Author: tom

Saturday Flashback: Michelle – Es gibt dich

“A textbook example of a builder.”

Tim: I have no idea where I found this, but I was finally getting round to clearing up my 40+ Safari tabs when I re-found it, and I think it stands up.

Tom: This is the first time in a while that I’ve thought “wow, that’s a voice”. Those first lines, almost isolated, really show off her vocal quality.

Tim: It is, really, a textbook example of a builder. Middle eight aside, there isn’t a single component that isn’t a slightly increased version of what came before – hell, sometimes it increases midway through the verses.

Tom: It almost feels like the producers and engineers were having some fun with this one. I checked the waveform in an audio editor, and it literally increases in volume like someone’s steadily turning up a dial.

Tim: And when we come back from that middle eight, OH, I was absolutely not expecting it, but in hindsight it’s a perfect closing chorus. It’s a lovely song – nothing big or huge, but just really, really nice to listen to. And I like that in a song.

Julie Bergan – Crazy Enough

Tim: New one off Julie, and, well, I played it once and it was still in my head 45 minutes later, so that’s got to be a good sign, right?

Tom: Usually, yes, but that was also true of the Fast Food Rockers.

Tom: Well, that’s a heck of an introduction and first verse, isn’t it?

Tim: Starts out as a fairly simple ballad, chorus comes along and turns up the volume a bit, then hits properly and we are BANGING with an absolutely marvellous track.

Tom: Oddly, it’s the chorus that I find unconvincing: it’s unusual to say I like a verse more. I agree that it’s catchy, I’m just not sure I like it.

Tim: Production is great, her vocal is on point, melody is strong and memorable, and all in all I have next to no criticisms about this track whatsoever.

Tom: I’m not quite that enthusiastic, but, sure, it’s not bad.

Tim: I say next to no criticisms: there’s one part I’m not so keen on, which is the ending. If it’d been a quieter ballad throughout that’d work, but as it is, going from a big hefty number suddenly to a single vocal just seems too abrupt. Not sure how to fix it, mind – maybe stick a minor instrument underneath it, or maybe just cut it off entirely, go straight to zero for even more impact? I don’t know, but that aside, it’s absolutely marvellous.

Samir & Viktor – Kemi

“It is a great chorus, I’ll grant that.”

Tim: So, I don’t know why, but I seem to be predisposed to like anything by these guys – objectively awful as they may be, they have enough of a Jedward quality about them to be, well, endearing is the wrong word, but something like that.

Tom: Also, and it’s just a guess, but I suspect the fact they get their shirts off regularly might have something to do with it.

Tim: Anyway, here’s the new one, and you might be able to see where I’m going with that intro.

Tom: It’s like Jedward with less shouting.

Tim: See, from a different artist, there are a number of things I’d dislike here – the excessive autotune, with no attempt to hide it as though it’s still 2011; the lack of a melody throughout a large part of it; in some areas, it just verges into a genre I’m not keen on. And yet, that chorus is so good and happy and uplifting, combined with their textbook enthusiasm, that I can’t dislike it.

Tom: It is a great chorus, I’ll grant that. I’m just not sure it makes up for the rest of the song?

Tim: I’d clarify that a bit: if they hadn’t opened with that chorus, I might have switched off after twenty seconds, so putting that first was a great move. All in all, it’s a song I can’t really bring myself to dislike.

Topic x Vigiland x Christopher – Let Us Love

“Shall we see what today’s international cooperation brings us?”

Tim: A German producer, a Swedish musical duo, a Danish singer. Shall we see what today’s international cooperation brings us?

Tim: That’s a nice track, right?

Tom: “Nice” seems about right.

Tim: It does everything it needs to, has a nice tune, good vocals, decent beat to it, enjoyable while it’s playing, I wouldn’t stop dancing if it came on in a club, and I can even remember the chorus of it afterwards. So…why don’t I have anything to say about it?

