Tim: Tonight’s the night, and we’ve just got time for this, from Martin Rolinski – you’ll recognise the voice, I trust, from Swedish band-of-the-00s BWO, and this year he took time out of his day job as an engineering scientist to return to the music world for one competition only.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lad0OuNjRwQ
Tom: My word, he sounds a lot like Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys in this track. Can’t say I’ve heard it before, though – perhaps he just had a bit of a cold on the night and went a bit nasal. It’s not a bad track, though – how’d it do?
Tim: Got through to Andra Chansen, and ended up in the top half of that, but didn’t quite get to the final. That’s a shame, for one particular reason: I reckon it’s a perfect example of ‘Swedish pop music’. He had it back in BWO, and he’s still got it now – it’s the melody, the vocal, the backing, the bright colours, everything. It’s all there, and it’s exactly the sort of music that represents Swedish pop at its best.
Or at least it was, five years ago.
Tom: It still sounds good to me. What’s changed?
Tim: Oh, it’s certainly still good, but now, things are different – pop music has become somewhat homogenised, and, for better or worse, a lot of pop music from Sweden doesn’t sound hugely different from pop music from other countries. This, though, is a track that could only really come from Sweden, and that’s why it’s a shame it’s been knocked out.