Tim: Betsy’s British, she’s been around a year or so, and she’s got this lovely track as her new one.
Tom: That is a good piano introduction. I like a good piano introduction. And the rest of the track’s pretty good, too: good enough that I properly sat up and smiled when that first chorus kicked in.
Tim: I say lovely, it’s not the happiest message ever, but it’s a damn good track. She’s got a voice to rival Annie Lennox, the song has a great melody that’s infectious in a very good way, and the video has a good number of good dogs in the video – all signs of a great track.
Tom: I’m not sure about that last criterion, but yes: there’s a depth to those vocals that only a few singers can manage. And what a chorus! That’s such a good chorus that I just used an exclamation mark.
Tim: Less objectively than that: it’s also a track that I immediately wanted to hear again once it finished, and is one I keep enjoying. And that’s really the litmus test as far as I’m concerned. GOOD DOGS.
Tim: A few weeks back, you wrote of female rock soloists that “they’ll always get compared to either Avril Lavigne or Paramore, and it’s difficult for the sound to stand on its own”. Have a listen, and then take a guess where Bronnie, who has recently re-released this track, is from.
Tom: I disliked this based purely on the title, because it sounds like the sort of pandering-too-hard song that gets put into… I don’t know, maybe a knock-off not-Disney-channel teen movie? I’m going to guess she’s Swedish, and this is basically a localised attempt to do High School Musical.
Tim: Wrong – she’s from the Wirral, in north-west England, and I was amazed when I discovered that via her Twitter.
Tom: I also despise the Wirral. And… has she put a fake “Vevo” label on her own thumbnail? Hold on. Something’s odd here. I think she’s unsigned.
Tim: I believe so, yes, and the Wirral’s not that bad, is it? Neither’s this track, though, which is probably what we should be focussing on.
Tom: In which case, I feel a bit guilty being so bolshy about this, because for someone who’s doing pretty much all their own production, this sounds good. The vocals are a bit buried in the mix, and the video’s slightly amateur in how it’s filmed, but they’ve covered it well.
Tim: Couldn’t agree with you more about the vocals, and it seems neither could she – the re-released version is also a re-mastered version, which fixes that.
Tom: Without a huge budget behind it all, I’d expect a lot worse.
Tim: The main thing is what it sounds like, though, because I don’t know the reasoning behind a British person talking about semesters, sounding very, very American, but I can’t imagine it’s accidental. And it’s a shame, as it’s hard enough to stand out in a genre like this, but directly emulating the biggest artist? That surprises me.
Tom: On the other hand, we are talking about it.
Tim: Because it’s a great track – it wouldn’t shock me too much if Avril Lavigne had released this – but I’d love to hear it sounding more natural. Who knows what we could have had? Possibly a whole brand new sound.
Tim: It is, and so the natural question is: have they saved the best until last?
Tim: Hahahahah yeah no.
Tom: Ah, Tesco Value Zayn: months later and not as good.
Tim: “I used to be used to be in 1D/now I’m out free” sums it up, really, in every way.
Tom: For a few seconds, when he’s in the gold jacket in the ludicrous bedroom doing a Meaningful Look at the camera, I was convinced that this was actually a parody.
Tim: Hmm, this could actually work well as a Lonely Island style track. But no. Oh, no.
Tom: The “yeah yeah yeah” sounds like a knock-off Ed Sheeran. The autotuned rap middle eight is unnecessary.
Tim: You say unnecessary, I say just plain offensive. And why has he named himself after a packet of crisps?
Tom: The world that comes to mind for this whole track is…
Tim: Back in January we featured the very good Don’t Let Go by this exact same pairing; here’s a follow up.
Tim: Bits are better, and yet other bits are much worse, which is a dreadful shame.
Tom: “Ice and fire / higher, higher, higher.” That is… not a great opening lyric. And those aren’t great vocal distortion effects either, at any point during the song.
Tim: Well I’m not so bothered by the lyrics, because otherwise the verse and chorus are great – the melody just clicks, and the voice and production are exactly what I want. Post chorus, though, is sadly exactly what I don’t want, because oh, it’s just horrible.
Tom: Have they sampled a duck call? That’s just unpleasant.
Tim: It’s really, really not nice, and it ruins – utterly ruins – the rest of the song. We frequently complain about guest rappers turning up and vomiting all over the middle eight of otherwise good songs, but at least those can be skipped over, or leave quickly. Here, though, that sounds is part of the song, integrated deep, and yet it sounds horrible. DO NOT LIKE.
Tim: A request to anybody who starts reading below straight after pressing play: please don’t. Let it play out.
Tim: Nice surprise, wasn’t it? I was close to switching off after a while, when it became clear that there wasn’t a huge amount going on in the chorus.
Tom: Oh, you say that, but I really do like that chorus melody. It feels like a builder to me, and… well, yes, it was. I’m surprised the chorus didn’t keep you interested.
Tim: Soon afterwards, though, I realised what a stupid decision switching off would have been, because man, I do love a gospel choir. And when those trumpets come in? Oh, sublime.
Tom: It’s a textbook Big Inspirational Song, and it’s done very very well indeed. Although I could have sworn that was a string section, not trumpets, they’re so buried in the mix. Good, though.
Tim: A shame, then, that it ended when it did – ‘verse/chorus/chorus/middle eight type thing’ is a very odd structure indeed, particularly when the middle eight type thing is so quiet and coming off such a big second chorus. Close it with a final chorus, ideally with a soaring vocal from her over the choir, and this’d be a sweet 💯. As it is…it’s close. Very close.
Tim: Bear in mind when you press play that the melody for this was apparently written “about fifteen years ago”; Nelly and Kelly Clarkson had a massive smash hit with Dilemma just under fifteen years ago.
