The Singles Jukebox

We probably should’ve covered this last month for the pun…

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[6.00]

Brad Shoup: Ah, fall: conversations go longer, meditation is richer, and regal synthstring parts merit extra points for pop songs.
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: This is September’s play for realness, apparently: real name, real featherweight bed of presumably real orchestrations. If only it weren’t just half an anthem.
[6]

Iain Mew: Sounds enjoyably lush and grand, but particularly combined with the language barrier that’s a double-edged sword. Its constant easygoing lushness swallows everything else to make it difficult for anything in the song to leave a lasting impression. Given September’s history, it’s not unreasonable to think that it could have benefited from some small tweaks to sound less like Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and more like Pet Shop Boys’ “Viva La Vida”.
[6]

Alfred Soto: When I want to hear melancholy, I want it scored to guitar stabs, synth strings, and a singer who I swear to God does sound like Frida.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: Wispy, low-in-the-throat Scandopop can go either way: it’s either the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, or it barely registers at all. This one trends low.
[4]

Anthony Easton: Sped up a bit, and stripped of its emotionalism, I wonder if this song could have an almost military cadence? The backbone on this is rigid enough to hold up the rest of the flush. 
[5]

Edward Okulicz: More than a bit of “Viva la Vida” in this, but Jocke Berg (who wrote the song) from Swedish group Kent had been trying to write “Viva la Vida” for his own band since about 2001, so I’ll bite my tongue on that. For better or worse, this is a Kent song with September singing over it. I like both Kent and September, so it pleases me fine, but I think those involved were shooting for something more than “pleasant.”
[7]