Saturday Flashback – Page 23

Saturday Flashback: Of Monsters and Men – Little Talk

Well, that’s just lovely.

Tim: The video you’re about to see bears very little relation to the song whatsoever, but both it and the song are bloody brilliant.

Tom: Well, that’s just lovely.

Tim: Isn’t it just? I say ‘very little’ because there’s sort of a slight link – the female voice in the song is singing about being scared and uncertain about things, and the male voice is reassuring her, which I suppose could be tenuously linked to the band being scared and the fairy thing guiding and defending them on their mystical and utterly something journey. (I’m not sure what word I want to put there, but it should definitely be preceded by utterly.)

Tom: Someone spent a lot of money animating that video, and it’s clearly paid off.

Tim: It really has. And let’s not gloss over: TRUMPETS! Isn’t that a fantastic melody? Combined with the voices, the shouts of ‘hey!’ and other standard instruments behind the rest of the sining, this song is absolutely marvellous, and I can’t believe I’ve only just found out about it.

Tom: Surprised me as well – particularly with the view count on that video being over of 25 million. I feel like I should have heard it before.

Tim: It first got released in Iceland (and then worldwide) over a year ago, although it was only this summer that it got picked up by Radio 1 and subsequently charted at number 12.

Tom: It’s got that kind of “popular at Glastonbury” vibe about it – it’s never going to be the massive, chart-topping, commercial success, but it’ll bubble under quite nicely and be happy there.

Tim: Their second single, Mountain Sound, was released last month and is starting to get airplay over here; it’s definitely worth a listen, but it’s (a) not quite as good as this and (b) so far lacking a video that’s quite so utterly.

Saturday Flashback: Train – 50 Ways To Say Goodbye

How do you make a mariachi band sound good in a pop song?

Tom: A David Hasselhoff cameo in the video may sound promising—

Tim: Nope.

Tom: Yep, fair point. But don’t worry, because the mariachi band is so much better.

Tim: That was BRILLIANT.

Tom: Wasn’t it just? I mean, how do you make a mariachi band and Spanish guitar sound good in a pop song? And how can it be so damn catchy? Well, I’ve got an explanation: it’s been assembled from parts of many, many other songs.

Tim: Well…

Tom: The verse is a Latin version of “Phantom of the Opera”. The pre-chorus line is from the same musical – the patter bit of “Masquerade” (“The toast of all city, what a pity…”) The chorus is a bit of the Vandals’ “My Girlfriend’s Dead” crossed with another song that I can’t quite place now. The horn section is straight out of “I Will Survive”. They’ve all been changed, of course – there’s still some composing in there – but it does sound bolted-together.

Tim: Right, I’m in two minds, here. I agree with you about the Phantom link, which is almost as blatant as Alphabeat was with The Who, and quite how it could be there without being deliberate is beyond me. The “I Will Survive” link is pretty much there, and the song you can’t place is Girl All The Bad Guys Want.

Tom: Ha! I even saw Bowling for Soup once live – they’re a band that clearly enjoys themselves on stage – and I still didn’t place that.

Tim: However, I want to disagree about the Vandals link. Yes, it is exactly the same idea, but the logic makes me think of everything that annoys me about that Everything Is A Remix thing, where he reckons that just about every scene in every film has been stolen.

The thing is, for any given scene, there are only a limited number of ways to frame it; with seventy years of film-making previously, of course someone’s going to have done it before. That doesn’t make it copying, it makes it an inevitable coincidence, and it’s quite possibly the same here.

Sure, maybe they did think “That’s a cool theme for a song – we should do that and hope no-one notices,” and I won’t deny it’s a possibility, but maybe it’s just two songs out of almost a century of pop music that share a somewhat unusual theme. To be honest, I’d be astounded if there were only two.

Tom: Fair point – and it would have been my default theory if it wasn’t for all the other, er, homages throughout the track.

I still like it, though. I like it a lot.

Tim: Good, because I reckon it’s great. What’s particularly good is that he’s done that thing comedy songwriters have to do (which The Vandals didn’t do), which is rewrite the chorus each time so it’s still fun.

Tom: Which, considering it’s the same Train that did the definitely-not-comedy “Drops of Jupiter” ten years ago, is quite a good thing.

