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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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canadaherligste · 6 years

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AFTER THE STORY: SKRIK - TYVERIET; Stories From Norway Episode 6

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's After The Story! In Episode 6 of Stories From Norway, Ylvis takes the investigative musical to the world of art, as they chronicle the 1994 theft of "Skrik" (The Scream), Edvard Munch's most famous and beloved painting.

@addictedtoylvis and me was not meant to be this week, as my usual partner in crime is on vacation. Never fear, though, because my fellow Canadian and living Ylvis encyclopedia Meredith is standing in for Eve on this week's review!

So put down your extremely long ladder, and join Meredith and me as we talk about our favourite and funniest moments, the characters, the storytelling and more. We also give our best Charlie comebacks in convincing a skeptical felon!

As usual, have at it in the replies and comments. We want to know what you think!

1) What was your favourite moment?

2) What were the funniest moments for you?

3) Favourite Vegard character: Sissel, Jan Olsen or The Scream?

4) Bård had two main characters: let's talk about his work with both. First: Pål Enger.

5) Bård's second character: Undercover agent Charlie Hill.

6) What are your thoughts on the documentary portions?

7) What did you think of the storytelling in this episode?

8) Which were your favourite make-up and costume jobs?

9) What is your general impression of this episode?

10) Any other interesting notes or background info from the story?

11) As usual, pick the episode’s MVP.

Bonus Question: You are Charlie, the man/woman of a thousand faces, working undercover. Your mark looks at you and says, "Huh, I think you're a cop." Convince this criminal that you're a thief.

1) What was your favourite moment?

Robin: My favourite moment was the genius "Pink Panther" break in the middle of "Man Of A Thousand Faces," as Bård/Charlie channels his best Inspector Clouseau to convince Felon-Bjarte of his criminal nature. Freakin' fantastic.

Meredith: You’re right, I missed that completely!! That’s why he was French, LOL. I liked the sight gag with the really long ladder. Pål says something like “you look really stupid carrying something like that around” and it cuts to a visual of the ladder stretched across an entire street.

2) What were the funniest moments for you?

Robin: Bjarte's response to the above: "Whoa! Unpleasant language. You must be a thief!" Bjarte's delivery of that line is SO PERFECT I was crying with laughter...and then the look on his face as he gets arrested while Charlie yells "cocks and balls!!" made it even funnier.

Meredith: It’s a toss-up between Charlie’s “American” small talk (You know hamburgers? Have you tried hamburgers, from America? I only eat hamburger meat, man...) while kitted out like Colonel Sanders, and Vegard floating through the air after the smell of money, then falling when the bag is zipped shut.

Robin: YES! LOL - I will never completely understand Ylvis’ fixation with hamburgers and America!! I mean, I get it, but they are just so fixated!! It’s hilarious!

3) Favourite Vegard character: Sissel, Jan Olsen or Skrik?

Robin: This is a really tough one. Sissel was fantastic, and Vegard is disturbingly, wonderfully convincing as a street thug. All that said, this may be a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, but man oh man do I wish we had more of Vegard as The Scream. There was just not enough. I am completely amazed by how much Vegard conveyed with JUST his eyes for so much of the episode, and his actual scream was actually a bit heart-wrenching. His performance was incredible and I wish we had gotten more somehow.

Meredith: Vegard as Skrik really creeped me out on first viewing. That is not a painting I would want to see come to life. But I have to say he grew on me at the end when he and Pål had their emotional parting. But surly criminal Vegard wins for me, because he was so unlike the dorky, bossy, long-winded Vegard we all love and because of his awesome leopard-print underpants (watch the arrest scene closely.)

Robin: WHAT?!? (goes back to watch scene...multiple rewinds later) Meredith, you’re my hero.

4) Bård had two main characters: let's talk about his work with both. First: Pål Enger.

Robin: This is another character I really wish we got to see more of. Honestly, I mostly forgot that was Bård. The facial hair and makeup made a big difference, and somehow even his posture and gait seemed different. As usual, Bård disappeared into the role.

I'm a little befuddled as to why the character of Pål Enger was used so little, especially given how fascinating real-life Pål Enger was and how central he was to the story. I thought that Real Pål had a calm, nonchalant cockiness to him that was intriguing and charismatic, but we really didn't get the opportunity to see much of that at all, which is too bad because Bård would have nailed that.

Meredith: To me Pål was weirdly phlegmatic - he described the decision to steal the painting like it was a shopping trip he was planning once he got out of prison. But you could tell how amused he was by the ease of it - the substandard glass in the windows and the lack of security around the nation’s most famous painting. I was also curious about whether he has a straight job now - it was funny that he was credited as “art thief.”

I agree that Bård disappeared into the role. I’m wondering if he underplayed it because they didn’t want to make Pål look too heroic or attractive? Like, the attention might go to the real Pål’s head and he’d try to top that heist with something more daring.

5) Bård's second character: Undercover agent Charlie Hill.

Robin: I can't even imagine how much work that character was to play. All those costume changes in one freaking song! Charlie was a fun character, and I already talked about how much I loved the break in the middle of his intro song. I really enjoyed his performance at the undercover operation.

I did think that Bård's portrayal might have been a little too much on the caricature side, and I am again befuddled by the decision of Team Ylvis to write and portray him as such. I get that real-life Charlie looks too much like Stephen Root to be taken seriously as an undercover agent, and the way he described his job was a bit funny sometimes, but he seemed like a consummate professional who was pretty highly regarded. I wonder if the portrayal was influenced by the choice of song style, or if it was vice versa.

