Chicane – Poppiholla
To all intents and purposes, Sigur Ros have been a middle-aged trance act from the beginning…
[Video][Website]
[4.45]
Iain Mew: Back when we did “When Clocks Takes Over” and I said “It’s hard to think of many worse hooks to not add anything of interest to”, IT WAS NOT MEANT AS A CHALLENGE.
[0]
Alfred Soto: At the back of my head, I heard distant feet: the Olympics and Coldplay to a disco beat.
[3]
Sophie Green: I originally wanted to review this with one single word: “No.” But on reflection, that would have been merely an attempt to portray something guttural and heartfelt in a shallow and asinine manner – not too dissimilar to this Chicane “reworking”. But this track does not work: if it is meant to be a pumping Ibiza track, why has it done away with all of the euphoria and immediacy of the original? If this wants to be something intelligent and beautiful, as the Guardian advert ripoff of a music video wants to imply, then why is everything done in the musical equivalent of 2D?
[0]
Chuck Eddy: onagoodday627 (5 hours ago) Someone born in the late 80s or 90s can’t really comprehend the quality of Chicane or this track. If you have lived through the entire growth of trance from day one then you will truly appreciate it.
[4]
Alex Ostroff: The original is gorgeous, and Chicane’s total mastery of build and release turns this into everything I like about trance. No lyrics, no overpowering vocals, no final momentous climax. Just a gentle and perpetually cresting wave of beauty.
[9]
Martin Skidmore: He’s a slick and glossy producer, and there are some attractive swooshes on this, but it doesn’t have quite the upliftingly ecstatic moments or sweep to give him another huge house anthem, I don’t think.
[6]
Michaelangelo Matos: Sounds like an intro to something that never quite begins. I know people say this about dance tracks all the time, but this three-minute edit really sounds that way.
[7]
Anthony Miccio: Seeing as how I’m not looking for inoffensive techno muzak to soundtrack my on-flight instructional video, this track has no use for me whatsoever.
[2]
Richard Swales: When I saw the title I thought, “Oh no, they haven’t,” then 20 seconds in I was thinking, “Oh no, they have and I hate it,” and then at the end I was thinking, “Wow, that actually kind of worked.” Then I listened to it again and quite enjoyed it. Still, they shouldn’t have.
[6]
Additional Scores
Andrew Brennan: [7]
Hillary Brown: [5]
I had no idea this was supposed to be a remix of anything. What is it?
Just checking… and yes, I’ve managed to cannily edit out any and all references to Sigur Ros in this piece (and there were several). I earn my money.
I could have sworn I submitted a blurb on this, and there’s one on the .doc file where I keep all the ones I submit, but the site tells me I never did. Which makes me feel seriously stupid. In any case, most of you are wrong:
“Genius or desecration? It’s both, actually, and you can’t ignore either aspect of “Poppiholla.” It’s enough to make you wish Chicane would tackle Sigur Ros on an album-length basis.
[8]”
(I guess Will could have subbed “this sort of thing” for “Sigur Ros” if I had submitted it)
Haha OK if I’d seen the video it would’ve gotten a far lower score than I gave it.
It certainly affected my vote!
Ian – Is Hoppipolla not slathered over all TV in Canada? My mark was very heavily influenced by the fact that at this point the original would score a zero, too, in terms of whether I ever want to hear it again.
I’m in the US and have never heard what this is reworking (or knowingly heard Sigur Ros).
I actually technically saw Sigur Ros live once several years ago (in NYC), and I’ve never knowingly heard them either! Would have had no idea what this was covering if not for youtube comments (or “remixing,” as everybody says — I don’t get that; if it’s just a remix why isn’t the song mainly still credited to the band who did the original?)
Iain, I can honestly say I’ve never heard Sigur Ros on TV aside from the odd (very odd) music video. My score may well have been lower if it was a constant presence.
“Ian – Is Hoppipolla not slathered over all TV in Canada? My mark was very heavily influenced by the fact that at this point the original would score a zero, too, in terms of whether I ever want to hear it again.”
I’m going to go with “not to my knowledge”. Is it slathered all over TV in Britain? We seem to inhabit a different musical headspace over here in the colonies.
It really started to be a thing when the BBC used it for their trailers for their big wildlife thing Planet Earth (which was enough to put the Sigur Rós version into the charts). Since then the song seems to be the first port of call for every single documentary maker/news channel/sports producer around, whenever they want to signify grandeur or beauty or their big emotional payoff or just about anything else, however undeserving. Resultant sinking feeling whenever I hear it.
The only positive side of Chicane giving them even more ammunition is that Elbow are currently on their way to taking Sigur Rós’ place and it might slow that process.
Gods is Hoppipolla EVER slathered all over TV in Britain. So much so that I’m astounded British people wouldn’t recognise it immediately.
Admittedly it is mostly in reality TV talent shows, where the song is as Paul O’Brien put it,”rapidly becoming an editing shorthand for the way people feel when they make round three of The X-Factor”.
Another reason why I never watch TV, then.
I would be a lot more o_0 about Chicane covering Sigur Rós but both bands are just too boring.
I don’t think any of the people not recognizing it are British.
haha I love Planet Earth, maybe that affected me in a positive way w/o knowing it.
I note that it took all of a minute into the new series of X Factor for this to emerge.