Category: Europop

Dotter – Backfire

“A song that puts me very much in mind of Sia.”

Tom: The one with the disco ball dress, right?

Tim: Follow-up to her Melodifestivalen almost-winner, a song that puts me very much in mind of Sia.

Tim: I’m not sure there’s any one track in particular this reminds me of (or at least nothing popped out when I skimmed through a list of Sia’s singles) but stylistically this is very much a track I can imagine her putting out, and last time I checked that’s a fair old compliment.

Tom: It is! And it’s not just that the vocal quality’s very similar: the produciton is in the same style, too. I’m not massively convinced that it’s a chart-topper: this feels more like a Sia album track, but as you said, that’s still quite an endorsement.

Tim: A very strong voice, great production values, and all in all surely not that long before she’s noticed outside of Sweden, perhaps? If there’s any justice.

Tom: One big track is all it’ll take, I reckon.

Peg Parnevik – Regret It

“That’s great, no?”

Tim: I’m fairly sure we all do things we know we might regret later – I recently worked out how much I spent on LEGO during the lockdown, and I’d really like to forget, but apparently that’s not something my mind can do on demand. Anyway, Peg’s decided to write a song on the theme.

Tom: Only, I presume, without the LEGO.

Tim: And that’s great, no?

Tom: Much as I’d like to reply with a chirpy “no!”… I’ve got to agree. And I’m all for less-conventional messages like this in music.

Tim: Strong unambiguous lyrics, chorus sounds great, with the singing/chanting/vaguely shouting blend that can so often work really well, as it does here, and there’s great production work going on in the background.

Tom: It feels very much in the style of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, only with the exact opposite message. And just like that Taylor Swift song, it has an unnecessary talking bit.

Tim: Sure, I could do without the tag line at the end, and the fact that that single negative point does come right at the end and is therefore the one thing we immediately remember is very very unfortunate, but other than that, I think this is great.

Alex Järvi – Lost Boy

“I know there’s a fashion right now for the old VHS filter, but come on mate, know when to stop.”

Tim: Since you left me, I’ve got nothing, I’m empty, blah blah blah, Alex would like to elaborate.

Tom: Sure, let’s apply lo-fi VHS effects to portrait mobile phone footage, where you can literally see the phone in the mirror. That makes sense.

Tim: Oh, there’s more to it than that – that’s just a plain weird video. Like, is the point of it to show that he’s so distraught he’s learnt how to use all the garbage effects in Windows Movie Maker and waste time hunting down crap GIFs and bits of old anime series? And if it’s not him doing that himself because he’s so broken, has he (or, I guess, Universal) paid someone to do that? Really? Because I know there’s a fashion right now for the old VHS filter, but come on mate, know when to stop.

Tom: I got irritated enough by those effects that I moved it to a background tab, at which point the song… didn’t seem to have much left to interest me.

Tim: Oh, see I think it’s quite a nice song – and I’m almost surprising myself saying that, because the genre is decidedly Not Me, but the song works.

Tom: Really? What stands out for you?

Tim: The chorus in particular has got a really good melody to it, and his vocal definitely conveys the message in the lyrics – and the production at the end, when everything’s coming together in the final chorus, just sounds great. Top work.

Frida Öhrn – Fading Like A Flower

“Fewer guitars, more synths, as we’d expect”

Tim: April 1991, Roxette went top 10 in a whole load of countries (though only number 12 in the UK, shame on us) with Fading Like A Flower; 29 years later, here’s Frida.

Tim: Fewer guitars, more synths, as we’d expect, though I’ve no issue with either of those things.

Tom: Yep: it’s a cover that changes enough to provide a new take, but keeps enough of the original to be familiar. It’s not bad at all.

Tim: What I do have issues with, though, are two things, at least compared to the original: number one, she got rid of the key change, and although I’m well aware that a key change wouldn’t suit this version at all, actively getting rid of one should be an imprisonable offence.

Tom: Harsh, but not unfair.

Tim: Second is the genre change: by and large a good thing, because this does sound great, but it does mean that every time the chorus comes around I get a brief flash of Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, which for some reason the original doesn’t give me – maybe because the vocal’s not as prominent in the mix there?

Tom: Ha! I got a flash of Alice Cooper’s Poison and Faith Hill’s This Kiss, so, yes, let’s just agree this sounds like a lot of other tracks.

