Category: Europop

Isak Danielson – I Don’t Need Your Love

“Compared to last time’s mellow melancholy this is quite the change”

Tim: I’m aware you’re not that great at remembering our past features, Tom, but I’d hope you remember Isak from when we featured him less than a month back.

Tom: Yes, absolutely, I 100% remember him, I definitely did not just click that link and find I had zero recollection of anything in it.

Tim: On the other hand, the style here is entirely different so it hardly matters either way.

Tim: Compared to last time’s mellow melancholy this is quite the change – defiant, powerful and upbeat, getting going with a fair amount of oomph right off bat, and it’s not long before the chorus comes along and carries it up more.

Tom: It is a bit ‘Strong Enough’, though, isn’t it? I suppose if you’re using ‘I am whatever enough’ in a chorus, there are only so many ways you can arrange it.

You’re not wrong, though, it is a cracking chorus.

Tim: There’s a lot of good stuff in here, really – the various backing vocals all work nicely, the drop out of the instrumentation on the way back in from the middle eight is an old trick but a good one.

Tom: I was going to point that out: some of the clichés still work.

Tim: And those are some great long notes he’s hitting at the end there. All in all, not a bad piece of work.

Tom: Maybe I’ll remember it this time. Or maybe I’ll just remember Cher.

Eirik Lyng & Stina Talling – En Gang Til

“It has no business whatsoever being quite as upbeat and happy as it is, really.”

Tim: He’s Norwegian, as is she and the song; lyrics are basically “the relationship was shit, but now it’s over I’m just bored, shall we get back together?”

Tom: A lovely upbeat message, then.

Tim: And with that message, it has no business whatsoever being quite as upbeat and happy as it is, really.

Tom: Mmf. It’s okay, I guess, but I can’t remember a single bit of it once it’s finished. It just sort of flowed in the background, never really raising any problems, but never standing out either.

Tim: I’m not complaining, mind, as I’ll typically take a happy sounding song over a mopey one, and in any case I’m saving my complaints for that ridiculous gap in the video and the even more ridiculous choice of hairstyle he’s gone with.

Tom: That is a ridiculous gap in the video. I feel it’d be hypocritical for me to talk about his hair.

Tim: Since neither of those are actually present in the song itself, though, I’m fairly happy with it. Nice one.

Alex Järvi – Förlåt

“I know this opening chorus line, Tom. Where do I know this chorus line from, Tom?”

Tim: I know this opening chorus line, Tom. Where do I know this chorus line from, Tom?

Tim: Actually, it’s probably from a lot of places, because ‘one note repeated many times in quick succession’ isn’t exactly a rarity, but whatever.

Tom: See, I had an answer there, but then you went and made things complicated.

Tim: This song’s an interesting one – it starts out not doing much, but then 37 seconds in we’re suddenly ooh, building up to something, and then the something happens, and it’s not actually all that much, but are we still building up, because it feels like there might be something, and then does that count, maybe, not really sure, and then oh no we’re back with the verse and not much happened but it was enjoyable enough.

Tom: Yep, that was an underwhelming chorus.

Tim: And actually, I think that sums up the whole song for me: not much happened but it was enjoyable enough.

Tom: Full marks in the middle eight for dropping in two English words, one of which was an f-bomb, though. I checked the lyrics, and yes, that’s the only English in the song.

Matilda – Forever

“It feels a bit like it’s floating in time somewhere between 1985 and 2005.”

Tim: We have featured Matilda precisely once before, and it was three and a bit years ago, so I won’t hold it against you if you’ve forgotten. She’s from Norway, and here’s her latest.

Tim: Quite nice, that, isn’t it?

Tom: The word that comes to mind is “lovely”. It feels a bit like it’s floating in time somewhere between 1985 and 2005.

Tim: Calm, gentle, synthy music; lyrics that are entirely lovely and wonderful and, not gonna lie, I can imagine getting me quite emotional if I were a few sheets to the wind; and a video that puts all that together very nicely.

