Tom: So after listening to that load of folk-rock gubbins you sent through for Thursday, Tim, SoundCloud decided to play this track at me. It was like a pleasant, refreshing sorbet after a somewhat chewy, bland main course.
Tom: And isn’t that lovely? Soaring strings. Gorgeous voice. Nothing particularly too imaginative about that chord progression or melody, but that’s not what I was looking for: I was just hoping for an enjoyable song.
Tim: Hmm. I’d not heard of ‘baroque pop’ before I saw the tags for this. Interesting. Can’t disagree with anything you’ve said, really (except for the ‘gubbins’ insult).
Tom: The only bit I don’t like, oddly, is the actual “not to blame” melody, which sticks in my craw a little.* I know that it’s an effect that songwriters go for, the whole “suspend the key lyric over a quiet bit at the end, like a diving board dangling over a swimming pool” thing, but it just stuck out here amidst a song that’s otherwise comforting and just, well, nice.
Tim: I think “comforting and just, well, nice” kind of sums this up – decent enough chorus, gentle and unexcitable verse, but nothing particularly rousing. Which is fine, and you’re right, those strings can be singled out as a high point, but, yeah. Comforting and just, well, nice.