Tim: You may remember Greta as half of Greta Salóme & Jónsi, who teamed up to represent Iceland in Baku with the genre-splicing Never Forget.
Tom: Or you may not. I, er, don’t.
Tim: Well, in that case give it another listen. Not bad by a long way, and it definitely deserved to do better than 20th. But anyway, this here is somewhat less metallic, but still something of a belter.
Tom: Ooh, that’s lovely. Almost menacing strings to start with, and… well, then it just keeps building.
Tim: What a voice. Oh, what a voice. And what a chorus, with the melody of that one line outshining quite a few other songs in their entirety. The lyrics and the message of the song, because this, Tom (and Danny O’Whatsisface—
Tom: O’… nope, I can’t remember his name either.
Tim: —well, whatever.) This can be an inspirational song: “I’m gonna tell the world I found the thing that turned my life around…It’s everywhere, it’s everywhere around me.” Then there’s the instrumentation throughout – this is a four minute song with fewer lyrics than most three minute ones, but what’s beneath them and between them is just huge where it needs to be and quiet where it needs to be.
Tom: It’s the first time, as far as I can remember, that I’ve thought adding a sound effects of a crowd rhythmically clapping has worked. It’s a dark song that soars – that’s difficult to pull off. And, oh my word, the quiet piano middle eight is just gorgeous.
Tim: Well, yes. And then after that there’s the key change, which is something special – it’s so slight you might think it’s not worth having, but once you notice it, it just seems so right and perfect.
In fact, everything about this seems so right and perfect.