Genre: Nu-disco, Alt Pop
There’s a good reason why musicians might envy athletes. The very best sports figures fight to win each week. These continuous victories earn them trophies and medals. Most musicians, even the most talented and successful ones, don’t have these victories signposting their careers. They are chasing something ineffable. As George Harrison might say, for them, the answer is at the end.
But there are a few exceptions. Loreen is a singer known primarily for winning trophies for songs in an event that greatly resembles global sporting events. The Swedish singer triumphed not, but twice, in the Eurovision, the closest think pop music has to a football World Cup. It’s the one event involving songs, albeit generally rather commercial ones, that can get people of numerous countries taking to the streets in unison.
Whether you like the Eurovision or think it’s rather campy and dated matters little. Having even a minute interest in pop music and current events means that it’s something that is nearly impossible to ignore.
Loreen’s “Is It Love,” strives to answer just what a current and former, Eurovision winner might want to do in the year between winning the damn thing and getting to show it off to her proud countrymen. To her credit, Loreen’s music is not plain pop. And it’s not retro-tinged. Instead, unlike most Eurovision conquerors, the singer and her production teams take great liberties with what modern commercial sounds can incorporate.
The result is a hazy dance sound, part melancholy and part romantic exuberance. Finally, it’s a song that sounds expensive as it should. This is a winner of trophies right here, and to them go the spoils of using the very best recording studios and production teams.