Tom: Oh, Tim, welcome to how I feel about nearly all new pop music. It’s okay.

Tim: It’s nice, it’s good, it’s fine. It’s just…yeah, no problems.

Tove Lo feat. ALMA – Bad As The Boys

“Bringing out emotions in all the right ways, and using exactly the right type of music to do so.

Tim: Tove here singing about a summer experiment that didn’t go so great, with ALMA along as a token lesbian (genuinely – Tove says that “since I’m singing about a girl, I wanted another female artist on it who also likes girls; so I hit up ALMA”). Sweet, no?

Tim: And that right there is a really good pop song. It isn’t, of course, our usual preference of loud, exciting carefree stuff (for that, see tomorrow’s post), but it is a lovely melancholy number, bringing out emotions in all the right ways, and using exactly the right type of music to do so.

Tom: I had to reset my expectations, because I thought the chorus was a pre-chorus: given it’s Tove Lo, I was expecting something a bit louder. Once I’d figured out what the song was aiming for… sure. It’s not bad.

Tim: The verses are downbeat, the chorus melody and lyrics explain that and everything melds together nicely, telling a narrative really rather beautifully. Fair?

Tom: Fair, but I can’t help thinking that the last few seconds of vertical video, where it’s being sung as a proper ballad, might actually have been the seeds for a better track.

Feuerherz – Wer kann da denn schon nein sagen?

“Wet shirts! Beckoning at the camera! Dance sequences in the middle of an empty ampitheatre on top of a mining heap!”

Tim: We’ve featured Feuerherz (Fireheart, incidentally) a couple of times previously, with the general view being ‘entirely average boyband’, typically early 2010s One Direction, JLS, The Wanted, that sort of thing. Except, now we’re going back further than that. Mid 90s, say, with multiple moments here that made me smile and one that made me spit my drink out.

Tom: I genuinely don’t know what to say. It’s technically perfect — of course it is. It is just that, even for schlager, this is so incredibly cheesy that it’s difficult to take seriously.

Tim: We’ve mentioned it before, with other German pop, but there’s something nice about people doing this music entirely straight-faced, despite it being horrifically unfashionable these days. Dancing in sync, and what sort of choreographer thinks ‘what this really needs now is half of them doing slow forward rolls’?

Tom: Wet shirts! Beckoning at the camera! Dance sequences in the middle of an empty ampitheatre on top of a mining heap!

Tim: Key change, predictable now it’s happened but which did take me slightly by surprise. And hell, they’re even dressed like the Backstreet Boys.

Tom: The most startling part, of course, is that it’s actually catchy.

Tim: The title translates to “Who can say no?”, and, well, I certainly can’t.

Saturday Flashback: Oh Wonder – Slip Away

“This isn’t going to set the club on fire.”

Tim: Love Island finished last Monday, and as it happens I was pleasantly surprised by the result – after all, who would ever have predicted the nation’s favourite of Tommy and Molly-Mae would have been defeated?

Tom: Who indeed. [turns to camera, shrugs]

Tim: Anyway, the program’s generally fairly good for background music, bringing forth tracks that might otherwise have skipped me by, such as this from 2017. Expectations: this isn’t going to set the club on fire, unless it’s by everybody leaving the dance floor to go for a cigarette at the same time.

Tom: Thanks for the warning. Hopefully that’s because it wasn’t designed to.

Tim: Oh Wonder are a British band, who’ve never had a huge amount of chart success, and indeed haven’t produced any new music in almost two years. I’ve not a lot to say about this one, other than: it’s quite nice, isn’t it? To relax to, and stuff.

Tom: It’s great, but I’m not sure about relaxing: that build towards the end is really quite good at building up tension. I can see why it stuck with you, even if there’s not too much to say.

