Tag: Whigfield

Whigfield – Jeg Kommer Hjem

For someone who started with “Saturday Night”, she’s come a long way.

Tim: I’m giving nothing away.

Tom: For someone who started with “Saturday Night”, she’s come a long way.

Tim: Yes – this is dubstep-inspired Whigfield, and I for one think it works. Unexpected, yes, but not too out of place, and I like it.

Tom: I agree, but it’s the kind of track where the vocalist is mostly interchangable: Whigfield could be happily replaced by any session vocalist or guest star here, and it’d sound much the same. This kind of track is normally credited to the producer rather than the singer, so it’s a bit strange to see something this, er, “dubsteppy” credited to Whigfield.

Tim: It couldn’t really be more different from her last track, 4Ever, which was all sweet and happy which rolling harpsichords, whereas this carries the standard harsh tones that can kind of grate a bit (and are expressed vividly so in that video).

Tom: As I’ve said before: I’ve grown to like them as they’ve become more and more influenced by pop.

Tim: Me too: I really like this, and it’s a sound that brings Whigfield up to date and playable on a modern dancefloor, unlike any other recent track of hers. This is good stuff. Very good indeed.

Whigfield – 4Ever

Oh, now that’s a foot-tapper.

Tim: Last year’s C’est Cool got into the top 10 in Denmark and Sweden; previous to that, there have been no top twenty hits anywhere (Saturday Night remakes aside) since 1996. Is this the second step back to greatness, or was that merely a blip on an otherwise uninteresting radar?

Tom: Oh, now that’s a foot-tapper. I mean that literally, in that my foot started tapping to it.

Tim: As did mine. I also started bouncing on my chair gently.

Tom: That’s a really pleasant song. I suspect it’s one that’ll get annoying with repeat viewings rather than better, but hell: I’d dance to it.

Tim: Absolutely – it’s certainly a jaunty number. There’s excellent use of harpsichord throughout – perhaps too much, actually, because, at almost a full half-minute, the repetitive bit in the middle is (for me) at least fifteen seconds too long.

Tom: You are so wrong about that. It’s exactly the right length. It’s a brilliant bit of arpeggiation.

Tim: I beg your pardon?

Tom: Yeah, I said arpeggiation. Get me.

Tim: Well, good or bad as that may be, I’m hard-pressed to find much else to dislike about this – it’s bouncy, it’s friendly and it’s got a lovely ‘nice day out, fun for all the family’ vibe to it.

Tom: The lyrics are pap, and the middle eight’s not much to write home about – those hissing hi-hat taps are grating – but those are minor gripes, and seems wrong to mention them when the song’s so lovely.

Tim: It does, realy, although I would add my two: first, the line two minutes in, which until I found a lyric site confirming that it’s actually “you’re the one by faaaaar. Keep…”, I was convinced was the less than family friendly “you’re the one I [erm, thing]”, which really wouldn’t have sat right.

Tom: And now I can’t hear anything else. Thanks for that.

Tim: Then there’s the fact that this doesn’t have an incredibly famous dance to it that fifteen years from now I can ruthlessly mock you for never knowing about.

Whigfield – C’est Cool

With bonus Whigfield single-buying reminiscences!

Tim: ‘Saturday Night’ was the first single I ever bought.

Tom: It was very nearly the first single I bought, before I decided that actually I’d rather spend the money on something else instead. (The actual first single? The Children in Need version of ‘Perfect Day’. No regrets.)

Tim: I needed it for a school dance competition, you see (which I totally won), and the single came with six remixes attached to it, of which the Extended Nite Mix was by far and away the best. It prompted my granddad to express amazement at how much you get on CDs these [those] days.

Tom: The “cassingle” had the same remixes. I remember it well. I also remember being somewhat confused by the concept of including the same song six times on one cassette. I was new to this whole ‘pop music’ thing.

Tim: I have no idea why I remember that, from seventeen years ago, in such detail.

Tom: And the strange thing is, I remember my nearly-buying-it in detail too. Formative years, and all that.

Tim: Um, where were we? Oh, right, her new song.

Tim: Well, first things first* – ‘ba ba-ba ba’ is no ‘dee-dee da-na na’.

* Why do people say that? What else would be first?

Tom: Well, no.

Tim: But anyway, it’s repetitive, lyrically brain-numbing, not particularly exciting – basically, everything that makes up a shit track.

Tom: After this many years, you think she’d come out with something better.

Tim: But, it’s not shit, though.

Tom: What? I don’t trust your judgement. You’re still on the codeine.

Tim: Nah, finished that a while back. But anyway, when did you ever trust my judgement?