“All it’s missing is a double-clap after every four bars.”
Tim: A pairing here that, in hindsight, is notable largely for the fact that it took long to happen – I saw this and thought “yes, of course they’re doing a song together”. BUT, the twenty trillion dollar question: is it any good?
Tom: Oh, listen to those synths! All it’s missing is a double-clap after every four bars. (I’m joking, but also, I did start adding them myself at one point.) You’re right, it’s good, although…
Tim: YES, even if I do want to sing FREAK OUT on top of the chorus.
Tom: Right.
Tim: It does, in fact, sound pretty much exactly what I’d expect a Pet Shop Boys feat. Years & Years song to sound like: nice electro beats, fairly gentle with nothing too heavy but an interesting backing nonetheless, and lyrics that are fairly interesting.
Tom: Along with a really innovating music video.
Tim: I like it – there’s a new album out in January, and this is a decent lead track.
“It’s really interesting to hear this sort of dramatic, dark effect applied to what is, in the end, still schlager.”
Tom: We’ve talked about Matthias Reim before, Tim, and we seem to settle on the same thing each time: SCHLAGER BANGERS. What’s he got this time?
Tim: Well, throughout my years, Tom, I’ve heard hundreds, probably thousands, of songs that build through the verse and smash into the chorus. And yet, until today I don’t think I’ve ever heard one that could genuinely be described as having a sense of foreboding about it.
Tim: Those opening piano notes, straight out of some sinister ‘hide in the wardrobe, there’s someone creeping around with a knife’ scenarios.
Tom: I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere before, but all my brain can come up with is Cutting Crew’s Died In Your Arms. It’s really interesting to hear this sort of dramatic, dark effect applied to what is, in the end, still schlager.
Tim: Those beats arrive, upping the tension further. His deep raspy voice with its distinctly serial killer vibe. That heart in the lyric video smashing into pieces. The drums build, he’s approaching the closet, you’re holding your breath, and suddenly WHAM, we break out into a truly fabulous eurodance chorus.
Tom: “Freezing”, in case it wasn’t obvious from context. You’re right though: all electric-guitar, power-chords and heavy percussion. He’s managed it again: BANGER.
Tim: We can breathe, no-one’s trying to murder us, we can have a heck of a time, either throwing our limbs around trying to approximate some sort of rhythm, or just watching that absolutely gorgeous lyric video. Either way, everything is good, and we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us to appreciate it.
Tom: This got more existential than usual. Cracking schlager song, though.
Tom: I wouldn’t normally send over a deep house song, Tim, but I heard this track from 2014 for the first time, and it stood out to me.
Tim: Any particular reason?
Tom: Because every single individual part of it is irritating, and yet somehow, I like it.
Tom: Who seriously picks synth patches like that? Who decides that a distorted foghorn should try to become the sound of the summer? Who adds a tweeting-bird-car-alarm effect last heard when Dario G remixed Jeff Wayne? Who writes what is basically a two-note melody?
Tim: So, I get your point, and I don’t know how to answer any of your questions with anything other than “well, this guy”, but it was a big song. And it might only be two notes, but it’s a catchy melody nonetheless, and that I still remember five years down the line even though I’ve probably not heard it much since.
Tom: You do? Huh. I missed it somehow. Which rather takes the wind out of my big question — who gets it into the Top 20 in the UK, and to number 2 in Belgium?
Tim: Well, it’s as you said: somehow, you like it. And so did a lot of other people.
Tim: Here’s something pointlessly confusing for you: a Scandivinavian dance pop act called September that is entirely not the September who did Can’t Get Over and Cry For You and that lot.
Tom: That is a very, very odd choice of name. Did they not Google it?
Tim: This lot are Icelandic rather than Swedish, though, as you can probably guess from the song title, which in English means Only Near You.
Tim: Don’t know much about the context of that title, but hey – it’s primarily a tropical-sounding dance tune with occasional pop nods, so its probably not all that important.
Tom: And some decent string-section synths in there, too. But you’re right: standard tropical dance.
