, no-one Swedish appears to have transcribed the lyrics yet, let alone translated them. But “faller” translates literally as “falling”, so I think we can work out roughly what the song’s about.

Tim: The rest of it’s pretty good as well, but for some reason that chorus line’s all I can really remember. And quite possibly all I’ll ever be able to remember ever again. Oh well. FALLER. LA LA LA LA LAA LA. LA LA LA la laa la…(fade to black)

Tom: That, and its enthusiasm, are about the only things the song’s got going for it. But they are good.

Timoteij – Het

A ‘hip-hop people are tossers’ message.

Tim: These ladies haven’t really been heard from since their decent performance at last year’s Melodifestivalen; this is an excellent return to the scene.

Tim: Now for me, this gets going right from the first ten seconds, with the ‘hip-hop people are tossers’ message they’re not so subtly sending out.

Tom: If – like me – you enjoy that kind of thing, you may also enjoy the Lonely Island’s latest track.

Tim: LOVE IT. But back to the item in hand, once we’ve dissed all the crap music, the pop kicks in, and it’s fantastic. There’s an accordion (an ACCORDION!), and of course a cracking key change.

Tom: It’s a textbook key change, isn’t it? I’m trying to keep myself concentrating on the music, rather than the attractive women in the video – even accounting for that bias, I reckon it’s a pretty solid track.

Tim: This reminds me of S Club 7 music – not entirely sure why them in particular, other than that I’ve had S Club Party in my head all day – in the pure pop sense. Most of it, I think, is the lead-in to the chorus, working as a ‘right, we’re done with the dull bits, let’s have us a PARTY’, even though the dull bits aren’t particularly dull.

Tom: As Michael Bolton says: “now back to the good part!”

Tim: I’d love to know what the lines in the verses beginning at 0:40 and 0:50 remind me of, though. Female vocalist, might be Billie Piper. (If I try to sing it, it just morphs into In The Shadows, which it sort of is but isn’t what I’m thinking it is.)

Tom: Readers, any ideas?