Tag: Boy In Space

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.

Boy In Space – u n eye

“Look! Happy flowers!”

Tim: There’s probably some sort of logic in getting rid of two letters from each of the first two words so you need to add to to the third one, but let’s not focus on it. Look! Happy flowers!

Tim: So, here’s the thing: if this came from, I don’t know, Niall Horan, I’d be entirely “huh, yeah” and then move on swiftly.

Tom: Which is actually what I did a few days ago — I thought about sending you this, but I really couldn’t find much to talk about. It’s… no, see, that’s the problem, I literally don’t know how to continue that sentence.

Tim: It’s nice guitar stuff, sure, but there are also a number of things to dislike about it, not least the vocoding on the ‘you and I’ (sorry, ‘u n eye’) in the chorus being the main one. And yet because it’s Boy In Space, I like it.

Tom: Huh. I wonder if that’s because you’re used to his music, or because it’s just a genre that works for you? That vocoding irritates me, and the rest just leaves me cold. But that’s just personal taste: and we know well that ours differ.

Tim: I don’t know if I’m subliminally predisposed to liking his music somehow, or just that I mostly like his style and therefore always give him the benefit of the doubt, but either way: I like this. There are flaws, I’m aware of them, but I like it.

SHY Martin feat. Boy In Space – Still The Same

“They’re switching places, with an appropriately different sound.”

Tim: Previously, him featuring her, which we both gave a fair old thumbs up to. Now they’re switching places, with an appropriately different sound.

Tom: That was a really interesting video from a produciton perspective, and — while it’s not relevant to the music — I want to talk about it for a moment. The aesthetic is very 90s, because it looks like a cheap disposable camera. 4:3, wide but limited focus, a harsh flash next to the camera and a very short shutter speed. Except there are thousands of shots in there, all taken very quickly, which would’ve been very difficult with actual film: so this is clearly a modern digital camera, presumably with the light constantly on.

It’s a very very interesting style to go for: the past, but not quite.

Anyway, the music! It’s nice enough, isn’t it?

Tim: So, this is tricky, because I like both of these folks as artists, and I liked their last collaboration, and there’s a lot in here that I do like – the melody, the voices, and the sound when it gets going is absolutely lovely.

Tom: Yes. I sense an “except” approaching at speed, though.

Tim: Except, well, there isn’t much time when it really is going. The first chorus has something to it, the second verse a little bit, second chorus a bit more, but it’s not until the closing chorus until it becomes really good and enjoyable – and that happens less than forty seconds from the end. Dammit, I really want to like this, and I do! Just…not very much of it.

Boy In Space feat. SHY Martin – On A Prayer

“A duet with a narrative!”

Tim: Speedy one for you today, barely hitting the two and a half minute mark, and it’s a duet with a narrative!

Tim: I still find it weird how rare it is that male/female duets do actually make sense as two people singing to each other rather than at each other.

Tom: Yep. The only example that comes to mind is when you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. Second-person duets are rare.

Tim: So it’s genuinely really nice to see it happen here — well, sort of, it’s still a bit garbled but I’ll take what I can get. As for the rest of it, all fairly standard.

Tom: “Favour” and “prayer” is definitely a bit of a tortured rhyme that only works in some dialects, but sure. There’s not much that stands out here, but there’s nothing much wrong either.

Tim: Nice music, pleasant voices, and all done and dusted before we get bored. Lovely.

Boy In Space – Drown

‘YOU HAVE LITERALLY KILLED ME WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME YOU EVIL HARPY’

Tim: Boy In Space is is the rather silly stage name of Robin Lundbäck, the R of short-lived boyband JTR who’s become a solo singer after spending a few years mostly writing. This song, meanwhile, is one of the best heartbreak songs I’ve heard in ages.

Tom: Hmm. Why’s that?

Tim: First verse: quiet and composed tonally, measured, not too much melodrama, though obviously we need overblown lyrics about ripping the heart. First chorus: up the stakes a bit, show her actually ‘hun, I’m not in a good place right now, you’ve really hurt me’. Second verse: down a bit again, still measured and composed, but again with the somewhat over the top piercing skin vibe. Second chorus: properly up the emotion, bring up the backing, ‘HANG ON LADY I AM IN PAIN HERE’. Middle eight, wait, take a bit of a breath, before coming back for an explosive final chorus when we are shouting ‘YOU HAVE LITERALLY KILLED ME WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME YOU EVIL HARPY’.

That’s exactly I want from a heartbreak song, I think.

Tom: Hmm. Whereas it just leaves me a bit cold: yes, I agree that most of the component parts are good, or at least competent, he’s followed that recipe you’ve laid down perfectly. But on the whole it just leaves me a bit cold. Maybe I’m just not the right target for a song like this?

When my main thoughts, after the track finishes, are “why did they leave so much background hiss on this” and “why I can hear the piano keys being pressed so damn loudly”… I guess it’s not for me.