Tim: At least, it should be that. Because this would be so, so much improved if that Galantis-style post-chorus were allowed to take the lead more often. There’d be less of the slightly uninteresting verses, and many more dance beats that everyone can properly enjoy. Because damn, they’re good, and I’d love a whole song of that, although I’d allow the odd vocal here and there to keep the variety.
Tom: For most tracks that come through here, I’d agree with you: but here, I don’t, I think they’ve got the balance about right.
Tim: Basically, I want more of the good stuff and less of the boring stuff. Is that really too much to ask?
Tim: Here, a track that, despite being a reworking of one from twenty years back, and having four credited producers, is 100% unbridled Alan Walker. With a VHS filter applied, because we’ve not had enough of those recently.
Tom: You’re not wrong, that is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT UNBRIDLED ALAN WALKER. Not just the synth pads, but the rhythms they’re in, the vocal quality of the singer, and the vocal chop-ups during the middle eight.
Tim: Somehow, I’d never really figured out how a dance track can have multiple names on it – like, it’s one guy at a computer, how does it work? Fortunately, we’ve a video that explains it nicely, and suddenly I’m thinking ‘of course it’s like that, that makes total sense’.
Tom: It involves floaty purple things. Of course it does.
Tim: We’ve three videos so far – this one from Alan and another from each of K and Martin, each telling a slightly separate story about how things started happening – it’s a rather nice thing, not least for, yep, all the floaty purple things.
The tune’s the main part, though, with the main hook coming from Mangoo’s 1999 track Eurodancer, and pretty much everything else being Alan’s trademark beeps and bloops. And, well, you know what I’m going to think about it, because like I said at the top, it’s 100% Alan’s sound. You like Alan, you like the song; you don’t, you don’t. And I do.
Tom: It’s an odd one, isn’t it? He needs to keep his sound fresh and updated, or people will get bored — but if he does that, it doesn’t sound like an Alan Walker Track any more.
Tim: Though actually, one thing from that video: do you reckon Alan ever brings his hood down?
Tom: Never mind that, what kind of a DJ name is “Mangoo”?
Tim: I’m not quite sure why, but we seem to have got fully into covering Westlife’s comeback, and I guess there’s no reason to stop. Here’s the third track, released a couple of months back, but only now given a video. Spoiler alert: it’s quite the belter.
Tom: You’re raising my expectations, Tim. Now I’m expecting something really good.
Tom: “Belter”? Really? You’re going with “belter”? I wouldn’t th– never mind, I just got to the key change.
Tim: We mentioned on Friday that Alphabet haven’t concerned themselves with what’s modern, and it’s nice that they’re not the only ones. As with the previous two, we’ve Ed Sheeran and long term Westlife collaborator Steve Mac on writing duties, and aside from the ever so slightly tropical sounding beat underneath, this is just as much a classic Westlife track as we had twenty years ago. And for that, I love it.
Tom: For me, the key change is the only “yep, that’s classic Westlife” bit, because the rest is… well, it’s an okay pop song. You’re right that it’s very old school, I’m just not sure it’s an improvement. That said, if it’s what you’re looking for…
Tim: Not only that, mind – there’s the key change as well, and it’s one of my favourite types: you sing one line, BOOM, you sing it again a couple of notes higher. Shayne Ward did it, and now Westlife have joined him. And, obviously, accompanied it with an actual explosion, because of course they have, the song’s called Dynamite, it’d basically be breaking the law not doing that. Good work, lads (though I could maybe have done without that thrusting shot at 3:18).
Tom: I mean, fair play to them, they haven’t faked-up the tour footage, that is basically just bragging “look at us, it’s been decades and we still get arena crowds, what’re you gonna do about it”.
Tim: Album’s finally got a date, by the way: November 15th, so stick that in your calendar please, and maybe even book the day off work. Not saying I have, mind, but, well, maybe.
“This might be the most charming f-bomb I’ve ever heard in pop music.”
Tom: This might be the most charming f-bomb I’ve ever heard in pop music.
Tim: Oh that is nice, you’re right.