Tim: I am therefore willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, and accept that it’s a coincidence. A massive, massive coincidence.
Tim: According to him, he only recently came up with the lyrics that would fit it, apparently about his mum who died a while back, and it’s taken him ages to perfect it to be a decent farewell and that sort of stuff, and actually it really is a very, very decent farewell.
Tom: Blimey, that’s an emotional backstory for a song. I am prepared to agree that it’s a coincidence, though, because there are only so many ways to pleasingly arrange notes.
Tim: It took a while to convince me – to be honest the only reason I didn’t get bored of it before the chorus was that I was looking up Dilemma’s release date.
When that chorus hit, though, it was more than enough to get me to keep listening, because blimey it’s strong. The voice doubles down on the passion, the strings come in and it all seems worth it.
Tom: It’s difficult for me to dislike a song about someone’s deceased mother, but I’M GOING TO DO IT ANYW… no, just kidding, this is actually a really good track.
Tim: I’m not sure about the distorted vocals in the middle eight, mind – they stick out a mile in this otherwise traditional ballad – but overall I like this a lot. It’s good.
“It’s no Wrecking Ball. Hell, it’s not even The Climb.”
Tim: We’ve all done it – been through parts of our lives that we now regret, become different people, want to move on.
Tom: And don’t I know it.
Tim: Sadly for Miley, she reckons she’ll never be able to move on from Wrecking Ball, which she apparently now hates because of the video – “I will always be the naked girl on the wrecking ball”. Shame, but there we go. Here’s her new one.
Tim: Now, I get why she might not like the video for Wrecking Ball, but no-one can deny it’s a stunner of a song.
Tom: Yep. The video may have driven its popularity, but it’s still a belter. And, heck, it’s not as if this new video isn’t at least “a bit racy”.
Tim: This, on the other hand, is…nice, and there’s not a lot else to be said for it. It’s good, it’s cheery, it’s lovey dovey, but it’s no Wrecking Ball. Hell, it’s not even The Climb. From a new artist I’d probably say “yeah, I’ll take more of this, let’s wait for her second”; with Miley, there’s more a sense of disappointment, and that makes me sad.
Tom: Agreed. I actually skipped forward to see if it actually went anywhere — and it sort of does, but it’s very much an Album Track, isn’t it? That “dream come true / Malibu” rhyme is disastrous.
“Starts out like Hairspray, immediately moves in a wildly different direction.”
Tom: PSY’s got a new album. As usual, he’s released two singles at the same time. And while K-pop isn’t usually what we cover, I want to talk about the second one, same as last time. Why?…
Tom: …because, seriously, that’s a BANGER.
Tim: Hmm – starts out like Hairspray, immediately moves in a wildly different direction.
Tom: I’d ignore those translated lyrics in favour of two things: one, just how good that chorus is, and second, that cinematography.
Tim: Good? Really? But okay, let’s talk about the filming.
Tom: I have never seen an effect like that: for a while, I thought it was hyperactive CG, but no: at the end of this making-of video you can just see it’s an actual crane doing ridiculously fast and controlled camera moves (although sped up in post). That is such a brilliant effect, and I expect to see it ripped off by everyone for the rest of the year. I’d rip it off if I had a budget and a possible use for it.
Tim: See, you say brilliant, but I’d say disorientating and a bit unpleasant. It leaves me feeling more queasy than impressed. Please don’t rip it off.
Tim: New Swedish group, EP out now, and here’s one of their tracks, with a fun and definitely not gimmicky 360º video.
Tim: I’ll be honest: I don’t like that video.
Tom: Media world: stop trying to make 360º video happen. It’s not going to happen.
Tim: No. And here’s the deal: I like the let’s have fun and party vibe, but the 360º thing ruins it. I want to be able to watch everything happening – I don’t want to be swinging my phone around wildly worrying about what I’m missing out on, when I should be paying attention to the music as well.
BUT ANYWAY, I do like the song, sounding as it does like an early Avril Lavigne track (by which I mean the ones she did before she got replaced by a lookalike).
Tom: The trouble with bands like this is they’ll always get compared to either Avril Lavigne or Paramore, and it’s difficult for the sound to stand on its own. This is pretty good, although… look, it’s basically a Paramore album track at best, and I sort of hate myself for making that comparison.
Tim: It’s fun, it’s rocky – I’ve always got room for decent female-fronted rock – so all in all I’m very much in favour. The whole EP’s in a similar vein, so if you like this it’s definitely worth a bit of your time. CHECK IT OUT.
Tim: On Friday we wrote about Katy Perry going from a great track to a terrible track. Niall’s debut track, as we’ve already detailed, was utterly atrocious, which leads me, pleasingly, to be able to say that there’s only (wait for it) ONE DIRECTION (hahahahahahah you see it’s funny because he used to– yep– oh, you’ve got– okay, fine) he can go from there.
Tom: Well, like you guessed, that’s an improvement. I don’t think it’s all that good — it’s one of those songs where the middle eight is the best bit, which isn’t a great sign — but at least it’s not a dirge.
Tim: Indeed, and so the question on everybody’s lips is WHY THE HELL wasn’t that the lead single? This Town, deservedly, barely scraped the Top 10; it was beaten comprehensively by James Arthur, for God’s sake. This, on the other hand, is an enjoyable track, with life to it, a funky personality, and a happiness to hear it again.
Tom: I don’t think the phrase “funky personality” has been used outside early-90s episodes of Blind Date, but you’ve got a point there.
Tim: Apparently he wrote about 70 tracks for his new album, so hopefully he took the lesson from last time and will be binning off all the dreadful melty ballads in favour of lively music like this. Come on Niall, do the right thing.
