Tag: Dolly Style

Dolly Style – Upsy Daisy

“I don’t think this is a truly terrible song.”

Tim: In case it’s left your mind in the five months since Melodifestivalen, HELLO HI! Here’s a third track from Molly, Polly, Holly (members have changed, names stay the same).

Tom: That’s an easy thing to make a joke about it, but, hell, there’s plenty of bands who’ve done that in the past, particularly in the weird Eurobeat-slash-J-pop twilight world they’re inhabiting.

Tim: Well, anyway, press play and enjoy the fact that they’ve calmed down a bit.

Tim: Haha, no of course they haven’t, so quite where that first verse came from I’ve no idea. I also have no idea where that banjo in the middle eight came from, but hey, now that Avicii’s stopped with that someone else might as well pick it up, right?

You know what? I don’t think this is a truly terrible song.

Tom: You’re right. Despite your joke earlier, this is actually a bit calmer: the instrumentation in that last chorus could come from a much more serious pop act, even if the vocals over it are ridiculous. (The “like, whatever” bit isn’t even ironically good.)

Tim: It’s certainly better than their sophomore track Cherry Gum, with the lyrics being a vast improving on the cherry popping nonsense, and laughable banjo (as in I actually did laugh when I heard it) aside, this is not an awful dance track. It’s very, very heavily towards the bubblegum end of the dance spectrum, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Tom: Yep, I’ve happily listened to much worse. This could go on a playlist.

Tim: It knows what it wants to do, and it does it well – I can’t fault it that.

Dolly Style – Cherry Gum

“It’s bad.”

Tim: Reviewing Hello Hi, we wondered if this lot had a future after Melodifestivalen; well, Polly didn’t as she immediately quit, but Molly and Holly are still going strong, with another (as yet unnamed) member taking Polly’s place.

Tom: Probably still called Polly: I suspect whoever put the group together designed it so the actual singers were interchangeable.

Tim: Cynic.

Tim: And…and I have no idea what to make of that.

Tom: I do: it’s bad. It’s rare for me to flat-out say a track like this is bad, but it’s somehow managed to turn their Euro-J-Pop thing into a morass of plodding dullness. Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely possible to do Eurodance tracks like this and make it decent — Almighty Records proves that the style works, and the old 90s releases from Dancemania show the tracks can be decent even if they’re not remixes. But this…

Tim: Not a fan, then. But still, “You will hear me when I come, when I pop my cherry gum, I will never stop pop.” What does all that mean please?

Tom: It’s either cheap innuendo or just half-assed lyrics. Or both.

Tim: I’d have a punt on that last, I think. Musically, it’s pretty much as previously, though to a slightly lesser extent – the verses could just about be contained within a standard song, but that chorus is – well, about cherry gum popping. Is this what it’ll be from now on? Part silliness, part cheap innuendo? Well, that’ll clearly never last.

Saturday Reject: Dolly Style – Hello Hi

“God knows I’d not listen to whole album of the stuff, but right now? Lovely.”

Tim: Tom, meet Melodifestivalen’s interpretation of J-Pop; I genuinely don’t know what your reaction to this will be, though you’ll probably (and fairly) already have made your mind up from the band name.

Tom: Never mind the band name, you’re telling me someone’s tried to combine Europop and J-Pop? This’ll be either brilliant or brilliantly awful.

Tim: Only one way to find out…

Tim: And I think that’s just WONDERFUL.

Tom: The production is wonderful, yes. The music’s exactly what I hoped it would be from your introduction. But let’s be honest, the lyrics are abysmal and at least slightly creepy.

Tim: Well, it’s an introductory song, isn’t it – three 18 year olds calling themselves Molly, Holly & Polly, and if the various revelations in the song weren’t enough for you, in a recent interview they claimed to come from a dollhouse in Dollyville, so they’re basically the Spice Girls crossed with the Teletubbies. The chorus is incredibly catchy, and whether that’s a good thing or not is entirely subjective, and personally I love it. God knows I’d not listen to whole album of the stuff, but right now? Lovely.

Tom: I can’t see it doing well at Eurovision, but then my predictions for that have never been all that accurate.

Tim: Stylistically, this is, obviously, way out on its own; in terms of serving a purpose, though, I’d put it up with Hasse Andersson – not gonna win in a billion years, but it’s a lot of fun, a big break from the usual, coming with a fairly nice key change. Do they have a future after the contest? No idea. They see themselves more as appealing more to kids than anyone, so I guess it all depends on how many pre-teens have Spotify.