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canadaherligste · 6 years

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AFTER THE STORY: THE MUSIC OF SKRIK-TYVERIET

Hello everyone, and welcome to the music review of Episode 6 of "Stories From Norway." As usual, there’s a separate post to the music of the episode, giving us all the freedom to get into detail! Today I'm flying solo, so I'm hoping that you guys will come keep me company here :-)

So oh my gosh say goodbye and hang up the damn phone already, and come join me as I get long-winded as usual about the songs, their genres and videos, their vocals. As usual, I want to know what you loved and didn't love, and I'm looking forward to learning from you all as I always do! So here goes:

1. Which was your favourite song? 2: Genres. Homages. Parodies. Tropes. Music. Vocals. Let’s break this down, song by song: A - Nå er det OL B - Man Of A Thousand Faces C - The Smell Of Money D - You And Me E - Non-Ylvis song choices: Africa (Toto)

BONUS QUESTION: Pål had Toto's "Africa." What would be your getaway song?

1. Which was your favourite song?

Robin: "Nå er det OL" by a pretty wide margin. I'll get into it more below, but this song is pretty perfect; lyrically, musically, vocally on point. Plus I was really happy with myself because I understood most of the song the first time I watched the episode in Norwegian!

2: Genres. Homages. Parodies. Tropes. Music. Vocals. Let’s break this down, song by song:

A - Nå er det OL

Robin: Guys, this song is freakin' phenomenal. It really is and I'm in love with this song and I'm going to ramble about why so buckle up LOL.

They were definitely going for the style of inspirational Olympic theme, like Gloria Estefan's "Reach," Koreana's "Hand in Hand," Nikki Yanofsky's "I Believe." Some usual staples of the inspirational song are here: the instrumental opening, the soft wind instruments, major key, modulation with choir, quiet fade out. They certainly nailed the genre. Having Vegard dress (and look) like Sissel was perfect since she did the Olympic Hymn at Lillehammer that year.

That said, though, Lars does his usual thing and adds his own flair to the song to make it interesting. Because of course Lars would compose a song with two different time signatures. The verses are in 6/8, the chorus is in 4/4. Guys, I'm a complete sucker for mixed time signatures in pop music. Even if this song had nothing else going for it, I'd be in love with it just for that. But it has so much else going for it.

For one, there's Vegard's vocals. I have never heard Vegard sing like this before; you don't get head voice from him very often because he's often doing power vocals. It's insane how beautiful and feminine he manages to sound. The break as he switches from head to chest in the last part of the choruses are just soooo smooth and pretty. And can we talk about his own voice doing the background vocals and how freaking high he gets in that last chorus, though? My goodness.

Then there's the lyrics. This song is hilarious and thematically on point for the episode. I love that they managed to write a whole song about there being no law enforcement in Oslo interspersed with random mentions of some of the opening ceremonies' characters. It almost works like the world's worst subliminal message: "It's the Olympics, we have gremlins and trolls NO POLICE IN OSLO and bushes and snow PERFECT TIME FOR ROBBERY we're all here celebrating NO POLICE IN OSLO..."

Okay, yeah, I've talked enough. I'm sorry. I love this song.

B - Man Of A Thousand Faces

Robin: This is a fun song! I've tried but failed to remember what this song reminds me of, so I'm asking all the theatre gurus to tell me where it comes from!

I mentioned this in the review post; my favourite part of this song (and the episode) is the jazz break in the middle of the song, which musically is highly reminiscent of Henry Mancini's "The Pink Panther Theme" with the percussion style and tenor saxophone. Bård then launches into a French accent like Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies; a character known for his outlandish (and mostly ineffective) disguises.

Bård is soooo over the top in this song it's *almost* too much! This is probably the most energetic I've seen him since I can't remember when. I can't imagine how much work this video was to shoot. So many costume changes, so much energy; Bård must have gone straight to sleep after this because even I'm tired after this song.

C - The Smell Of Money

Robin: This song is in an R&B style that started in late 90s when the genre started moving away from New Jack Swing, and continued into the 00s. This sounds like it could have come straight out of Teddy Riley's, Rodney Jerkins' (Darkchild) or Timbaland's production studios; they were the most well known producers of that time. Similar songs musically would be Destiny's Child "Say My Name" along with almost anything by Blackstreet, and the vocal style is similar to the musical storytelling that R.Kelly (eww) did with "Trapped In the Closet."

I really want to love this song, and lyrically it's hilarious, but it is not their best work vocally and I'm a bit disappointed. Both Vegard and Bård are flat with their pitch a lot. I understand can happen because the duet is pretty rapid-fire and the intervals move quickly, but R&B is pretty unforgiving that way; even with rapidly paced lyrics like this you have to be on point (see "Satisfied" on the Hamilton soundtrack).

That said, it's still a funny song, and the awkward "byes" at the end are hilarious. I assume they used R&B (a sexy genre) to relate to the idea that the money is seductive and arousing. So arousing that Vegard-Jan steams up the phone booth, they both constantly have their hands on the windows Titanic-style, and Bård-Pål has a look of satisfaction and can barely catch his breath after the song is done.

Honorable mention goes to Bård's dancing; that spin is everything.

D - You And Me

Robin: This is a beautiful song. It's the kind of soft rock ballad that you could find in any decade from the 70s onwards. Also, Vegard even sounds a little like Kenny Loggins. I'm sure there's some musical theatre precedent to this song that I'm unaware of. Lars' composition here is stunning, and I loooove the ending chords of this song (similar to "The Prayer").

I mentioned this in the previous post; this song could have had a much bigger emotional impact if the relationship between Skrik and Pål had been alluded to or highlighted before this moment. The song is great and the connection between the two is solid at that moment, but there's no investment on the viewers' (or at least my) part before then. Maybe that's just as well for me; I don't think I would have survived another "What Will I Say."

In any case, both Vegard and Bård do a fantastic job here, both vocally and in the music video. They really sell the connection at the time between the two characters, and the first time we see Skrik smile is really something. Watching them go to their respective prisons was pretty sad.

E - Non-Ylvis song choices: Africa (Toto)

Robin: There are numerous articles online about why Toto's "Africa" is a magical song, and I agree with every single damn one of them. There's something about "Africa" that is just uplifting, that you can't help singing along with, that makes you feel good when you hear it. So that choice was perfect for this moment, as Real-Pål talks about how electric and magical it felt to have pulled off the heist and to have Skrik.

Lyrically, it was some fantastic irony. "It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you..." - it took three million kroner. And he was almost literally dragged away from Skrik at the end by much less than a hundred men. "There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do" wasn't exactly right now, was it...

BONUS QUESTION: Pål had Toto's "Africa." What would be your getaway song?

Robin: OutKast's "Rosa Parks," Seal's "Padded Cell", or Ylvis' "Pressure."

#ylvis #stories from norway #after the story ylvis #skrik-tyveriet

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