Tim: According to Linda Carlsson’s YouTube biography (apparently that’s a thing now), she experimented with just about every style of music going as a youngster; seven years back, aged 24, she chose Serious Authentic Music and took on the name Miss Li. Last year, though, was a slight switch to good rowdy pop, as evidenced by My Heart Goes Boom, which UK advert-watchers may recognise from a furniture superstore advert. New up: this.
Tim: And isn’t that all kinds of lovely?
Tom: Oh, it is. I like everything about it about from the word “Transformer”. It’d be lovely if the line of toys and movies didn’t exist; it’d just be a fairly whimsical choice of words. But it stands out like a sore thumb here.
Tim: You think? Because I have absolutely no problems with it whatsoever – doesn’t stick out at all.
Tom: That said, on a second listen it didn’t seem so obvious, so perhaps it’s one of those things that you just get used to over time.
Tim: The voice wavers between being fairly lacklustre and downbeat in the verses and all happy and bouncy in the chorus – so much, in fact, that we bounce up a key entirely and have an even happier closing section.
Tom: Which is strange, given that the lyrics could be interpreted in quite a dark way.
Tim: Yeah – I thought it was quite nice at first, until I noticed that single chorus line that turns it from “let’s have fun doing whatever you want” to basically a desperate plea not to dump her. It’s still sung with enough brightness, though, that you can’t really help but be uplifted by it. And, let’s face it, when you get right down to it, making you feel good is what pop music is meant to do, so well done here.