Tim: Yeah, and sure, he could have just stuck with the quicksand, the shark and the sunbed, which would have been perfectly acceptable, but instead he put a bit more in and added a lion, a mudslide and a hot tub. Would have been even better if he’d done it at the end as well, but it’s still a handsome list. It’s a good tune (original or otherwise), it’s got a whole lot of energy to it and it’s exactly what I want to hear (although I’d prefer it if the lyrics reflected the video with the car one – ‘got decapitated by a purple Scion’ would be so much better).

Tom: Incidentally, who fills a cement mixer full of quicksand?

Saturday Flashback: Busted – What I Go To School For

Musically genius, lyrically terrible.

Tim: Now, I know we did a ten-year anniversary post just a few months back so some might see this as slightly lazy, to which I say: screw you, I’ve had this planned since Christmas. Because it’s Busted, the greatest pop rock band of all time.

Tom: That claim’s wrong on many levels, but let’s move on.

Tim: Oh, it so isn’t. But okay.

Tim: And ten years ago today, this debut single shot into the charts at number 3 and then hung around the top 20 for the next month or so. And why wouldn’t it?

Tom: It’s a brilliant pop song, but it epitomises everything I always thought about Busted. The music is perfectly-produced pop genius, but the lyrics are bloody awful, all half-arsed single entendres and lines that don’t really scan (“even though it is a real bore”?!). Year 3000, their most successful song by a long way, was the same: musical genius, lyrically terrible.

Tim: I’ll be honest: I can’t really disagree, or at least not with the facts you’re stating about the lyrics – I can’t, however, agree with the awful or terrible. Because without these lyrics, how would you convey this teacher fantasy? And it’s an important message – most schoolkids have a teacher they secretly fancy, and these guys are telling the world there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s perfectly acceptable to sit in a tree staring through her windows, or to peer through her letterboxes. It’s even better when she invites kids half her age inside and proceeds to give them snooker lessons, a gentle caning and a quick run around the long waving grass.

Tom: They were trying to be rebellious and edgy while being actually just a bit creepy. Another reason they never sat well with me.

Tim: Creepy? Well, possibly. But let’s not forget that this wasn’t the band’s only foray in fantasies with authority figues – eighteen months later they brought out Air Hostess, with a video involving the captain and first officer leaving the flight deck during landing to investigate their illegal embarkation and a chorus that includes the standout line “I messed my pants when we flew over France.” Again, top notch lyrics.

But in all seriousness, would a ten-year reunion be too much to ask for?

Tom: What Busted started, McFly came along and perfected: the two bands are intertwined in terms of members and songwriting, but it’s pretty clear who came out as the victor in the end. Never mind the reunion: see McFly instead.

Tim: Oh, fine. If I must.

Saturday Flashback: M83 – Midnight City

“It’s light on lyrics, which is fine by me.”

Tim: This is a song. I found it on my list of ‘future Saturday Flashbacks’ with no notes as to why it was there. Then I listened to it and I realised why.

Tim: Because it’s great. They’re a French band who’ve been going for a while, and this, their only hit to date, just about got to the UK Top 40 last July. It’s light on lyrics, which is fine by me because the bits that do have lyrics are frankly a bit dull, and heavy on creepy children, which is, well, something.

Tom: You’re right about the lyric parts being a bit dull, but the rest of the track really does make up for it. They went full Total Eclipse of the Heart at the end there, didn’t they?

Tim: Part of me momentarily thought that the video was going to end with a group-suicide with the whole holding hands and looking glum on top of a building, but fortunately they didn’t because that would have put a downer on the whole saxophone affair, which is otherwise slightly unexpected but rather fitting.

Tom: It’s a rare track these days that ends with a saxophone solo; it’s a rarer one that works that well.

Tim: And yet this is one. But if you don’t want it to end, and you’ve not had your fill of creepy children, feel free to view the follow-up to this, Reunion. Music’s still very listenable, but you won’t be paying attention to that.

Saturday Flashback: Elton John – Someday Out Of The Blue

Many years ago, when I was a kid, I went to the cinema…

Tom: Many years ago, when I was a kid, I went to the cinema to see… something-or-other. And when I got home, and my folks asked me if the film was any good, I’ve no idea what I said. But I do remember mentioning this – because for whatever reason, they played this video in its entirety as one of the trailers. I don’t know why: but it clearly stuck with me.

Tom: A four-minute trailer that’s actually an Elton John music video. And what a video: they didn’t need to go to the expense of animating special scenes, let alone rotoscoping a cartoon Elton into it – but they did. And that’s just be a useless gimmick, if it wasn’t also a brilliant song.