Tim: Aside from both of those things, though: I like this a lot. It is, in fact, a great example of how well making a song sound ‘up to date’ can be done: there’s plenty of the original still in there to keep the spirit of it going, and just enough modern sounding stuff (such as that vocal sample bit at 2:32, which I love) that it sounds like a current track. Job well done, I think.

Astrid S – Dance Dance Dance

“That sounds too harsh but not entirely unfair.”

Tom: It’s been more than a year since we last talked about an Astrid S solo track: I really liked Emotion, whereas you described it as “good noise”. So the question is: is that down to the singer and the style, or the song?

Tom: Well, that just sort of bounced off me and left no impression whatsoever, so I guess it was the song.

Tim: That sounds too harsh but not hugely unfair. I don’t know – I like the chorus, and after hearing it a couple of times the chorus is really embedded in my head, and that’s not a bad thing, with this chorus – nice melody and message to have stuck there.

Tom: On a relisten, there are some things to like here — the new melody that appears in the closing twenty seconds is lovely, and… hmm. That’s, again, all I’ve got.

Tim: Oh, shame.

Tom: I always feel bad being harsh about a song like this, because there’s nothing actually wrong here. The vocals are excellent. The production’s good. I just think it’s a bit forgettable.

Tim: Well, maybe you should just dance dance dance.

Magnus Carlsson – My Freedom

“Fancy hearing the official 2020 Stockholm Pride song?”

Tim: Fancy hearing the official 2020 Stockholm Pride song?

Tom: The way this format works, I don’t think I have a choice.

Tim: Oh, and isn’t that just great?

Tom: Yes, although that’s mostly because a load of compositional clichés on top of each other. There’s even a double-clap every sixteen beats in some parts! I don’t think that’s a bad thing here, mind — for this, you want a big shouty singalong song without surprises. They even put fake crowd-noise claps in when they’re coming back from the middle eight.

Tim: The fire alarm went off in my building at three o’clock this morning and I was stuck outside for an hour so I was all grumpy until I heard this, but BLIMEY am I now feeling good, because I’m fairly sure this has the potential to be a proper anthem in years to come. Thumping Eurodance beat, YES. Lyrics about knowing who he is, loving who he wants, YES. Callbacks to multiple song of his in the second verse, WHY NOT. Pleasing key change, ABSOLUTELY.

Tom: It arrives, it does the job well, and it leaves. Couldn’t reasonably ask for more.

Tim: And to be honest, I think that’s all I want from a song like this. Oh, except for an even bigger beat on it, which WHAT DO YOU KNOW is available via a SoundFactory remix on your local streaming service. Marvellous.

Frida Sundemo – Backbone

“And that is really a very textbook Frida song.”

Tim: New Frida! New EP, to be precise, with a few tracks that we’ve already heard and some new ones. This, for example, which is about “that feeling when it suddenly hits you that you hurt someone you love”. Enjoy.

Tim: And that is really a very textbook Frida song.

Tom: But what a well-written textbook it is.

Tim: What indeed. I’m never really sure whether it’s a good thing or not when artists consistently play it safe – although this absolutely works for me, and I really like it, part of me is thinking “you’ve got nine years of this, do you want to try something a bit different?” On the other hand, though, I’m thinking “well actually I’ve got other acts to listen to if I want something a bit different and sometimes bands changing their sounds is a really really bad idea HI BUSTED”.

Tom: This could easily slip into being a generic piano-ballad, but there’s something that elevates it above. I’m not sure why, but I can pick out a few possible reasons: the soaring vocals, some clever tricks in the composition, the string section. And, of course, a cracking middle eight and return-to-final-chorus.

Tim: Well, course, and so possibly changing direction would be a bad thing – hell, maybe she has tried different stuff but just not put it out into the wild because it just doesn’t sound good, in which case good for her.

To be honest I’ve no idea where this is going beyond a rambling sprawl of thoughts, but to sum up, and go back to the beginning: this is standard (and therefore very good) Frida music, and I very much enjoy both it and the rest of the EP. And the rest of her output.

Jan&Jascha – Europa

“I haven’t clicked on it yet, and the title and thumbnail already irritate me.”

