Tag: Satin Circus

Satin Circus – Expectations

“Yes, it’s coming, almost there, HERE IT IS.”

Tim: Before we start, know that this is exactly the boyband sound I was complaining about recently.

Tom: The “exactly like One Direction” sound?

Tim: It is not something I will be complaining about today.

Tim: The reason I won’t be complaining is that it’s flipping brilliant.

Tom: Yep. And that’s because it sounds pretty much exactly like One Direction.

Tim: Yes, but almost an idealised One Direction. The lyrics, obviously, are of the standard tedious variety designed purely to appeal to every teenage girl out there, but it’s the music where it stands out. That chorus really is top notch – a fantastic vocal melody that’s remarkably catchy, instrumentation that doesn’t quite hit wall of sound levels but is certainly on the way.

Tom: To be fair, I think some of that is dodgy compression on the audio file: there’s a lot been crushed down there. It’s a cracking chorus either way, though.

Tim: One of my favourite parts is the great lead back into the chorus out of the quiet middle eight – there’s a sense of “yes, it’s coming, almost there, HERE IT IS”. This song has me drumming my fists on the table so much that my knuckles are somewhat sore now, and it takes a good song to do that.

Tom: You… you might want to consider gloves? I guess?

Tim: Wouldn’t get the same feeling. As mentioned previously, they claim to write all their own stuff and are of the “don’t call us a boyband” style of boyband; if they come up with this, though, I’m willing to do them that courtesy, or at the very least put them in the same elevated category of boyband as the likes of McFly – high praise, but much-deserved.

Tom: It’s a pretty good debut. It’s no “5 Colours”, but then that was very a much song from the last decade: this is a pretty damn good start.

Tim: The album’s out now everywhere (one of them’s written a pretty good blog post about the ‘everywhere’ bit and worldwide releases in general) and is full of this stuff, with only one dull ballad. Worth your money.

Satin Circus – If You Love Me

It’s difficult for a boyband to pitch a chorus like that without comparison.

Tim: Satin Circus (known to their parents as Krippe, Axel, Paul and Olli), you’ll recall, are a Finnish “we’re really not a boyband” boy band, who gave us quite the One Direction-esque debut single Emma. That was about five months ago; probably time for a follow-up.

Tim: So, good news for them: it’s not quite as One Direction as previously. It’s remarkably close to The Wanted, but at least it’s not One Direction.

Tom: You say that, but it’s difficult for a boyband to pitch a chorus like that these days without comparison to 1D. The rest of the song doesn’t match, but man, that chorus.

Tim: Actually, this isn’t quite fair. Well, it is fair, because it is like that, but it’d be rude to judge them just based on their similarities to varying boybands. (You’ll note that I did not say “other boybands”, because that would imply that Satin Circus are a ‘boyband’. They are not. Boyband members would not be manly enough to chop wood or handle fireworks.)

Tom: I propose a new term, Tim: MANBAND.

Tim: Debatable. For the moment, let’s judge them on the music.

Tom: Probably for the best.

Tim: Full marks to them for not putting out a crappy acoustic guitar-led ballad to encompass all bases, because this as it is is very good. I like it a lot, and fine, I will grudgingly admit that I appreciate that they combine the talents of singing, writing and playing.

Tom: Yep. The verses go on a bit for me, but the middle eight and final chorus make up for it so much that I don’t really mind.

Tim: Well done everyone.

Satin Circus – EMMA

“If you set out to make something sound like One Direction…”

Tim: Satin Circus is Finland’s latest boyband, and this is their debut single. Actually, they’re totally not a generic boyband because they write their own stuff and play instruments so THEY’RE AUTHENTIC, OKAY? THEY’RE NOT ONE DIRECTION.

Their music is a “unique mix of pop, rock and Beach Boys harmonies,” which means that the backing line to this definitely absolutely won’t sound very similar to that of What Makes You Beautiful.

Tom: And the chorus won’t sound anything like “Live Like We’re Young”, presumably?

Tim: Absolutely not. But I suppose, yes, it’s not really the same but it is vastly similar enough to make you think, “Actually, this’d be a really good One Direction track.”

Tom: It would. If you set out to make something sound like One Direction, but not so close as to get sued… well, you’d end up with something like this.

Tim: In a sense, I feel sorry for these guys, because it seems that any music group consisting of four or five sub-25 guys who are vaguely photogenic making pop music automatically get lumped as a boyband, with all the negative stereotypes that includes.

Tom: But if you’re going to set the opening shot of your video – of some vaguely photogenic sub-25 guys with floppy hair – on an American beach, and film it in highly-saturated colour… well, it makes the comparison a bit easier. Even if they didn’t set out to be One Direction… their management has certainly got dollar signs (or, rather, euro signs) in their eyes.

Tim: On the other hand, the only people who really associate boybands with negative stereotypes are people who know for certain that all pop music is bad, so they don’t really deserve to be listened to, so if any band does care what those type of people think then they don’t deserve to be felt sorry for. And I’m fairly sure that sentence made sense, and there was semi-serious point at the beginning of that, I think.

Tom: Well done, Tim.

Tim: Anyway, whoever’s written this*, it’s good standard boyband pop music (albeit a tad derivative, and certainly not unique), the album will probably be worth at least a couple of listens, and finally it’s worth noting that it’s fortunate for the chorus that EMMA isn’t actually called ELIZABETH.

* There’s actually a sensible discussion to be had regarding whether writing your own stuff is good, bad or not remotely important, to which my first line is generally, “You don’t expect actors to write their own films.”