Tim: Satin Circus is Finland’s latest boyband, and this is their debut single. Actually, they’re totally not a generic boyband because they write their own stuff and play instruments so THEY’RE AUTHENTIC, OKAY? THEY’RE NOT ONE DIRECTION.
Their music is a “unique mix of pop, rock and Beach Boys harmonies,” which means that the backing line to this definitely absolutely won’t sound very similar to that of What Makes You Beautiful.
Tom: And the chorus won’t sound anything like “Live Like We’re Young”, presumably?
Tim: Absolutely not. But I suppose, yes, it’s not really the same but it is vastly similar enough to make you think, “Actually, this’d be a really good One Direction track.”
Tom: It would. If you set out to make something sound like One Direction, but not so close as to get sued… well, you’d end up with something like this.
Tim: In a sense, I feel sorry for these guys, because it seems that any music group consisting of four or five sub-25 guys who are vaguely photogenic making pop music automatically get lumped as a boyband, with all the negative stereotypes that includes.
Tom: But if you’re going to set the opening shot of your video – of some vaguely photogenic sub-25 guys with floppy hair – on an American beach, and film it in highly-saturated colour… well, it makes the comparison a bit easier. Even if they didn’t set out to be One Direction… their management has certainly got dollar signs (or, rather, euro signs) in their eyes.
Tim: On the other hand, the only people who really associate boybands with negative stereotypes are people who know for certain that all pop music is bad, so they don’t really deserve to be listened to, so if any band does care what those type of people think then they don’t deserve to be felt sorry for. And I’m fairly sure that sentence made sense, and there was semi-serious point at the beginning of that, I think.
Tom: Well done, Tim.
Tim: Anyway, whoever’s written this*, it’s good standard boyband pop music (albeit a tad derivative, and certainly not unique), the album will probably be worth at least a couple of listens, and finally it’s worth noting that it’s fortunate for the chorus that EMMA isn’t actually called ELIZABETH.