Tag: Maja Amcoff

Maja Amcoff – Dopamin

“Seven writers credited on this track, and that’s the best they could come up with?”

Tim: Her follow-up to June’s debut, Alltid Som Du Vill, which we reckoned had a decent pre-chorus but a not particularly pleasant instrumental dance chorus. Is that remedied here, though?

Tim: Pleasingly: yes.

Tom: Disagreement: no. Why do you like this?

Tim: Considerably more reliant on your regular physical instruments, and when it does verge into dance beat territory, it’s pretty good – certainly vastly more listenable.

Tom: I just don’t like that instrumental. It doesn’t seem to fit with anything else I can hear – and to be honest, the rest of it doesn’t feel particularly inspiring either.

Tim: It might not fit in brilliantly, or be hugely inspiring – you’re right, there’s a slight disjoint, and there’s not much of a melody – but at least it doesn’t make me want to switch the track off.

Tom: There are seven writers credited on this track, and that’s the best they could come up with?

Tim: I suppose that’s a fair point, but I’ll still happily listen to it a good few times, as there’s nothing else to really complain about. I’ll call it a reassuring follow-up.

Maja Amcoff – Alltid Som Du Vill

“All the necessary bits are there.”

Tim: Maja’s new off Sweden, and has this to start with, translating as “Always As You Want”, apparently.

Tim: First things first: I’m only slightly keen on this, because while most of it is good, that chorus really does put me off a tad, dropping the melody a bit too much and replacing it with, for my ears, a fairly unpleasant dance beat.

Tom: Yep. This has got a great pre-chorus but, for my money, not much else of note.

Tim: So instead let’s examine this as a debut, and if we leave those complaints aside it’s a decent and promising piece of pop. All the necessary bits are there – strong verses with a good vocal line, a chorus that’s doing exactly what it should be doing with a mix of vocal and a solid hefty beat and rhythm underneath.

Tom: Mm. It ticks all the technical boxes, but I still don’t actually like this track. I suspect that’s down to the composer: the melody just makes me switch off. The production’s good, though, you’re right.

Tim: And once you bring in the middle eight that strips everything back to really show off her voice, it’s a nice demonstration of everything she can do, and it works very well. Despite my own personal misgivings, for a song that wants to say “here I am, this is what I do”, there’s not a lot to criticise it for.