Category: Europop

Boy In Space – Forever Young

“Doesn’t sound anything like you’ll expect it to.”

Tom: Forever Young, again?

Tim: Weird coincidence: yesterday I was trying to think of my favourite cover song to submit for a work playlist, and naturally my mind briefly went to One Direction, and then I ended up listening to the Interactive version, and (for a few seconds at least) the German rap version; later on, I found out that Boy In Space has just released his own version – which doesn’t sound anything like you’ll expect it to.

Tim: Forever Young’s a difficult one, really – it’s been covered so often that you’d imagine it’d be hard for anyone to do anything new with it, and yet pleasingly Mr Space here seems to have managed it.

Tom: It’s not a song that I’d have expected to become a standard, certainly. “Perish like a fading horse” continues to be an incredibly clunky lyric. It’s the power of a good chorus, I guess.

And you’re right that he’s done something new, although that something new appears to be “having almost zero percussion whatsoever”.

Tim: We’ve a lovely dreamy sound to it that I don’t know of having been done before, even though it suits the song really really well – it’s got a relaxed tone that gives the song a more reflective note, a sort of ‘sitting in a field contemplating what it might actually be like’ vibe, and that really works for me.

There are bits I’m not keen on, mind – the vocal shift in the chorus comes as a bit of a shock, and while the constant build through the second verse and chorus is lovely, it’s frustrating that it leads to absolutely nothing.

Tom: Yep, that’s my big complaint. It’s the lack of percussion: it implies strongly that at some point the drums are going to kick in, possibly even with a Phil Collins-style, In-The-Air-Tonight triumphant drop, but… no. This is just the style.

Tim: But for the feeling it brings, and for the interpretation, I do like it.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering: there’s just no contest.

Tom: Yes, there is.

Dagny – Somebody

“A good approximation of a CHVRCHES song in style, and I have no problems at all with that.”

Tom: After yesterday, when we talked about the Weeknd’s style, I’ve started noticing that boots-and-cats synth-percussion drumbeat everywhere, as if someone reset the pop industry’s synthesisers back to “80s default”. Is that just me being more aware of it, or has this suddenly come back into fashion?

Tom: The trouble is, it’s also all I can remember from this track.

Tim: Hmm. Bit harsh, I’d say, as there’s a decent chorus in there, and I’d be almost certain there’s a bit of confirmation bias going on there, or at least pulling of focus. This is, to me, a good approximation of a CHVRCHES song in style, and I have no problems at all with that.

Tom: There’s nothing wrong with it! It’s a reasonable pop song. The chorus melody, now I listen back to it, is really decent. But I was distracted by trying to work out which balcony in Kings Cross she’s filming on, and honestly, that’s not a great sign, is it?

Tim: No, admittedly that isn’t. Mind you, Dagny’s the sort of artist where every time I see the name I think “surely they should be getting big over here right now”, so hopefully that won’t be too long.

The Naked and Famous – Blinding Lights

“Risky, but sure, it’s lockdown, why not.”

Tim: Covering a six month old hit by one of the world’s biggest acts? Risky, but sure, it’s lockdown, why not.

Tom: Well, that started out disappointing, didn’t it? The thing that draws you into Blinding Lights is that driving boots-and-cats percussion matched with a really dark vocal. This is… not an improvement.

Tim: Probably worth mentioning that as far as The Weeknd goes, I am basically entirely neutral – his music’s fine, he has a ridiculous name, that’s kind of it, so I’m open to this, with no advance feelings at all.

Tom: Whereas for me, I really like Blinding Lights, and I’ve been really impressed with the live performances he’s been doing: he’s someone who knows the medium well enough to play around with it.

Tim: And so, it’s…perfectly fine. To start with, anyway, as for the first 49 seconds I was wondering ‘why have they done this?’, because it doesn’t do anything new, doesn’t bring anything of them to it. But then it changed! The second and fourth lines of the chorus, we’ve their echo-y chanting sound, and then the guitar post-chorus is definitely new and notable, and now it’s worthwhile.

Tom: You’re right, that electric-guitar is a really interesting way to play with the synth line. And this does redeem itself by the final chorus. The additional two-beat hesitation in there is clever. It’s just that there seems to be so much missing up until then.

The Postal Service’s cover of Against All Odds did this right: it’s so different in genre, at least to start, that it doesn’t invite immediate comparisons. By the time it actually gets going, you’re not expecting to hear the original.

Tim: Better or worse is obviously up to your genre preference – but it terms of a cover, it’s good.

Dolly Style – Boom Boom Box

“We’ve got a decent dance routine to go with it so the important stuff’s there.”

Tim: Tom, you’ve always had time for country music, right?