Tom: I also want to give credit to the video director and camera op, for what is basically “two people hanging around in Santa Monica” that looks spectacular. There’s a few shots around 2:48 that are somehow exposed for both the sunset and the people simultaneously, which requires a very delicate touch and very expensive equipment: and yet it still “feels” almost like a home movie from the past.

Tim: This is a story of two people that have found each other and are feeling just wonderful, and I love that. Will it last? Who knows. Right now, everything’s perfect. Just perfect.

DJ Ötzi – Der hellste Stern (Böhmischer Traum)

“Care to start the week with something utterly bizarre?”

Tim: Care to start the week with something utterly bizarre?

Tom: New Ötzi and it’s “utterly bizarre”. This is going to be good.

Tom: …is that a Christmas song? It sounds a bit like a Christmas song.

Tim: No, just a standard “you’re brilliant” one, although…well. See, I had a number of thoughts while watching this. I started out with a “this doesn’t sound like DJ Ötzi, why doesn’t it sound like DJ Ötzi”, then moved on to giggling like an idiot when those kids appeared, and then just ended up staring at my screen, utterly baffled by what I’d just watched.

Tom: I think what we have here is an Ötzi album track. This isn’t out of character for him — it’s just out of character for the version of him that makes it to the English-speaking world.

Tim: Hmm, could be. It just seems so…odd, though. Like I said, it’s a very standard “you’re brilliant” type song – title translates to The Brightest Star (Bohemian Dream), sample lyrics are “When I dream at night I always dream of you, you are the brightest star”, yet both the sound and the video play like he’s doing something big and special with it.

Tom: Which implies that the video should be a bit more than holding a really awkward party in a tiny cabin.

Tim: Hmm, maybe so. But no, just plain weird.

Dagny – Come Over

“This is a better Carly Rae Jepsen track than the new Carly Rae Jepsen track we talked about earlier this week.”

Tom: We’ve talked about her a few times, including Love You Like That — which we thought was a bit like Taylor Swift’s “Out Of The Woods”, and which then got turned into Katy Perry’s “Never Really Over”. (Properly, as well; Dagny’s credited as songwriter on the latter.)

Tim: Then let’s hear her newest, shall we?

Tim: Ooh, that’s very nice, that is – proper energetic pop music, of which there’s a surprising dearth at the moment.

Tom: This is a better Carly Rae Jepsen track than the new Carly Rae Jepsen track we talked about earlier this week. Seriously, wouldn’t this fit right in on… okay, maybe not Emotion, not the Emotion B-sides album?

Tim: Do you know, it entirely would – and it wouldn’t sound out of place on Taylor Swift’s 1989, either, and that’s high praise. 

Tom: It’s not quite a lead single — not yet — but it’s so nearly there.

Ina Wroldsen – Pale Horses

“BBC One’s current Sunday night drama is a fairly good adaptation of the Agatha Christie book The Pale Horse; this song has absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Tim: BBC One’s current Sunday night drama is a fairly good adaptation of the Agatha Christie book The Pale Horse; this song has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Tom: That’s the best intro you’ve written in a long time.

Tim: Because who amongst us hasn’t compared a bit of relationship drama to the actual horsemen of the apocalypse, hmm? That’s my favourite thing about this song, I think.

Tom: Really? There’s a lot to like here. The melody in that pre-chorus is really lovely, and the production does somehow manage to balance a lot of very aggressive elements. (Are those orchestra hit stabs in the chorus? That’s a retro sample that hasn’t come back in a while.)

Tim: Oh, absolutely – I’m not slamming the rest in any way. Like you said, the melody and production are great, and she’s got a strong vocal to add to that.

Tom: I’m not convinced about the middle eight, and I don’t think it’s going to bother the charts, but… it’s not bad.

Tim: Definitely not. And, back to my main point: what’s a good angsty breakup song if it doesn’t have ridiculously overblown biblical references? Nothing, I say, NOTHING.

Saturday Flashback: Eyþór Ingi – Ég Á Líf

“It’s a builder, so bear with it.”

Tim: I was in ICELAND last weekend, and it was BRILLIANT, and here’s their 2013 Eurovision entry. Word of warning: first time I heard this, I was phenomenally bored for the first ninety seconds, but it’s a builder, so bear with it.

