Saturday Flashback – Page 19

Saturday Flashback: Håkan Hellström – Det kommer aldrig va över för mig

Just hope that none of the lawyers notice.

Tim: There is something about this, from early last year, that utterly ruins it for me; I don’t want to say what it is, in case it’s not as blindingly obvious to you as it is to me.

Tim: Just me?

Tom: No. Not just you. That’s astonishing.

Tim: Yep, figured. So, you want to be a successful Swedish pop-rock singer, you decide to take basically the chorus of one of the biggest hits of one of the biggest pop-rock bands of all time, sing basically the melody of a highly successful pop-rock track from the biggest pop-rock band of all time and hope that none of the lawyers notice.

Tom: To translate his comments from an article: “These chords are used by so very many groups; I can name at least five songs that sound the same way. ‘Heaven’ by Bryan Adams is of course much closer!”

Tim: Erm…

Tom: Uh-huh. Sure it is. You didn’t just use the chords, you used the same instrumentation and timing — it’s not just the same chords as the Killers, it sounds exactly the same as them. Another Swedish source simply calls it “blatant plagiarism“.

Tim: It was disappointing more than anything, really – I heard it on the radio when I woke up and thought, oh, I like this song, and a bit later thought, wait, what? Later, and more cogently, I looked it up on YouTube and realised it wasn’t some weird re-sung mashup but actually an ‘original’ song (and boy, do I use that term loosely). So now my question’s basically: why would anyone choose to play this when there are two better songs out there?

Saturday Flashback: Thunderbugs – Friends Forever

They had one hit, in 1999. This was it.

Tim: Erm, who?

Tom: They had one hit, in 1999. This was it.

Tim: Oh.

Tom: The teenage version of me might have fancied the lead singer a bit, although that might just be the current version of me fancying the lead singer a bit and projecting that backwards in time. I definitely liked the song back then, although I can’t remember if I ever saw the video.

Tom: Apart from that godawful spoken middle eight, of course. And the “Thelma and Louise” line, which implies some sort of mutual suicide pact.

Tim: Hmm. It’s another one that sounds like it could be straight out of High School Musical – a lovely happy vibe (minus, yeah, the Thelma and Louise bit), lots of singing and chirpiness, over-dramatising in the video, but no actual bite to it, especially at the end when it just starts drifting.

Tom: Actually, I think the only thing that really stands out from this, now I stop to analyse it, is that beautiful “you’re not alone” descant that pops up a few times. Apart from that, it’s a good girl-pop track. I guess.

Tim: Could do with a key change. Could definitely do with a key change.

Tom: I think I might have just accidentally killed off a piece of my childhood.

Tim: Oh well.

Saturday Flashback: Capital Cities – Safe and Sound

Forty different styles of dance.

Tim: Tom’s left the country right now, so it’s just me today. Well, me and this, from American band Capital Cities. It first came out about three years back, but didn’t really get big attention until a major label picked them up twelve months back, since when it’s gone top 10 in a decent number of countries worldwide, and top 20 in plenty more, because it’s really very good. So let’s have a 20th century dance retrospective, shall we?

Tim: Believe it or not, I don’t have a list of favourite music videos (though off the top of my head, Nova, Little Talk and Rock n Roll are particular highlights), but this’d probably make the cut. Last month it won a VMA and got nominated for a Grammy, so turns out there is justice after all. There are apparently over forty different styles of dance being exhibited there; you could try to count them all if you’d like, but to be honest I’d rather spend the extra time focusing on the music.

Because that music, well, speaking of Little Talk, what excellent use of brass we have here. Triumphant is the word that springs to mind, and that works well with the lyrics – no negativity at all, it’s all about the positivity of two people being together. So let’s give this universal appreciation, and finish with a quote from the video’s director: “the true heart here is that there’s still some hidden magic out there in the world, and it comes from people connecting and doing what they love.”

Saturday Flashback: Calvin Harris – Merrymaking at My Place (Kissy Sell Out Remix)

“Better.”

Tom: You know those times when a remix just fixes a song? This is one of those times. Have a listen to the original first: I suspect you’ll be bored by the first minute. It’s the only Calvin Harris single not to make the Top 40.

Tim: Certainly sounds like more of an album track. And this is better, you say?