Tom: Yep. And I maintain that country music — by which I mean modern pop-country, the sort of thing you get on US radio stations — is pretty much just schlager with different instruments. Of course, when a European band tries to imitate that…

Tim: Now, admittedly, this is about as country as 5, 6, 7, 8 but the intentions were good so I think that counts, and we’ve got a decent dance routine to go with it so the important stuff’s there.

Tom: Good intentions and a dance routine. That is basically every basic Europop act, isn’t it?

Tim: I’d say minimum requirements, certainly. I don’t know what my favourite part about the ‘yes, we’re honestly playing the instruments’ video is – it’s definitely her with the banjo, but it’s 50-50 between just after a minute where she decisively stops playing while the music carries on, or around two minutes where she’s playing but there’s nothing in the music.

Tom: Or the fact that the drummer is almost always covered by someone else while playing, or else cut away from so fast that it’s extremely difficult to tell if anything’s being hit remotely correctly. Maybe she can drum! But, uh, I’m not convinced.

Tim: Either way, it’s a cracker of a track, cracker of a video, and when lockdown’s over I’d like to arrange a street party where we all do that dance, please.

Nordik Sonar – Fiction No Science

“Lovely blend of 80s synths and modern sounding melodies”

Tim: We got sent this the other day; they’re two guys, Benjamin and Linus, chatting about how the video is a “colourful declaration of love to electronic pop” and how they’re using bright colours to “celebrate pop culture”, and that’s lovely and everything but there’s one main question: do you miss BWO?

Tom: I’d actually forgotten about BWO, which is unduly harsh, because they made some really good songs. The fact I can still remember a few of the tracks off Big Science more than a decade later is basically the biggest endorsement I can give them. So while I wouldn’t say I miss them, I certainly wouldn’t say no to tracks along those lines.

Tim: See, I do miss BWO, and this song brings us the lovely blend of 80s synths and modern sounding melodies – it’s that pre-chorus build that really drives home the similarity for me, although there are lots of other small bits in there as well, and it sounds absolutely wonderful for it.

Tom: There are some really good choices in here. I don’t think it’s quite as fun as BWO, but then it’s unfair to just compare them to another band. This stands well on its own.

Tim: Beyond that, there’s those lovely twinkly bits, and really just how everything fits together nicely. Sure, the pause before the chorus could maybe do with being a couple of beats shorter, but otherwise this is absolutely great. Love it.

LÉON – Who You Lovin

“It really all does hang on that chorus working, doesn’t it?”

Tim: Nice one for you here from Sweden to start your week off; nothing to say about it in advance really, except: press play.

Tom: Huh. Starts slow, doesn’t it?

Tim: It does, yes, and so much so that I was a bit disappointed after that first chorus ended, a distinct sense of ‘is that it, are we back to the dull verse already?’, but no, of course we’re not. The second verse is bigger and bolder than the first, the second chorus lasts a decent amount of time, in for a middle eight, back out for a brief chorus and then that absolutely lovely closing instrumental section.

Tom: It really all does hang on that chorus working, doesn’t it? And I can see how a melody like that could grate. I’m not as convinced about the chorus as you seem to be, but sure, it’ll do.

Tim: Good, and that was pretty much my thought after I first heard it. It took me a couple of goes to get this – but then, since the chorus got stuck in my head immediately, I didn’t really care.

Tom: And for once, the aesthetic of the music video fits that: it does sound like the sort of melody and vocal timbre that would fit well in the 70s.

Tim: Yep, and despite all that sounding like a modern song as well. Yes, I stand my my ‘dull first verse’ assessment, but boy does that last closing section make up for it.

Jon Henrik Fjällgren – The Avatar

“He’s been joiking since before KEiiNO made it cool, and now he’s taken the bold step of basically nicking some Disney promo.”

Tim: He’s been joiking since before KEiiNO made it cool, and now he’s taken the bold step of basically nicking some Disney promo.

Tom: That is… pretty blatant, really, isn’t it? Is he trying out for the soundtrack of Avatar 2 or something?

Tim: Hard to write about this, really, beyond ‘I like the sound of it, and that’s an exceptionally lovely closing segment’, what with it not really being any form of pop song.

Tom: Right! This really does sound like it’s some… well, I was going to say “stock music”, but that’s too harsh. Movie score, then.

Tim: Unlike any of his other ones we’ve featured, which have either had featured singers or been Melodifestivalen entries, there’s no readily identifiable verse or chorus structure (or at least not to my ears, with me not getting any of the lyrics), and it’s arguably better suited to being a nature documentary soundtrack. So I guess people could ask why we’re featuring it, and the answer to that is simple: I like the sound of it, and that’s an exceptionally lovely closing segment.

Moa Lignell – Born

“Good heavens, that’s a power-ballad instrumental intro, isn’t it? Haven’t heard anything like that for a while.”