Tom: Crikey, you’re not wrong about it being a builder. That takes a long while to get going. And he says that title a lot.

Tim: So, 2013 was my first live Eurovision, and I was in the audience for the second semi-final when he was singing this, and right up until then I didn’t think much of the song. Too slow, got there in the end but way too late. Afterwards, though, this was the single performance that really stuck with me, and I remember playing the song pretty much on repeat for the next few days.

Tom: Huh. I’ve got to ask: why? There may not be a clear answer to that, of course, sometimes songs just stick with you, particularly when there’s a strong memory associated with them.

Tim: Because yes, it’s a very slow builder indeed, but by the time the second chorus rolls around it’s become worth listening to, and I’m paying attention. Then you’ve got his massive note in the middle eight, using that camera action and the light behind him to make him look vaguely messianic, inspiring the continent to get up and wave their phone flashlights in the air. After that, of course, comes the key change, which may be predictable, but we’ve that and every other trick going to get a big “wow” moment that can be used in all the recaps when the voting starts, and it’s just…right.

Tom: And it stuck with you?

Tim: And yeah, it stuck with me. It’s nice.

Benjamin – Kaksi kotia

“To be honest I’m kind of having trouble verbalising.”

Tim: “I’m bored of arguing, let’s just call it quits.” Nope, it’s not what I’m thinking right now about this site, but what Benjamin’s having a sing about.

Tom: I could not remember a single thing about that after it finished.

Tim: Hmm. So, I really, really like this – but for lots of reasons that to be honest I’m kind of having trouble verbalising. Sure, I could describe the individual parts of it, but that wouldn’t really come across right because I’d be mentioning things like that peculiar eagle sound effect, and even though it’s objectively weird it just kind of works.

Tom: I went back to listen again, and found that all the things that stood out now bugged me. The talky bit in the middle eight, the eagle-scream synth, the echoing “baby” at the end of the first verse. I’ve got the exact opposite reaction to you.

Tim: I could also talk about the melody, and production levels, and that sort of thing, but again nothing would quite sum it up properly, really, because it’s more than that. It’s just the whole…thing. Just works, unquantifiably. And you know, I like that, every now and again.

Tom: I’m glad someone does.

Dolly Style – FRKN PERFECT

“Sometimes, formula is absolutely FRKN PERFECT.”

Tim: A song for you today in which it continues to be confirmed that, for all their monthly line-up changes and cynical merchandisability origins, Dolly Style are actually a really good girlband.

Tom: Good production, if saddled with songs that are… well, let’s say inconsistent.

Tim: WHAT. A. CHORUS. Not that the rest of it’s bad, by any means – within a few seconds of it starting we’ve established the genre and that they know what they’re doing, and all we have to do is wait for the good stuff to come along, and oh boy, we are not disappointed.

Tom: Careful with “we”, there. I’ll grant you it’s a good chorus melody, but a lot of the production behind it sounds like someone’s just plugged a vague “early 2000s” synth and percussion pack into their computer, and kept it on the default settings. It might well be a style choice, but it doesn’t sound like a deliberate one.

To be fair: there are some occasional strings in there that do lift it up a bit. But as for that verse…

Tim: The verse is, sure, standard stuff – nothing special, but the second half comes along and it dutifully ramps up a little bit – then it goes a bit quiet for the pre-chorus, all yes, yes, yes, box ticking stuff. And then the chorus happens And the melody, the vocal power, the lyrics, the shoutalongability, again those lyrics I’M TOO FREAKING PERFECT FOR YOU.

Tom: Yep, that’s not bad at all. For a band that was originally set up to be a full-on bubblegum pop act, this is… much more credible than I’d have ever thought.

Tim: After that, we’re back to the start, and of course we have the exact same verse structure, then a decent middle eight, and then, oh, would you believe it, there’s a closing chorus with some added howling over the top of it. Of course there is, it’s formula. And sometimes, formula is absolutely FRKN PERFECT.

Tom: No key change though, is there?

Tim: Out of character as it may be for me to say this: sometimes they’re not needed.