Tom: I think it’s the switch to quiet falsetto that makes it so charming. Every time Anne-Marie swears here, it sounds performative, deliberately designed to stand out and shock. But somehow, Lauv on his own manages to make the consonants sound so quiet and musical that it really fits the lyrics.
Tim: Yeah – it’s obviously rude, but comes across almost as an “I’m terribly sorry I have to use this word, but you see there’s really no other option left open to me”.
Tom: That said, the clean version, replacing the profanity with a single pinging synth, doesn’t sound that different to me.
Tim: Hmm, fair. It’s helpful that it’s there, really, because it’s an interesting highlight in a song I otherwise might skip past entirely, or certainly get bored with.
Tom: Anyway, then there’s the rest of the track: this is catchy, with the sort of minimalist production that can sound terrible if it’s not done really, really, well. Here, though? It works.
Tim: Tom, you said yesterday that everything seemed generic, and you couldn’t mind much to write about. Turns out the music gods paid attention, because: NEW ALPHABEAT!
Tom: Crikey, between that and Mika, it’s like my university years have come back.
Tim: First thirty seconds of that, I was “hmm, it’s okay for a second track, decent funky pop, I guess I can cope”, but then the CHORUS came along, and suddenly I’m “OOH YES it’s like the Alphabet of a decade ago”.
Tom: That chorus bassline reminds me a lot of Train from 2012, too. I’m not suggesting it’s a rip-off: it’s just another touchstone that puts this, well, as not being cool any more.
Tim: It’s fun, exciting pop, proving that either they truly don’t know what’s cool any more or that they just don’t care, because this ain’t mainstream music, with its gloomy synths and weird vocal samples and genericness. No. Instead, it’s happy, energetic, upbeat, joyous, celebratory, arms flailing in the air for that drum bit at the end, wonderful music.
Tom: I was going to specifically point out that drum fill! You’re right: it’s not the sort of thing we hear much these days.
Tim: I’ll be heading to Denmark to see them in November, and right now I’m more excited about that than ever.
Tim: Anna Abreu, who we’ve not featured for several years now, has rebranded, and re-genred: it’s time for a not-quite-too-late SUMMER BANGER. (Incidentally, the title doesn’t translate to ‘Satan’, as I was initially hoping, but instead to ‘Light Up’.)
Tom: That starts well, doesn’t it?
Tim: Bit of tropicality in there, a good amount of synthed up background vocals, and a hell of a lot of good dance beats. The production on here is just great.
Tom: The production is excellent throughout: whoever’s mixed this has spent a lot of time to bring out the best in those vocals in front of some quite complex instrumentation.
Tim: The bit that really made me think ‘yes, this is as it should be’ is the quick series of drums beats we hear halfway through and at the end of each verse (first at 0:13, then 0:23). It’s a small thing, and the song would still sound great if it wasn’t there – but it is, and it shows that a lot of thought has been put into this track, making it as good as it can be. And I think it succeeds.
Tim: The title translates to ‘You’re Lying’, and never before has a song given me so many moments of “aaaagh, come on”.
Tom: Music videos are vertical now. Right. Okay. That’s a thing. Pity they just put a phone on a cheap gimbal, and asked her to walk about a bit really, but never mind. ANYWAY. The music.
Tim: Now, don’t get me wrong: what is there in the song is really, really good. This does, in fact, have the potential to be one of my favourite songs of the year.
Tom: Really? I feel like “have the potential” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in there. You’re right that there are decent elements in the track…
Tim: BUT, there are so many bits that should be there, but aren’t. That moment at 1:02 that is crying out for a big dance breakdown. It kind of gets there after the second chorus, but it still doesn’t quite hit its full potential. And worst of all, that ending. Sure, an abrupt ending is okay, it’s happened before. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard one like this.
Tom: Yep. Everything about this feels a bit unfinished, in big and small ways.
Tim: You’re coming out of the middle eight, you have a quiet bit, BUT THEN YOU HAVE A LOUD CLOSING CHORUS. IT IS THE LAW OF POP MUSIC. DAMN YOU LENA, YOU BROKE THE LAW.
