Tag: Neon

Neon – Echte Freunde

“There aren’t many songs here which manage to actually make my jaw drop, but blimey, that key change managed it.”

Tim: These guys again, singing about Real Friends. Apparently they’ve been best friends for a couple of years now, so they’re the perfect act to sing this song. Ain’t that sweet?

Tom: If you’re sending me a video with that schlager channel’s branding in the thumbnail, then I’m already interested. Not because it’s necessarily good, but because it’s almost certainly going to be fun.

Tim: Well there’s a slogan for them right there.

Tim: And I’m not sure why, but I really wanted that to end with a d-d-d-DUM on drums.

Tom: Me too: it’s because of that slightly dissonant brass stab that’s a few bars earlier: you’re expecting something to resolve it.

Tim: Aside from that, how fun! I pressed play, and just a few seconds later I was smiling, because there’s a lot of joy in this song and it’s infectious. It was when the trumpet first hit that I knew we were in for a good tune, and the next three and a bit minutes just served to confirm that. A catchy chorus, two enthusiastic singers and a key change that is straight out of Songwriting for Beginners.

Tom: There aren’t many songs here which manage to actually make my jaw drop, but blimey, that key change managed it. Could it stand to be one verse shorter? Sure. Are their voices occasionally a bit more like two lads who’ve decided to do karaoke down the local pub? Yep. But none of that matters, because this is German schlager, and I can absolutely see these two going on reunion tours in fifty years’ time, their voices gravelly and half an octave lower.

Tim: And we’ll be there in the audience.

Neon – Willst du mit mir gehen?

“They even have synchronised dance moves and an “oh-woah-oh-oh” going into the final chorus.”

Tim: Neon are two German gents, Andi and Tom, and this is their new song. And if you can tell me you don’t have a grin on your face by the end of the first line of the chorus, Tom, I’ll refuse to believe you.

Tom: What baffles me is how, a good decade or two into the 21st century, artists can still release tracks like that with an apparently-straight face. That’s not meant as a slight, I’m genuinely happy that it’s still a thing. It’s just so out-of-touch with modern sensibilities, so unfathomably positive and unchallenging, that I find it almost hard to believe.

Tim: This is what I love about this YouTube channel – even if I can’t find any ‘respectable’ music that gets me enough to write about it, this can reliably provide a track or two that’ll get me going. And here, OH, what a perfect example of German schlager. An intro that indicates something special might be coming along, a first verse that tides you over nicely, and then a chorus that is dance pop, camp as you come.

Tom: They even have synchronised dance moves and an “oh-woah-oh-oh” going into the final chorus.

Tim: Joyous, isn’t it? And really, who doesn’t love camp dance pop? Well, a lot of people, I guess, but none of them are sensible. We know what’s what, Tom.