Tim: Brilliant is one word to use; another word would be standard Elton John fare.

Tom: The thing is, standard Elton John fare – at least for his singles – is “brilliant”. He’s got ‘great hits’ albums that are two CDs long, and you’ll recognise most of the tracks on them.

Tim: Yes – I suppose I’m coming across slightly negative because, well, it’s an Elton John soundtrack song and I want it to be properly great.

Tom: I say brilliant because, well, it’s your quintessential Elton John soundtrack song. Everything about it is predictable in the best possible way: it’s catchy, it’s uplifting, and it’s got a key change at the end. It made me smile.

Tim: The key change made me smile as well, but mostly for the “ah yes, there it is” factor. Again, though, I can’t help feeling I’m being unreasonably negative. Sorry.

Tom: Well, like I say: it stuck with me.

Saturday Flashback: Adrian Lux feat. The Good Natured – Alive

“We should have featured him before.”

Tim: You may remember that back in March I described Adrian Lux as ‘a Swedish bloke who puts out some cracking dance tracks’, and said we should have featured him before. Well, this is from last November.

Tim: This dance tune is great; the singer admittedly not so much.

Tom: Ooh, now that’s where I disagree with you. The instrumentation didn’t work for me, but the vocals did.

Tim: Really? Because her Kate Nash style voice during the verses grates on me really rather a lot. When she starts singing for the chorus it gets okay, mind, and when she stops altogether the bit that Adrian does is brilliant. You don’t agree?

Tom: Well, it’s competent, certainly, but the favourite part for me is the build – its promise never really seems to turn into a decent chorus.

Tim: A vocal chorus, no, but the dance bit it’s got is great. I’m listening to it on repeat for that, and my god I wish she’d shut up and let him do his bit, so I’d love an instrumental.

Tom: But there’s nothing going on, instrument-wise, during those vocals. It’s be a bloody quiet instrumental.

Tim: Well, yes, obviously, because most dance-pop tracks don’t have much under the verses. I’ll rephrase it: what I’d like is a slightly restructured. instrumental with the choruses as they are and suitable material to fill in for her singing. That way there’d be no disappointing build – it would just be proper dance music at the level of the chorus.

And the level of that chorus is exactly why we should have featured him previously.

Saturday Flashback: Sash – Stay

“I had a dream last night.”

Tim: There’s nothing to say about this track, decent dance track and all, so you might wonder why I want to put it here.

Tom: Well, I have one thing – even now, the “tear down these walls” section stands out as a rarity for me: a lyric in a dance track that actually seems to contain a big pile of emotion. Something about how it shifts an octave (and, I think, into an odd key) gives an effect you don’t normally find.

Anyway: what was it you were wanting to say?

Tim: Well, you know how ages back we said we’d like a thing where you could push a button in response to someone saying “it’s all about you” and a snippet of McFly would play? I have another one, and yesterday I remembered what song it was from.

Tom: Wait, what would this be in response to?

Tim: It would be in response to “I had a dream last night.” Aside from amusing me somewhat, this would also have the effect of possibly stopping their probably fairly dull dream story before it got started, which would be handy.

That’s all I have to say, really, expect that I’ve just realised that some of the shots in the Jason Bourne films seem to be frame-by-frame copies of parts of that video.

Tom: I’d be willing to bet that’s not deliberate – they’re just “generic action movie” shots. Decent budget and quality for a video like this, though.

Tim: Yes, but despite what you say I do hope Sash got royalties or something. Maybe a mention in the film’s credits.

Saturday Flashback: Kate Winslet – What If

“I feel like I should apologise for subjecting our reader to this.”

Tom: Wait, what?

Tim: Oh yes, you read that right. Now, I will happily admit this is a fairly awful song (despite my continuing view that nothing is definitively good or bad), but it honestly is one of my favourite songs ever.

Tom: I feel like I should apologise for subjecting our reader to this.

Tim: It’s just SO CHEESY it’s not true. If we were to imagine a scale of cheese, we might have something like Wings as a tuft of mozzarella, My Love as a gentle cheddar, while this is way up there as a proper gorgonzola. And, for precisely this reason, I love this so much.

Tom: It’s the cash-in Oscar Bait soundtrack hit from a Christmas movie. It was always going to be on the cheese scale, but oh bloody hell that key change. I mean, you know it’s going to have one, but that is a humdinger.

