Tim: P4 Nästen, a talent competition run by what is roughly Sweden’s equivalent of Radio 6 Music; final was this weekend, won by a band called Spring City. We won’t bother with them, though, or at least not right now – what we will bother with is the fact that every year, one of the band gets chosen by a jury to enter Melodifestivalen; this year, that act was The Lovers of Valdaro. No idea why you’d name yourself after 6,000 year old skeletons, but there you go. Here’s their new track.
Tim: And isn’t that actually really quite good?
Tom: Oh, that was really nice! I’m not sure “really nice” is the way to win Melodifestivalen, or even the way to write a catchy song, but those were the words that came to mind.
Tim: The instrumentation and backing is lovely, both right from the off and particularly during the chorus, as you’d expect. The vocal sounds lovely, matching the melancholy of the lyrics with the optimism inherent in the music. The ending might be a tad too reminiscent of This Is Me for my liking, but aside from that this is just great.
Tom: This seems like the sort of song that I’d use Shazam on multiple times: I like it, but I’m never going to remember it.
Tim: Previous Melodifestivalen graduates from the competition have included SMILO, with their fairly good track Weight Of The World, who didn’t do quite as well as they’d have hoped, so let’s hope this group do better. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing their track.