Tom: “Jill Johnson and Papa Lazarou”?
Tim: Close, but no creepy-voiced cigar I’m afraid. Jill Johnson, if you don’t know, is a Swedish singer who’s been going for nigh on two decades, and who in true Rihanna style has released an album pretty much every autumn for the past ten years, as has invariably landed in the top 5. This time it’s all about duets, and the lead single is with Helena, who I’m sure you’ll remember from her 2005 Greek Eurovision entry we wrote about a couple of years back.
Tim: That’s a good ballad, isn’t it?
Tom: It’s like the 90s returned, and Shania Twain’s still at the top of the charts.
Tim: Great overtones of it, yes. Now I think about it, it’s been a good year for duets, or at least the ones we’ve had have all hit the mark – Cardle & C, Fältzkog & Barlow (and that’s a department store chain in waiting) and now this.
Tom: Complete with cracking key change and electric guitar outro. It really is about fifteen years too late.
Tim: It could easily be sung as a solo track, and it would still be impressive, but the two working together really work up the drama of what a twat this guy they’re both dating must be – I don’t know if it is the same guy, but it would certainly explain why he’s always ‘working late’.
Tom: Ha. That’s a brilliant idea.
Tim: Actually, playing with that idea as I am wont to do, I know exactly how I’d like the video for this to be – two of them walking separately along two streets, cutting between them as they sing with occasional shots of him waiting outside a restaurant for a date, and then, come the key change, they both arrive from opposite directions, we have the three of them in the same shot and IT ALL KICKS OFF. That’d be marvellous.
Tom: Ideally, with the music coming to a grinding stop, and the man trying to stumble through some sort of explanation.
Tim: Exactly. Can we do that, please?