Tom: I’m slightly behind the times here – I’ve only just realised that the Olympic opening ceremony music has been released as an album. And I know this doesn’t count as any kind of pop, really, but damn it, I’ve fallen in love with the flame-lighting music.
Tim: But…but wait – when did you stop hating everything Olympic?
Tom: During the opening ceremony – when it stopped being about corporations, sponsorship and travel disruption and started being about people, history and achievement. Not a flippant answer, I know, but true.
Tim: True for you and also, I reckon, about another 62 million people.
Tom: There are quite a few “featurings” here, more than enough to fit in our title: Alex Trimble from Two Door Cinema Club, Only Men Aloud, the Dockhead Choir, Elizabeth Roberts, Esme Smith and – amazingly – Dame Evelyn Glennie.
Tim: Don’t forget the demons and Satan himself.
Tom: What?
Tim: You know – like Trevor Nelson said in the commentary, how Danny Boyle worked hard with the boys from the underworld. I liked that.
Tom: Bloody Trevor Nelson.
I think partly the reason I like this so much is because of remembering what went with it: sitting in a house party, all cynicism having been melted away by (Sir, surely?) Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, and then being gobsmacked by the actual torch lighting.
Tim: A very impressive moment, that was. I actually missed the ceremony live because I was in a pub, but I did watch it on a train on the way to Leicester the next day, so that counts.
Tom: I remember wondering what this music was – and now I know. Specially composed by Underworld. Yes, it’s a piece from a soundtrack rather than an actual pop single, and yes, it defies all common structure and reviewing methods – but that hasn’t stopped it being being in the iTunes Top 10 all week.
Tim: Deservedly so, because it is lovely. Not necessarily to pay attention to constantly, but to listen to while you’re relaxing or reading or something, and you can sit up and pay attention every now and again when choirs come in and sing or at that bit five minutes in. Lovely for that.
Tom: And then Paul McCartney turned up to sing “Hey Jude”. It can’t all be perfect.