Meredith: Charlie Hill is the kind of broad character that Vegard normally excels at, so I enjoyed seeing Bård get his ham on this time. Bård looked exactly like Robin Williams in his first screen appearance as Charlie, but once the song got started he was channelling old-school British comic actors (the late Terry-Thomas came to mind.) I think Ylvis decided to go over the top with Charlie’s character because of the way he described his modus operandi - behave like the total opposite of a cop to throw people off the scent. Tell ridiculous lies and act like you believe them.

6) What are your thoughts on the documentary portions?

Robin: I thought it was kjempe cool how they overlapped the documentary with the performances, especially during the sting operation. Jan Olsen's lines as told by the interviewee were in almost perfect sync with Vegard's delivery of them. I thought that was a great decision; I think it added to Vegard's believability as a street thug, as the familiarity of his voice wasn't there to keep the viewer grounded.

Presumably Scotland Yard would have been working with Norwegian police, so how did the Norwegians fail to inform them about the events at the hotel?! I thought it was absolutely insane and amazing that they managed to salvage an undercover operation in the middle of a police conference. I personally can't recall if money has a smell, but my perpetually broke ass definitely hasn't been around enough money all at once to verify or negate that claim.

Meredith: Yeah, I would have liked to know a little more about how they missed the police convention happening at their meeting place.

7) What did you think of the storytelling in this episode?

Robin: I enjoyed the story; the heist was great (omg that ladder) and the sting op was tense. That said, there were a few narrative choices that I wasn't quite on board with. I quite liked the episode, but I wanted more from it.

For one, I've already mentioned minimal Pål Enger. To me he was the most interesting person in the story and in the documentary, but he didn't quite get as much screen time and development as I would have liked. I thought it was strange that Charlie became a much more central part of the story than Pål did.

I feel that having more Pål Enger would have given a better chance to sell the bonding between him and Skrik. I didn't think that the story between the two characters was developed enough. The last song is phenomenal, but it came out of almost nowhere, and it didn't pack enough of an emotional punch for me. I wish there had been some more interaction between the characters somehow to take us to that end song.

Meredith: I thought it was a pretty tight episode. There were a lot of talking heads to navigate - is this the most in one show so far? - but they used them well to set up how the police caught the thief. I think they went with making Charlie the focus of the episode because of the way he outsmarted Pål Enger, who admits that he basically lost control once a large amount of money was involved. He may have been clever and very taken with the painting, but at the end of the day he’s still a criminal with poor impulse control.

8) Which were your favourite make-up and costume jobs?

Robin: Best makeup definitely goes to Skrik (and how did they even do that with his face and a moving framed painting), with a close second to Pål Enger. As for costume: I freely admit that I totally fell for the pizza gag and did not notice Charlie/Bård on the wall AT ALL. That was freakin' genius.

Meredith: Have to agree about the Skrik makeup, and the special effects they used during the duet with Pål. Also, Charlie as the lamp.

9) What is your general impression of this episode?

Meredith: I liked this episode because it seemed like a real-life Ylvis prank. We didn’t get a lot of insight into why Pål became an art thief in the first place - he claims he didn’t even need the money when he sold Skrik. The impression I got is that he did it for the sheer joy of getting away with it. His reasoning was very Ylvis-like: hey, everyone in Oslo is going to be in Lillehammer, let’s see if I can steal that painting of the weird guy screaming and totally upstage the Olympics too!

Robin: The theft story was fascinating and I enjoyed it. As much as I feel there may have been some missed opportunities at the centre of the story, it was still completely fun and interesting.

10) Any other interesting notes or background info from the story?

Robin: So I was reading about this theft from a few different sources after I watched the episode, and the absolute most badass part of this story for me was that, apparently, Pål Enger and his thief pals left a note at the crime scene saying “Thanks for the bad security!” I actually can’t believe that Ylvis left that out because it seems like a detail they’d love, but hey, maybe it didn’t come up during the interviews.

Also, Pål Enger actually broke out of jail during his sentence. LOL...I feel really weird praising a felon, but he is a pretty badass thief. He’s totally right; he’s the kind of criminal that movies get made about.

Meredith: I’ll repeat what I said above about them not wanting to glamourize Pål too much. I guess someone else will have to make the movie where Pål is the hero.

Robin: You’ve raised a really good point about not glamourizing Pål, and that makes total sense. It would be weird if he came out looking like Danny Ocean, especially given that this show is about Norway and he stole a national treasure just for kicks.

I do wonder if Ylvis could have achieved the same kind of balance as they did with Petter Northug and The Biebs; though those two displayed a little more conscience than Pål does. Maybe you’re right and it was best that he took a secondary seat to the man who outsmarted him.

11) As usual, pick the episode’s MVP.

Meredith: Skrik, even though he scared me. Making the painting sentient could have been a huge mistake, but Vegard pulled it off.

Robin: My vote goes to Vegard in general as he was fantastic all around, and especially for his performance as Skrik. I thought he was phenomenal.

Bonus Question: You are Charlie, the man/woman of a thousand faces, working undercover. Your mark looks at you and says, "Huh, I think you're a cop." Convince this criminal that you're a thief.

Robin: Me? A cop? That’s some supercrapperfuckerifficexpialibullshit!

Meredith: Holy fist-fucking father of fucker, why do you think I’m a cop? Have some guacamole and relax.

Robin: HA! Nice one, Meredith! I can’t top that LOL

#ylvis #stories from norway #after the story ylvis #skrik-tyveriet #1994 theft of the scream #the scream #edvardmunch #meredith had some fantastic insights #made me rethink some of my opinions on this one

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