Tom: This, on the other hand, is brilliant. Or at least, I think it is. I know I’m generally a sucker for piano-backed dance tracks, but this stands out for me: it’s faster, it’s got more depth to it, and — crucially — there’s enough variety in the mix to keep Calvin Harris’ startlingly dull vocals from getting grating.

Tim: It’s definitely better, yes. I’d say that brilliant is pushing it, but really definitely better.

Tom: I enjoyed this enough that, when it went silent after four minutes, I found myself wishing that it went on a bit longer. And then it did. Brilliant.

Tim: All of it?

Tom: Not quite sure about the squelching noises after it came back, though.

Tim: There it is.

Saturday Flashback: Scatman John – Scatman’s World

“Damn right there was a follow-up track.”

Tom: Damn right there was a follow-up track.

Tim: Naturally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUWBAy3bATI

Tom: Yes, everyone remembers him as a one-hit wonder, but it turns out that Scatman John was big in Japan — and this was the title track from his album. We’ve got 90s dance beats, a video filled with stock footage, and some of his trademark actual scat-singing.

Tim: Hahaha – this won’t come across as a compliment, but you know what I was put immediately in mind of when the music started proper? The glorious Mellow, by the Daz Sampson side project Space Kats. I LOVE it.

Tom: Oh my stars, I can see the connection there. JAMIE. SHINE THE MAGIC TORCH. Those two should work together. Well, they should if Scatman John was still alive. Could it stand to be shorter? Sure. But then we’d be denied that absolutely glorious key change. And the world would be much poorer for it.

Tim: Much, much poorer.

Saturday Flashback: Shirley Clamp – Do They Know It’s Christmas?

“Woefully inappropriate”

Tim: Okay, so we’re done with our week of British festive tracks; let’s head over to where the good stuff lies. For this track, bear in mind what we’ve mentioned about maintaining the spirit of the original.

Tom: Just a reminder here that we’re probably due a Band Aid 30 next year. Band Aid 20 was nine years ago… and it was sold on iTunes. Time moves pretty fast.

Tom: That… that is energetic.

Tim: The Band Aid version is arguably the Christmas charity single to dominate them all. It’s deep, it’s explicit in what it’s saying, and while there’s a levity to it you never forget what it’s about. Well, unless you’re Shirley and you’re singing it, because, damn, could no-one have told her what it’s about?

Tom: There is a fairly inappropriate level of RAVE to this, isn’t there? There are plenty of songs that this treatment works for, but I’m really not sure this is one of them.

Tim: Right – and don’t get me wrong, I love a god pop banger as must as the next sensible person, but the idea of jumping around to a poppers o’clock rave tune about people starving of hunger just doesn’t quite sit right. That won’t stop me of course, because it’s a fantastic cover – just also woefully inappropriate.

Saturday Flashback: Busted – Thunderbirds Are Go

“A very very very decent track to leave by.”

Tim: I’ve just got tickets to see McBusted next April, and I am VERY EXCITED.

Tom: I passed on it — but I’ll be honest, this song almost made me reconsider.

Tim: Well then, let’s have a flashback, shall we?

Tim: Now, whatever you may have though about the film (and let’s face it, anyone who saw it probably didn’t think much of it), it’s hard to deny that this was a cracking track to go with it, and, as it turned out, a very very very decent track to leave by. Number 1, Record of the Year, and all sorts like that.

Tom: Yep. It’s a terrible film, which is a shame because — given an actual decent script — it could have been really good. They’re rebooting the TV series for 2015, and I’m interested to see what they can do with modern CGI updating those old puppet effects.

Tim: Musically it’s pretty good, with the reworking of the original theme tune into the intro and backing, beneath what’s basically just a good Busted track. Lyrically, though, it’s genius – the ‘no strings to hold them down’ metaphor quite possibly unrivalled in, ooh, at least that week, and maybe even the month.

Tom: Damning with faint praise, but you’re right: I remember playing this, many years ago on university radio, and having the folks who were all ‘oh no, it’s Busted’ start harmonising on that glorious ‘island’ call-and-response. It’s catchy.

