Tom: This is not an intro that you’d expect from Armin van Buuren. The rest of it…
Tom: Let’s get something out of the way: the lyrics here are not great. “How am I supposed to only / look at you as my homie” is one of several really rough examples.
Tim: Yeah – that whole second verse, really, with the shower line and the legs shaking bit as well.
Tom: It’s a shame, because everything else about that chorus is good: particularly those brass-like synth stabs in the background.
Tim: It really is – and far more than I was hoping for from a song with Ne-Yo in the artist credits.
Tom: Then we have a middle eight, and it ends! I know, that’s how music works these days, but I really do think this needed a Big Final Chorus. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
Tim: Hmm, interesting you put it like that – that disappointing bit around the one minute mark strikes me as more middle eight-y, with its complete lack of resemblance to anything else. I’d say we’ve just a complete lack of standard structure, but you know what? That’s fine.
Tim: Yes featuring yes. You may remember back in November, when we looked at Loved Me Back To Life, the first single off Celine’s most recent album, I briefly mentioned the Ne-Yo collaboration on it. Well, now that has a video.
Tim: And that there is a heck of a lot better than I was worried it might be. Ne-Yo typically comes with bucketloads of autotune, rapping & hip-hop stuff and naughty words, none of which should be visited upon a Celine song.
Tom: Agreed. Crikey, they’ve both got good voices, haven’t they — even if Celine’s is a lot more instantly recognisable.
Tim: Right – what we end up with is a lovely duet between two lovers, which to be honest I initially thought would be a little icky but then I checked Wikipedia and the ages are a lot closer than you’d probably imagine.
Tom: Half age plus seven… huh. All right, carry on.
Tim: So in the end my worries proved to be all unfounded, because this is a great track, right from the first time we hear that soaring oh-oh-oh-o-oh right through until the final ‘amazing’. Love it.
Thirty years of pop culture in three and a half minutes.
Tom: It’s been a few weeks, so let’s have some more mashups. First of all, here’s Miracles by Norwegian Recycling.
Tom: It’s one of those genius mashups that pulls in a dozen different sources to make a coherent whole. It doesn’t really seem to go anywhere, or do any building, but it’s just rather pleasant to listen to. It’s a run through thirty years of pop culture in three and a half minutes, and the video brings it all together nicely.
Tim: Ooh, I like that – I’ve always quite liked mashups that pile in a whole load of songs together just to see what happens, such as the United State of Pop ones, and Party Ben‘s Boulevard of Broken Songs, and this one pulls it off well.*
* There’s also Axis of Awesome’s Four Chord Song, which whilst not actually being a mashup is still fun to listen to.
Tom: There’s been some very clever autotuning on Cee-Lo Green, as well; while it still sounds like him, I’m fairly sure those aren’t exactly the notes he was originally singing…
Tim: Well, with so many songs you’re bound to need a little pitch correction on there just to keep them in the same key, surely.
Tom: No, it’s more than that: I think they’ve actually got him singing a different melody, not just a different key. I might be wrong, though.
Tim: The only thing I dislike about it is the Jason Derulo track – it’s one of his better ones, but it sounds like he forgot to write words to half the chorus, which gets me every time I hear it.
Tom: Second up, here’s a simple A+B mashup by Sam Flanagan. It’s called “Brimful of Bonkers”, and that tells you all you need to know really. Oh, but watch out for an unexpected cameo just after three minutes in.
Tom: It’s easy – there is, of course, not even any pitch correction to do – but it’s still a hell of a party tune. It could use being a bit shorter, but it’s good enough that I don’t really mind.
Tim: I thought that as well – it could easily lose the first verse/chorus, since it’s identical to the second. Anyway, you’re right, it is good, especially the cameo.
Tom: I know both the original songs off by heart, which normally would just make a mashup like this confusing – but this is just pulled together so nicely that it doesn’t matter.
Tim: Personally, I prefer it when I know the original songs – you get to think ‘Ooh, this is fun – never thought of these going together.’ And speaking of knowing the original songs, here’s a mixture of two Europlop favourites merged together by Benji of Sweden (apparently he’s the only one in the country) to form one big Bromance Killer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9scZ67EAGc
Tim: Aside from the Radio Sweden jingle (which is surprisingly nonintrusive anyway), I think it’s ruddy marvellous, with him still managing to keep the big Lovekiller climax and all the energy that was originally there. Well done Mr Sweden.
Tom: Wow, that’s a belter. Bromance itself is steadily picking up more and more airplay and traction in the UK – the vocal remix with Love U Seek gets released on 25th October, which means it might well be a Big Autumn Hit.
