Tag: Rod

Rod & Ebba – Summer Paradise

“This would have been a bit dull and clichéd twenty years ago, and as it is… no.”

Tom: Been spendin’ most our lives, liv… no?

Tim: Oh, really really not. Elba’s new to us, but we’ve met Rod before – you’ve probably done your best to forget it, though. It’s an improvement on that, by quite some way, though not quite as good as Simple Plan’s song of the same name.

Tim: So, a couple separated and dreaming of where they met. And (by the way, I’m about to do that occasional thing whether I ruthlessly and pointlessly overanalyse the lyrics)…

Tom: …oh boy. Go for it.

Tim: I don’t know whether to be annoyed that they’ve given up reading one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies three quarters of the way through, or disturbed by the fact that she’s singing a song like this whilst simultaneously planning to [spoiler alert] fake her own death. I mean, they’re making a pact to meet up again and everything, and she’s going to pull that on him? That’s just cruel, it really is.

Tom: Right. Romeo and Juliet isn’t a good romantic reference, folks.

Tim: On the other hand, music’s fine.

Tom: It’s really not.

Tim: Well…

Tom: This is such an anaemic mix: it’s like it’s been massively overcompressed, and run through a filter to remove all the bass. I listened to an official version and, no, it’s deliberately mixed like this.

Tim: Okay that much I’ll grant you.

Tom: This is plodding. The first two lines of the chorus barely move from one note.

Tim: Hmm…also a fair point.

Tom: This would have been a bit dull and clichéd twenty years ago, and as it is… no, I just don’t get it as “fine”. It’s not even “meh”. It’s poor. Even the middle eight doesn’t save it, which is saying something.

Tim: Fine, I get it as being largely unimaginative, and basically the sort you’d find two-thirds of the way through a budget compilation dance CD, the ones that can’t afford the likes of Guetta or Tiësto. But I’d dance around to it, and wouldn’t object if I was drunk at a beach party at half one. You’re that taken against it?

Tom: This would get knocked out in the first round of Melodifestivalen, and it’d deserve to be.

Rod feat. Soundstreamers – Light It Up

“It’s certainly awful. I’m not sure about wonderful.”

Tim: You know how people often have a negative view of European dance and pop music, and we’re stuck defending it and saying that actually it’s very well produced and original and definitely not rubbish? WELL, lets have some fun on a Friday as we sit back and be entirely unable to defend this, from a Swedish production duo and a singer off Albania’s The Voice (yup, really).

Tim: Oh, isn’t it wonderfully awful?

Tom: I mean, it’s certainly awful. I’m not sure about wonderful. That’s the most monotone verse I’ve heard in a long while.

Tim: From the first notes that come straight out of Pitbull’s cutting room floor to the mediocre rapping, from the myriad weird effects in the video to them occasionally forgetting to remove the snow overlay from the interior clips.

Tom: Is that snow, or is it just dust being shown up by the lighting?

Tim: Well that’s one hell of a dusty workshop, he should be ashamed of himself. I want to list more from…to… bits, but it truth there’s so little variation it’s almost impossible to. The chorus, admittedly, is comparatively not bad, but I’d say that there are nineteen seconds of this track which are actually enjoyable – from the key change at 3:09, through the fairly decent chorus with the layered vocals, until it drops back to the Pitbull reject beats at 3:26 and stays far beyond its welcome.

Tom: You forget the bizarre overlaid voice at 3:20 that sounds like an error in the mixing.

Tim: See I like all those overlays – provides something of interest to the song.

Tom: Remember, though: if you don’t know the genre, if your ears aren’t attuned to pop: this is what most of the stuff we listen to sounds like. Those people who think all hip-hop’s just people yelling over a sample, or all opera’s just some bloke yelling notes?

Tim: Ehhhhhhh…maybe there’s something to be said for that. Just, ever so slightly, maybe. But, having levelled all the criticisms – would I dance my absolute nut off to this with enough rum & diet Coke in my system? OH HELL YEAH.