Tag: MØ

MØ – Blur

“Yesterday pan pipes; today, what sound disturbingly like bagpipes.”

Tim: Yesterday pan pipes; today, what sound disturbingly like bagpipes.

Tom: That is a bagpipe sample, isn’t it? Or something very close. That’s brave, but not as brave as pan pipes. Side note: if you’re doing a lyric video, you don’t need an actual video. That’s… not the point.

Tim: Apparently it’s about “feeling creatively and artistically lost in the city of all great opportunities, Los Angeles”, which I don’t really get at all but never mind because the song’s a bit of alright really. A tad harsh sounding, perhaps, in every aspect – with the vocal with all the processing on it and instruments like that post-chorus, I’m not sure there’s anything we could describe as gentle here – but I think it comes together well.

Tom: Again: I’m just not sold on the chorus. The instrumentation doesn’t work for me, the melody just sounds unpleasant to my ears. Unfortunately, there’s not even a solid verse to rescue it. Nope: this isn’t for me, but I guess you’re a bit more enthusiastic.

Tim: Probably won’t become a regular listen, mind, but it sounds good right now.

Dua Lipa – IDGAF

“Radio 1 managed to put together a really good girlband.”

Tim: Dua Lipa, from the same group of musicians as Ariana Grande as ‘people who sound like typefaces’. This has been doing the rounds for a few weeks now but is still great, and you can probably guess but there’s a rude word in the chorus.

Tom: And it’s the seventh single from the album! Seventh! Do singles even mean anything more?

Tim: That’s the proper version, at least. But here’s the thing: I think the radio edit sounds better.

Tom: Interesting. Why’s that?

Tim: Well, have a listen. It’s not online as standard, but you can see what happened when Radio 1 managed to put together a really good girlband, made up of Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Zara Larsson, MØ and Alma (who I’d never heard of but is apparently off Finnish Idol and does actually have some pretty good tracks).

Tim: Now obviously there are some slight differences in the styling with the female backing vocals, but I do prefer that chorus. Not just because it sounds less gratuitously unpleasant, and more playable in a public space, but more because of the implications: she gives so little of a that she can’t even be bothered to finish the sentence.

Tom: I disagree there — it just seems unresolved to me. I accept there’s no other easy way to do a radio edit of the song, but there’s just too much of a gap there.

Tim: I don’t mind that it doesn’t resolve, because I don’t think it harms the song at all. And the rest of the song? Shouty, brash and enjoyable. I like it.

MØ – When I Was Young

“This has quite the post-chorus, so listen out for that.”

Tim: New one off MØ, and it’s winter outside, and winter in the video, so let’s naturally set out getting a teensy bit tropical. And this has quite the post-chorus, so listen out for that.

Tim: And that’s a song.

Tom: A ringing endorsement, there. It starts out like almost it’s trying to be a Bond theme, decides not to for the chorus, and then goes somewhere else that’s both interesting and — to me, at least — a bit disappointing.

Tim: I like it, I think – or at least, having listened to it a few times now to write this I’m at least on board with it. That post-chorus did take me a bit by surprise, which I think was what prompted the repeated listens – it’s a while since we’ve a prominent brass line in a dance track, or at least one that I can think of, and it certainly works as a USP for this.

Tom: It’s… well, it’s not bad, I suppose? It’s not that I actively dislike it, I just can’t find anything to particularly like. Like you said, it has a USP at least.

Tim: Definitely more than the video, anyway, which is probably trying to have some sort of narrative but which really comes across as just a tad weird. But it’s mostly okay.

MØ – Final Song

“COCONUTS OUT PEOPLE”

Tom: Danish, if you’re wondering.

Tim: Yes! And YES to a bit of tropical house at the end of the week. COCONUTS OUT PEOPLE.

Tom: Made a couple of “featured” appearances in the char– BLOODY HELL. Sorry, just as I was typing that introduction, the beat kicked in.

Tom: See, I was going to complain about that verse being too damn calm, but if it wasn’t, I bet I wouldn’t have gotten the effect from that percussion. That is aggressive percussion.

Tim: It really is, but to be honest I wasn’t even having a problem with the verses – not great for a dance banger, sure, not not out of place on e.g. a nice tropical house calm point.

Tom: I mean, it’s perhaps a bit too Kygo in places, but I really enjoy it. It just goes for it, and it doesn’t make any apologies.

Tim: Rightly so. Do we know what’s happened to the share prices of e.g. Lilt or Oasis in the past twelve months? They must have shot through the roof.

Tom: By the way, those hovering stunts in the video: I know they’re probably just doing really simple keying and wire removal on them, but there’s something about the speed-ramps and angles that makes that seem really impressive. Is… is that a metaphor for the song?

Tim: Hmm…I’m going to say: no idea. Probably just a bit of fun. That would definitely fit with the song.