Tungevaag & Raaban feat. Victor Crone – Take Me Away

“Like someone has somehow attached a trombone mute to an angry yet melodic goose”

Tim: The two producers are Norwegian, new to here; Victor’s Swedish, and occasionally Estonian, and we’ve featured him previously, but not for yeeeears. Now, it is, as I’m sure you’re aware, terrifyingly hot in the UK right now, but let’s have a summery whistly song so it doesn’t seem so bad.

Tim: That is lovely, I think. I like this opening a lot, mostly because it comes along like so many Avicii-esque dance tracks and so promises a lot. Not quite so keen on the quiet bit following it, the synths don’t really work for me.

Tom: Yep. That synth sounds like someone has somehow attached a trombone mute to an angry yet melodic goose. It’s a shame.

Tim: The drums hit, though, and I’m in. The string parts, the whistling, yep, all for it.

Tom: Wait, really? It feels like it builds to nothing; the bit that’s meant to be a drop just turns out to be a damp squib.

Tim: The perfect part, of course, is the final part – it’s an unusual thing for a dance track to do in a closing section, just speed up like that, but I think it really works.

Tom: I… disagree strongly. It sounds like they’re on the last lap of Mario Kart. There are some lovely parts in here, but they’re just surrounded by parts that… aren’t.

Tim: Damn nice lyric video, though.

Smith & Thell – Hotel Walls

“It’s Mumford and Sister!”

Tim: Tom, and indeed our reader: if you’re feeling nihilistic then good news! This song is bloody brilliant. If not, well, maybe come back tomorrow.

Tom: It’s Mumford and Sister! I have no idea if that’s a compliment or insult. Also, I just realised that a) I made that exact same joke last time we talked about them and b) despite talking about several of their songs with you here, I have absolutely no memory of them whatsoever.

I don’t know if that’s my memory at fault, or if the songs just aren’t all that memorable in general.

Tim: I won’t lie: the first thing that attracted me to this, beyond that it’s Smith & Thell, was the video thumbnail. That looks lovely, as does the rest of this lyric video. But, oh, is there so much more to this as a song. In their words, it’s “a metaphor for life: you check in, you check out”.

They also say that, “while we’re here we should celebrate life rather than fearing the inevitable death”, but to be honest I don’t get that at all from the song – it’s “life is here, let’s cope with it”.

Tom: I’m generally in favour of lyrics with unconventional but realistic messages, and this certainly qualifies.

Tim: But you know what? That’s fine. It’s also brilliant to listen to – production, melody, everything is just right.

Tom: Yep, looking back at what we’ve said about them over the years, they’re clearly finding a voice that works for them and sounds great. They’re in the sort of place where one big breaththrough hit will make them massive. This won’t be it, but the next one might be.

Tim: It’s bloody brilliant.

Saturday Flashback: Tooji – Stay

“You’d think I’d remember something that unfortunate.”

Tim: I heard this recently, Norway’s 2012 Eurovision entry, and remembered I quite enjoyed it.

Tom: I have no memory of it at all!

Tim: Let’s revisit it, shall we?

Tom: You’d think I’d remember something that unfortunate. They’ve nicked the synths from Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction, the chorus from every late-90s Eurovision entrant, and the verse from… actually, I can’t remember the verse any more, and that’s probably for the best.

Tim: First of all, some context: in the category of ‘songs that qualified’, it couldn’t have done much (well, any) worse – it was tenth out of ten qualifiers from its semi-final, and in the final it was the single song that prevented us, with Engelbert Humperdinck (Engelbert Humperdinck, ffs), coming last, with 7 points to our 12.

Tom: The single saving grace is the chorus, but it’s very much a Traditional Chorus and those just don’t play well any more. As for why even Engelbert beat it…

Tim: Multiple reasons, probably: the vocals were weak, he looks like he’s just grabbed his clothes out of the dirty laundry basket, and the peculiar mix of genres meant that pretty much everybody would have at least one part they disliked. So, really: why on Earth was it chosen? And to that, I’ve no answer. Well, except that weirdly, I quite like it.