Tag: Straight Up

Straight Up! – Family

Crikey, has Lady Gaga gone and got herself a beard now?

Tim: Yesterday we discussed the Stockholm Pride 2012 song, and I reckoned it wasn’t as good as it could have been. This has reinforced my view, because, well, just listen to it.

Tom: Crikey, has Lady Gaga gone and got herself a beard now*? Because the movements and style of Bearded Man do seem a bit… “inspired by”.

* Heh. That joke works on at least two levels.

Tim: They do, don’t they? And that is just one reason why I reckon this would have been a vastly better choice. I don’t know how these things get chosen, but musically it’s just as, if not more, clubbing and banging and all that than Lena’s track, and it’s lyrics where it stands out. I still don’t know what yesterday’s one means…

Tom: Although to be fair, that’s because you don’t speak Swedish.

Tim: Fair point, but these ones are definitely sending out the right message – about coming out unafraid, fighting against anyone saying no and showing people why they’re proud. And all that’s just in the first verse, before we get to the chorus about taking a stand together as one family.

Tom: While I’m being a bit childish, by the way: he also pronounces “duty” as “doody”.

Tim: Yes, yes he does. Well done. The band themselves describe themselves as, would you believe it, an “unambiguously gay duo”…

Tom: That may or may not be a plan on Saturday Night Live’s “Ambiguously Gay Duo“, which is worth a watch. If you’re not at work. (And yes, that’s Stephen Colbert.)

Tim: Nice. And they did actually do last year’s official song, so maybe the organisers didn’t want the same band two years running or something. But still, Lena’s track’s rubbish compared to this.

Tom: There, I can agree.

Straight Up – Show The World Tonight

An entirely appropriate song for Stockholm Pride

Tim: Stockholm Pride 2011 had an entirely appropriate official song. This one, in fact.

Tom: Ooh. Someone’s gone all high-concept but low-budget with their video, haven’t they? They’ve reached for the stars and hit… well, they’ve hit something. That’s someone with a graphics tablet and a basic knowledge of After Effects, I reckon. Or MS Paint.

Tim: Interesting idea for the, well, story, I guess, with a somewhat unusual KILL ALL THE HOMOPHOBES vibe to it, which I suppose is meant in a good way rather than a murderous rampage way. Perhaps what they’re imagining Stonewall would have been like if it happened two hundred years later.

As for the music, I love it: it’s great as a dance tune, it’s great as a ‘we’re all gay and it’s fantastic’ song, and is almost inspiring in its way. ‘Try homosexuality! You know there’s a small part of you that’s always wondered, and you really don’t know what you’re missing!’

Tom: They are basically just singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, though. If we rip Cher Lloyd apart for doing nursery rhymes, we should really do the same here. It’s just… a bit uninspired, really. Good production, bad song.

Tim: Fair point about the nursery rhyme, but I wouldn’t say bad song – not by a long way.