Tim: “The song I wrote a year ago when I was sitting at home and longing for you all,” says Moa. Not sure what the circumstances were there, but she continues: “I wanted to launch the songs and be immeasurably happy with everything. I build up so many dreams and expectations that I can get an uncontrolled zeal in my body. I want to be who I was born to be. As simple as that. No frills.” No pressure, then.

Tom: Good heavens, that’s a power-ballad instrumental intro, isn’t it? Haven’t heard anything like that for a while. This sounds like a good Roxette track.

Tim: And that there is a song I absolutely love. The genre’s not really one I’d normally go in for – it’s almost a bit folk-y at times, and a bit slow – but here, everything sounds just wonderful.

Tom: It’s doing that trick of playing about with chord progressions, aiming for ‘anthemic’. And… I think it might actually be doing it?

Tim: The melody in the chorus is just lovely, the general sound is incredibly pleasing, with its lazy synth, slow drumbeat and strumming guitar, and the vocal is soft and flowing that I can just lie back and get lost in it, actually paying attention to the lyrics.

Tom: And an instrumental middle eight with an electric guitar solo in there, too. I think the last chorus could possibly have been given a bit more… something — but it makes up for it with that final line.

Tim: The thing that really made me know I liked it was when I thought “is this still going”, checked and saw that we were only two and a half minutes in, and found myself actually happy that there was still over a minute to go. Not sure that’s ever happened before, but it’s lovely that it has happened now.

Morgan Sulele & Måns Zelmerlöw – Gamle Dager

“Why is this a duet?”

Tim: Morgan, Norwegian, featured once: Måns, Sweden, featured 15 times. Here’s a duet from them, about the Old Days and past romances, with a fun behind the scenes video for anyone who doesn’t know how a recording studio works.

Tom: What a weird video. All in slow motion, some far-too-long lingering shots of objects to fill the time. It’s like they just had a camera op in for the day and they randomly pointed the camera at things.

Tim: The annoying thing about behind the scenes videos (and, as I’ve found recently during lockdown, director’s Blu-ray commentaries) is that so often they’re quite interesting here and there, but typically leave one or two things that you really want to know by the wayside.

For example, here: why is this a duet?

Tom: I’m going to guess “marketing”. I mean, it’s entirely possible that the two of them get along well, decided to record a duet, and picked this odd choice for it. But I think it’s probably marketing.

Tim: It doesn’t hurt the song in any way, mind – if anything, the vocal variety improves it a little – but it’s not really the sort of song that would normally have two singers. Sure, a guy and a girl might be singing in each others’ faces about how the old days were good/bad/horrific, as we see that fairly often, but two guys? This is entering boyband territory – not necessarily a bad thing, again, but, well, I just want to know why (and annoyingly, I can’t find any lyrics online to see if there’s a “two guys having a chat comparing old flames” narrative in the lyrics).

Tom: Sure. There’s nothing objectionable here, but I can’t remember a damn thing about it afterwards.

Tim: Fair, maybe. Listenable enough, though.

Saturday Reject: Drängarna – Piga & dräng

“It’s not being taken too seriously, no-one will mind if they go home empty handed, and pretty much everyone will have a smile on their face at the end of it.”

Tim: “Girl & boy”; dansband rock; through to Andra Chansen, knocked out by our previously-discussed Mendez. Think that’s all you need to know.

Tom: That’d not make it through the semi-finals, which is a shame, because it would make the grand final so much better.

Tim: Yep, we’re opening with a violin, we’ve an accordionist with an accordion that is very blatantly making no sound at all, we’ve guys throwing girls around like there’s no tomorrow, we’ve a key change going into the final string section and we close with a smashing of what is definitely an enormous pane of glass.

Tom: There is a lot that stands against this song: it’s not even three minutes but it feels a bit long; it’s incredibly outdated; and I couldn’t tell you what instrument or synth is making that boingy-spring sound, but I wish it wasn’t. But despite all that: I like it.

Tim: As exactly you should. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably end up saying it again: I love a song like this in a Eurovision competition. It’s not being taken too seriously, no-one will mind if they go home empty handed, and pretty much everyone will have a smile on their face at the end of it.

Tom: Right! This is the epitome of “go out there and have fun”, which — while it’s a noble goal — just isn’t what Sweden does at Eurovision.

Tim: Sure, I’d have preferred it if it’d have been Mendez with that trashy rap section that got knocked out, but we can’t have everything. At least we’ve got that key change.

Oh, and one final thing: the reason I first looked at this was that the band name rung a bell, though I couldn’t remember why. A quick search found the reason, which is the song Iskall öl & Captain Morgan, and if you don’t listen to that right now you’re really only doing yourself a disservice.