Tim: A “cross-border friendship anthem” now from a new German duo here, and I genuinely don’t know if you’ll find this annoying, or enjoyable – I’m in the latter camp, though I’m fairly sure having the video up gives it a very firm shove that way.

Tom: I’ll tell you this much, I haven’t clicked on it yet, and the title and thumbnail already irritate me.

Tim: Ah, fabulous.

Tom: I think you have to be in the right mood for this song, Tim. I… am not. Fairly sure that there’s a brand-name drop of WhatsApp in there; if I heard that right, then the quiet “ugh” I muttered under my breath was worth it.

Tim: I’m sorry to tell you that in that case yes, it was worth it.

Tom: Have you tried this without the video?

Tim: I have, yes, and sadly it’s nowhere near as enjoyable. I just found it a tad dull, really (chorus aside which perks it up a bit), and while I appreciate a London Eye shoutout as much as the next guy, it really is just standard folk pop. With the video, though – aww. Just a bit of fun, isn’t it?

Tom: It’s a novelty song, simple as that. And those have to be really good for me to like them.

Tim: Yeah, but there’s nice enthusiasm about being part of somewhere that “means much more than just different nationalities and languages”, as they say, and how “despite all cultural differences and idiosyncrasies, we share a strong community spirit, especially in times of greatest challenges.” Isn’t that just a wonderful sentiment? Naïve, perhaps, but still wonderful.

Miriam Bryant – Passa Dig

“that’s been put together by someone who knows how to produce a chorus.”

Tim: Starts out as a quiet and potentially dreary piano ballad; come the chorus, well…

Tom: Well, that’s been put together by someone who knows how to produce a chorus.

Tim: So that’s a decent song: I was plenty impressed when the chorus happened, the instrumental underneath all sounds great, and although that ending doesn’t really scream 2020, the sound of it is great. There’s one big flaw in it for me, though, which is that it feels way, way too long.

It isn’t, really, but I looked at the clock when the instrumental began and was very surprised I wasn’t yet three minutes in.

Tom: Yep. I was all geared up for that to be headed to the final chorus, only to find that the track’s only half way through.

Tim: Two reasons, as far as I can tell: one is that it’s got almost a full minute of instrumental fade-out; wouldn’t normally be a problem, particularly when it sounds as good as it genuinely does.

Tom: Yep: even if that pair of yelping synth notes start to grate after a while. Repeat to fade is a brave choice in 2020, but honestly, I think it does work here.

Tim: But then there’s the second problem. The main notes are all two beats long, and it just feels dragged out, almost literally at the end, as if someone had fed it into Logic and just stretched it out to half speed. It’s annoying, particularly because I could probably easily live with either one of those two: finish it after that last chorus, fine. Stick in an extra drum beat on the second and fourth notes, fine. But together? Agh, just can’t quite get it.

Christopher – Leap of Faith

“Agh, this is so frustrating.”

Tim: I’ll be honest with you, Tom – not long after I pressed play on this I got bored and picked up my phone, and didn’t realise until the end of it that I’d missed a pretty good track. Don’t do that.

Tom: I tried. I genuinely tried. And then halfway through the final chorus, I absent-mindedly opened a new tab and looked up something that had crossed my mind.

Tim: Agh, this is so frustrating. See, I’m sure this is a good track, with individual parts that all work fine: the chorus has a lovely melody to it, verses flow along well enough, it doesn’t really do anything wrong, and every moment I’m listening I’m thinking “yeah, I like this”.

Tom: There’s some really good vocal work, too, like that falsetto in the last line of the chorus. (How much of that is live performance, and how much is digital trickery? These days, I guess it doesn’t matter.)

Tim: Sure, maybe it could do with something bigger when it comes back after the middle eight, because the lyrics really deserve it, but overall it’s fine. Except, I seem fundamentally unable to pay attention to it. I press play, I listen for a bit, and then I go back to Twitter. I stop myself, go back to the music, think “yes, this is definitely good”, and thirty seconds later I’ve opened up a new tab and am browsing some other website.

Tom: It’s not just you. For once, we’re in complete agreement: it’s a good song. It just doesn’t hold the attention, which to me is inexplicable.

Tim: And that really, really annoys me – because I like this! I really do! But I just can’t get myself to actually pay attention to it.