Tim: Isn’t it just divine?

Here’s an anecdote you probably won’t believe is true: I was having a fairly important conversation with someone at work, and this song came on. Whatever he said, I couldn’t stop a huge smile coming across my face.

Tom: No, that sounds about normal for you.

Tim: When the chorus hit, I swear to God I started swaying gently. It’s probably a good thing we turned it off before the key change hit, because I don’t think I could have resisted singing out loud to it. It’s awful, and I LOVE IT.

Tom: I’m not sure I can bring myself to dislike it. I wish I could.

Tim: EMBRACE IT.

Saturday Flashback: Flip & Fill – Shooting Star

Oh man. This brings back memories.

Tim: Back on Wednesday, we had a vague callback to the good days of Eurotrance. Good timing, really, because 10 years ago today, this fantastic example of the genre entered the UK charts at number 3.

Tom: Oh man. This brings back memories. Specifically, a memory of being in Barry Island in Wales.

Tim: Now you know I’m not going to let you leave it there. Keep talking, boy.

Tom: UK Dance Dance Revolution championships. I was still a teenager. This was one of the songs on whichever DDR machine it was – and one of the songs that, to our brief confusion, was blasting out from a car parked at some nearby traffic lights. I guess you had to be there.

Tim: Oh, isn’t it lovely? The build under the first verse up to something great, the drop for the pre-chorus bit as the dancers start to sway their arms in the air from side to side and then that brilliant chorus.

Tom: Sing it! Go on, sing it. That’s what I’d be doing if I wasn’t currently working in a fairly quiet, library-type place.

Tim: Oh, I will SING IT. I will SHOUT IT VERY LOUD along with whoever the hired vocalist is, fists pumping with everyone else in the club*, before we calm down a bit for the second verse but then do it all over again twenty seconds later. Keep going for the middle eight, and then the final chorus where there’s really no point dragging out the ‘shooooting’ bit because let’s face it, it’s going too hard** to really be slowed down by that, so you write a few more words, fill in the gaps, and just keep going. Tell me I’m wrong, Tom. Tell me this isn’t a fantastic club tune. I don’t reckon you can.

* Can’t think of a way not to make that sound dirty, sorry.
** Again, yes.

Tom: I wouldn’t try to. It is a fantastic club tune. Are there retro-90s clubs yet? Because they should play this.

Tim: They really should. Finally, it’s also worth noting that this same week had Scooter at number 2 with The Logical Song*. I MISS THIS MUSIC BEING MAINSTREAM. Why can’t we bring it back, Tom? WHY CAN’T WE?

* It may or may not have been held off the top spot by Gareth Gates’s Anyone Of Us, but that’s not important.

Saturday Flashback: Shirley’s Angels – I Thought It Was Forever

Shirley’s an interesting lady.

Tim: This was Shirley Clamp’s (who headlined at previously mentioned Europop night) most recent entry into Melodifestivalen, in 2011. (She’s the one in the middle.)

Tom: I’m sorry I missed her performance: in my defence, I had to be in Slough at 7am the next morning.

Tim: Now, Shirley’s an interesting lady. Since you left early, here are a few highlights:

– she believes I Will Always Love You is a very uplifting song, and so clearly doesn’t believe in thinking about the lyrics of songs she plans to sing.
– she seems somewhat breast-infatuated; for example, the person who sang along loudest a medley, she said, “is allowed to feel my right booby”, and he duly was.
– following that, she worried that “my left tittie is feeling a bit unloved now”
– finally, she shared with us the fact that just a few hours before this performance she gave birth, and that as she entered the last chorus here, with her baby backstage, she started lactating and pretty much ruined her dress.

Tom: You’ll be happy to know that at least one of those moments of breast infatuation made it to YouTube.

Tim: Ah, good – now the world can see. Anyway, lactation and somewhat mediocre staging aside, this is a pretty good tune. Bit repetitive towards the ends, possibly, but it does have a nice key change to lift it up a bit, and that’s all we really need from a good entry.

Tom: Can’t argue with that: it’s catchy enough, although I can see why it didn’t make it through.

Tim: Oh, and finally from that night, I am appalled that you genuinely didn’t know that the Saturday Night dance routine has five sections to it.

Tom: I never learned Saturday Night. Or the Macarena, come to that. I was a stubborn youth.

Tim: Appalled.