I was watching the second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest last night and considering ‘what makes a good pop song’. I was none the wiser by the end obviously, especially after watching poor Denmark, but a few hours later a notification popped up with a new track from happydieyoung, and these guys really know how to write them.
We featured them in January last year shortly after they released their lovely EP ‘one day I’ll buy you the world’. They clearly like tunes but not capital letters. They’re Bergen based and burst on to the scene in 2018 with an appearance at 'Vill Vill Vest', before concentrating on their debut recordings.
They’ve used the lockdown time of 2020 wisely, writing and recording new material for their debut album, which is to be entitled ‘Death Pop’ and due to land ‘soon’. They’ve been working with local ‘super producer’ Askjell Solstrand too, who has also worked with Aurora, Sigrid and others - it’s a good match I think for their style of music.
Anyway new track is quite descriptively entitled ‘The Matador and Bull at the Ball’, with a warped string intro to start, before bursting into life with a striking catchy vocal tune and a big build up to an anthemic chorus. But the thing I like about happydieyoung is that aside from the good pop tunes, there’s always just ‘stuff’ going on in their songs – and ‘TMATATB’ has a big theatrical quality that wouldn’t be out of place on the Eurovision stage, although from what country I’m not sure.
Lyrically it’s interesting and quite pointed too, considering the question “Why is it that the most awful words you’ll ever speak are so often spoken to the one you love the most? ”
Different from the intimacy of tracks such as ‘Sad Song’ that they released a couple of years back, bolder certainly, but still quirky. They’re an excellent pop band.
I’m looking forward to the album very much. And there’s a video coming out next week, which I’ll add in here if I remember.
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