Hilda x Don Diablo – Wake Me When It’s Quiet

“It’s okay to say no once in a while, if you need to.”

Tim: Right, so I don’t want to ask for things to be boring or anything, but can we come to an agreement about having multiple artists? ‘Feat.’ is fine, and so is ‘&’, because there’s justifiable difference between those two. But seriously, just ‘x’? Like, what’s the point?

Tom: Hey, at least it’s not “vs”. I’m choosing to believe that “x” means “they’re kissing”, like adding an x at the end of a text message. ANYWAY.

Tim: In this case, Hilda did the words and vocal melody, apparently as a tribute to Avicii, and Don Diablo built the dance music around it. And surely an & would do for that, no?

Tim: Indeed – which gave us, amongst other things, the unusual writing credit of Ant-Man of “Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd”.

Tim: I don’t want to turn this into a post about mental health, and the toll that day after day after day performing high intensity shows with no break or let up can take on a person, because more relevant and qualified people have done that elsewhere, but I do like the message here: it’s okay to say no once in a while, if you need to.

Tom: I’m all for songs with non-standard but positive messages, and this definitely fits that.

Tim: I particularly like the reversal of the lyrics the second time round – there are people who’ll understand, and they’re the people to be with. But back to our usual: it’s also okay, if you don’t want to say no, to dance to this like no-one’s business, because this is a damn good dance track.

Tom: Is it, though? There are long sections in here with nothing but a vocoder (although admittedly “wake me when it’s quiet” is good for that). I’ll admit that once I stopped hearing the synths as clown nose-honks, it started getting a lot better, though.

Tim: I’m aware you put that clown noise comment in to annoy me; you’ll be pleased to know that actually I’m fine with it. I don’t hear that – just a strong beat, strong melody, strong everything. I like it a lot. A big lot.

Hilda – Smashing Hearts

“Good chorus, good urgent percussion.”

Tom: Our reader, Luca, sends this in, with the comment “released in March, for some reason it’s been growing upon me.”

Tom: First, let’s deal with that YouTube title. “Offical Audio Video”? That… that would be a music video. Unless they mean “low-budget not quite a lyric video”. Baffling.

Tim: Well, ‘Official Audio’ these days can mean lyric video before the main one, so maybe they’re just covering all their bases with a proper video that contains some of the lyrics as well?

Tom: Aside from that: good chorus, good urgent percussion. And a good choice to go for the quiet middle eight back into a final chorus that… well, it could be bigger, but it’s not bad.

Tim: Not bad, no, although it didn’t stop me getting slightly bored halfway through the last part.

Tom: Oddly, the only bit that doesn’t really work for me is one particular note: that high bit on ‘hearts’. I know it’s an odd thing to nitpick, but the harmony almost sounds discordant to me for some reason.

Tim: Really? I’ve no problem with this musically at all – not hugely exciting for me right now, but for the song and genre it’s going for, it does it very well, I think.

Tom: But overall: good track.

Hilda – Just One Wish

Wouldn’t sound out of place at a Miley Cyrus gig.

Tim: A second artist in two days with an apparent allergy to surnames, Hilda got her break presenting on the Swedish Disney Channel (much like Eric Saade), and is now making a foray into music with this, which wouldn’t sound out of place at a Miley Cyrus gig.

Tom: With that introduction echoing, the first thing that went through my mind on seeing this – and I feel so guilty for this – was “blimey, Miley Cyrus has put on some weight”. It’s a terrible thought, and I’m not happy with what that reveals about my subconscious. Also, it means that Miley Cyrus must be a damn stick insect.

Tim: This isn’t bad – it’s not a jingly-jangly sleigh bells all over the place track, which is a bit of a shame when the lyrics are so festive, but it does mean it can go on an album and not sound too out of place, I suppose.

Tom: It’s a cut above most modern pop Christmas songs – but what gets me is that it’s such an American Christmas song. Okay, that’s probably due to the Disney backing, and admittedly Tomte wouldn’t work quite as well as Santa in the lyrics… but damn it Disney, stop homogenising everything.

Tim: So, now we can get away with remarkably offensive thought processes as long as we demonstrate some in-depth knowledge of the culture of the person we’ve insulted? I must remember that.

Anyway, speaking of the lyrics, they’re not the most appropriate ever for a 14-year-old, although her age does mean she can get away with the line ‘Santa, if you do exist’.

Tom: …no she can’t.