Ben has a very 'basic' look and I am trying not to be mean! His styles is quite simple and casual and I get the feeling he likes to move, not necessarily dance, when he is performing. In the video he is wearing a short brown bomber style jacket with dark top and trousers and when he appeared on the show live, he wore very similar clothes just in slightly different colours.
The setting of the music video taken place in a club. There is lots of youthful dancing, dark settings and bright neon lights. The video starts with a young lady getting off a motorbike and Ben spends most of the time trying to find her on the dance floor. Of course, our protagonist succeeds in his mission! Having the ambience of a club makes this feel very lively and young which could be a good angle for the show itself.
The song structure is very clear and easy to follow: verse-bridge-chorus, verse-bridge-chorus, bridge, repeating chorus. What does make the song flow is the rollercoaster of changes that the backing track takes us down. The song starts off with very little background music and feels very ambient and the beat comes in during the first bridge and chorus, but even here you sense there is more to come. On the second repetition we go back to a minimal backing but this time a Nile Rodgers style guitar riff comes to prominence and then in the second part of the chorus there are some trumpets.We then return to a quieter bridge into another chorus where the layers of instruments slowly reveal themselves. The song ends with the repetition of the final two lines of the chorus. The title itself is memorable, if not a bit confusing, and the tune of this line is a bit odd so these keywords can be missed.
Although the presentation included the music video, Ben was also there to sing an acoustic version of the song alongside just a guitar. He actually sang the song really well and was hitting some of the long high notes in the chorus. What was also noticeable was that his voice is very much in the mix in the studio version and hopefully, if the mic levels are upped, he will push through better live.
Overall, I am feeling quite positive about this song. Ben is a good, youthful singer and having links with Slovenia and Switzerland should hopefully materialise into a few extra points! The song itself is very modern, with more than a passing nod to bands like Years & Years, but also harks back to the disco era. The song at least has a personality and I feel that if they get the identity right on stage this could get quite an influx of youth votes. On the other hand his voice is quite different and at points it is hard to hear him and find out what he's saying, so this needs to be addressed. He will also need backing singers and possibly dancers too. I must also note that the song is a little long so there may need to be some tightening up of the different parts, perhaps quickening it up or getting rid of the intro and making more crossover points of the verses and chorus.
This is a bop, and a bop you can easily wave a flag to! Unlike many songs I've reviewed I can see the appeal of this song for jurors and televoeters and with the right staging this could be a hit in and out of Eurovision. The best of the Big 5 and if it doesn't win Eurovision it'll probably be a big seller.
Artist -Ben Dolic
Song - Violent thing
Composers - Dag Lundberg, Connor Martin, Borislav Milanov, Peter St. James, Jimmy Thorén
Lyricists - Dag Lundberg, Borislav Milanov Peter St. James
No comments:
Post a Comment