Tag: Secret Service

Secret Service – Secret Mission

“It really is very, very 80s.”

Tim: Secret Service, a Swedish group from the 80s who came back at the end of last year with a track called Go On, and now they’ve got this one out as a follow up (and it really is very, very 80s).

Tom: Blimey, you’re not wrong there. It’s like someone put Duran Duran’s View To A Kill and Kiss’ I Was Made For Loving You in a blender.

Tim: So, normally the first thing I’d go in for here would be the lyrics, and how silly the chorus is where he’s telling the world exactly what the secret mission is, thereby rendering it entirely pointless, but this time I won’t! There’s a simple reason for that, mind: this song’s bloody brilliant.

Tom: Strong words. There’s certainly a lot to like here, although I’m not sure it stands out all that much. Why do you like it so much?

Tim: It’s very much like Wednesday’s track, really, and I guess 80s synthpop in general: when it’s done right, it can be really, really good. It got me going from the very start with that nice twiddly opening, and then those guitary synth as well.

Tom: And, to be fair, I can absolutely remember the chorus after one listen.

Tim: Part of what I love is that as well as giving us all the usual bits, we’ve the odd surprise here and there as well. Someone coming along all French? Sure! Key change in the middle eight? Absolutely! Howling vocals in the background of the final chorus? OH GOD YES. Lyrical pedantry aside, I’ve not got a single problem with this song. It’s wonderful.

Saturday Flashback: Secret Service – Ten O’Clock Postman

I can only describe that beat as righteous.

Tim: I saw this shared on Twitter recently; until then I had never heard of them, but I think this is most definitely worth a mention, because it’s fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMRzgyLY3c0

Tom: Some old school disco! I’ve not heard it before, but I can only describe that beat as righteous.

Tim: First, the song: I think it’s lovely that this bad wrote a song dedicated to a postman.

Tom: The Carpenters did the same thing, but with significantly less funk.

Tim: Second, the band: well, according to their biography on Spotify, these guys (from Sweden in the early 1980s, incidentally) have quite a distinguished background – they wrote a few Melodifestivalen entries, though nothing that won, then decided to go into the singing business. Multiple Europe-wide hits, including their first release, 1979’s Oh Susie, this one from 1980, and their biggest hit, 1982’s Flash in the Night.

They split in 1987 and the lead singer, Ola Håkansson, became part of a song writing team known as Norell Oson Bard, who then wrote all sorts of songs. (‘Bard’, by the way, is the same Alexander Bard who would later be in BWO and Gravitonas.)

Tom: And so it all becomes interconnected. If you have that urge to write music, then a band breaking up won’t stop you – you’ll just form a new one.

Tim: Absolutely. And that, children, is this weekend’s musical education and message. Wasn’t it fun?