Tim: That bit in particular is indeed GREAT. Moving on to that video, two things spring to mind: first, even at the age of twenty I can kind of understand why Charlie felt it was time to grow up just a bit, and second, some of the expressions on their faces really do make them look like a early version of Jedward. That probably sounds like an insult; I don’t mean it that way. (Although admittedly now I’ve typed it it’s hard to see how it could have come across as a compliment. Oh well.) Anyway, crap film, fun video, great track, sorted.

Saturday Flashback: Meja – All ‘Bout The Money

Tom: We talked about her new single yesterday, so it seems like we should evaluate her one big international hit. Because I could remember the chorus clearly… but none of the rest of it.
And off the top of my head, I still don’t remember any of it. So let’s listen.

Tim: RIGHT. Yeah, really don’t remember hearing it at all, so I’ll review it as a new track.

Tom: What? No. There’s no way you missed this. It was massive. It’s a cultural reference. How on earth did you miss this?

Tim: No idea. But I did.

Tom: Anyway: having listened to it again a couple of times now, I realise that I still can’t remember the verses.

Tim: Fair dos – they’re not hugely memorable, but it’s nonetheless a good track, chorus and forgettable verses alike.

Tom: This song really is just a setup for an incredibly good chorus — a few repetitive lines that made it everywhere fifteen years ago. Sometimes that’s all a song needs.

Tim: Yes, indeed – that chorus is a good one, and the verses have a decent enough melody to them that with or without the lyrics if I had heard them way back when I may well still now have had an idea of what the song was. I didn’t, so I’ll never know for certain, but it’s good fun to listen to. That much is true.

Saturday Flashback: Baby Alice – Piña Colada Boy

“It’s a bloody earworm.”

Tim: I asked you what we should feature today, you said this had been on your mind recently; care to explain yourself?

Tom: Because it’s a bloody earworm. Even worse than that Kelly Clarkson Christmas track. It just gets in there and doesn’t leave.

Tim: This is three and a half years old now, so I’m sure the point has been mentioned before, but blimey there’s a lot of Bad Touch in there.

Tom: There is — probably not close enough to get sued over, but it’s certainly very familiar.

Tim: Aside from that (or perhaps given that), what a fun tune. I can understand why it’s in your head.

Tom: It’s worth noting some of those particularly ridiculous lyrics: “my patience shorter than my skirt”, for instance. Bonus points for having a video that somehow manages to objectify pretty much everyone.

Tim: Yes – possibly the best kind of video. And since you mention “that Kelly Clarkson Christmas track”, by which I’m sure you you mean “that glorious new tune Underneath the Tree”, I noticed this week that we didn’t have a new Christmas track, upsettingly; according to Wikipedia, though, these guys have done a version of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, and if anybody has a copy of that anywhere I’d love to hear it.

Saturday Flashback: Phixx – Love Revolution

Tim: Popstars: The Rivals – remember it?

Tom: No. Genuinely, no: I didn’t watch it when it was on.

Tim: Never mind. Basic concept: in the finals, ten males and ten females, top five of each form a band which are the titular rivals. You may well have forgotten about One True Voice, the boyband; you’ve probably not forgotten about their rivals, Girls Aloud.

Tom: I was about to ask how the sixth-placed woman felt, and whether she’d faded into obscurity: but she was Javine, who had a reasonable solo career.

Tim: And who, as of yesterday, has her voice on a not-half-bad new dance track. But you have almost certainly forgotten about Phixx, the group formed the next year from the guys that finished in the bottom five. This is them, with the second (and best) of their four top 20 singles.

Tim: So there we go. Why bring it up now? Well, why not. I suddenly remembered about them, apropos of nothing I can recall, and so here they are. It’s a fun track, and an even more fun video; despite all the oiling, writhing and vampirism that’s going on I think my favourite item is the bloke who’s casually leaning on a lightsaber. SEE ME RESIST THE WEAPON OF THE FORCE.

Tom: I enjoyed the guy at the end who appeared to just be smelling his own armpit.

Tim: Also a highlight. Incidentally, the fact that they had four top 20 singles and one album puts them well ahead of One True Voice, who only managed a paltry two songs before falling apart. Actually, now I think about it Liberty X outperformed Hear’Say fairly comprehensively as well. There’s probably some reason behind that. Buggered if I care, though.