Rate Danes: 20 Years of Denmark's Best Music (according to me)

She tried again, but third time was not the charm.

 

Hoping Medina wins with "kun for Mig" or "Fur Altid", with Mo's "New Moon" as runner-up. Also hoping "Self Control" is Infernal's biggest song, but prepared to be disappointed.

 

Nooooooo! Not even top 20 what the hell is wrong with you?

 

Lack of taste? The Infernal Fan Club coming out en masse to vote?

 

How much time do you have?

 

Yes, I gave Infernal six 10's but I also gave one to 'Final Song,' so you can't blame me!

 

Most of the rates I've co/hosted have had some sort of shock elimination in the 15-20th range. I am sorry to say that this holds true here today.


#20
Electric Lady Lab – “Hurts”
Average: 8.5333

Charts: DK #18

Per Gessle from Roxette shared the song to the Roxette Facebook page:
Did you hear this? Cool. /P.

@DJHazey
Ride that Listen to Your Heart sample to the moon.

@Sprockrooster
That sample!! I am stanning.

@unnameable
Normally I would detest any Roxette interpolation, but they make this work.

@daninternational
Samples in a ballad are trickier, but they pulled off their magic again

@berserkboi
Nice but that Listen To Your Heart sample isn’t even necessary

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#19
Alice Deejay – “The Lonely One”
Infernal – “Weightless”
Average: 8.5625

@DJHazey
Like the band brushed the dust off, cracked their knuckles, and said “okay we’ll show you how it’s done”.

@daninternational
Infernal go trop-pop? Love the mellow island vibes

@berserkboi
Nice but very basic, and no Paw visuals - which doesn’t help

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#17 (TIE)
Infernal – “Love Is All”
Average: 8.5667

Charts: DK #6

@DJHazey
Packs enough emotional punch to knock me out and succumb to its charms.

@daninternational
Basic beats and pretty inane lyrically, but it’s still a mood

@berserkboi
Nice too

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#17 (TIE)
Kato feat. Electric Lady Lab – “Alive”
Average: 8.5667

Charts: DK #4

@DJHazey
The Right Said Fred sample had me worried, but it can’t do anything to de-rail this Bop Train.

@Sprockrooster
That music video does some serious gay baiting. And frankly... I ate.

@unnameable
I wouldn’t have thought interpolating Right Said Fred would work so well, but here we are.

@daninternational
The excellent chorus works much better than the sample here, I’m not sure they needed it

@berserkboi
I enjoy how she tries so hard to be Alexandra Stan <3

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#16
Infernal – “I Won’t Be Crying”
Average: 8.5833
11: @Sprockrooster

Charts: FI #16

Digital Spy review:

Well, it's a bit of a belter, that's for certain. Once it gets going around in your head, you're lost, because this is a properly fab dance tune. Just as catchy as their debut, the roaring vocal of Lina Rafn powers the entire song onwards and upwards. Rafn manages to push so much pent-up anger into the song you're just glad you weren't in the booth with her while she was recording it. Infernal are definitely on the right track with this empowering, ridiculously catchy tune.

@DJHazey
This score will have everyone with pitchforks, crying out “what isn’t clicking!?” It’s always been such a dud to my ears though, I’m sorry!

@daninternational
Lina’s angry vocals elevate Infernal’s more straightforward output, especially in this one

@berserkboi
Nice stuff still!

@Sprockrooster
Where to begin? Well the sample I guess. Strangelove was already a track I adored a lot, because of that great hook. Here Paw worked his magic best. Cause not only he used the sample in a different way, he actually made it work better for these pop dance ears. A hook that was linked to Depeche Mode is now forever linked to Infernal for me. Then, Lina opens her strut and is showing vocals and showering adlibs all over me. The hook and vocals create a symbiotic growth to a climax that is pure bliss. Not done yet, cause the video. THE VIDEO! If I wasn’t overtaken yet, the video would brainwash me in loving this. First, the absolute thirst I do not know I had during the middle-8. Paw’s abs and nipple did serious things to me. A true Blanche Deveraux-moment if there was one, right @berserkboi. But make no mistake miss Lina is serving face and poses like a true queen. This woman actually manages that if both her and my crush Paw are on the screen I am looking at her... For years I had an avatar (on a different forum) of her standing at the hand of the clock. The leg. THE LEG, in basically every shot is highkey iconic. Especially because she is standing so still while the hook is demanding to do the exact opposite. And let’s not forget the iconic leg-choreo at the 2:12-mark. Simple but very effective. I mean I am mirroring it every damn time listening to this track. In fact I am stretching my leg while standing as I am typing this. And yes, if this does not win... I WILL BE CRYING.

: - (​

 

'The One' is my least favourite of Medina's main songs, and should've gone a few songs ago.

'Taking Off' has so many euphoric Moments; the chorus is immense.

Love the early-90's feel of 'Hole In My Heart,' with that fabulous House piano. When the other band members start dancing in the background of the video, it cracks me up.

I never thought of Robyn when listening to 'Overflow' before, but hear it now it's been pointed out, which is probably why I like the song so much.

 

Oh jeez I am so sorry @Sprockrooster!

 

Now I agree nn

 

OK, no cuts today. Have a hygge time catching up on what has already transpired.

 

Tak! Everybody needs to process the loss of 'I Wont Be Crying.' This is a day of mourning.

 

can I 11 it

 

Also poor Ditte Marie - both her and S.O.A.P. queen Suriya in DMGP 2012 and then losing to some bland mediocrity (that reached the finals as their other bland mediocrities from 08-11)

I guess everyone noticed at this point that I'm not the biggest fan of Denmark in Eurovision!!!! (Hot Eyes though <3 legends)

 

Thank you so much!

I guess it is good that we've got rid of some of the Infernal songs from what originated as an Infernal Rate concept, but I can't help feeling like the wrong ones.

Redefinition and Velkommen til Medina are some of my favourite ever 'meta' songs, and both deserved top 10 spots for me.

Electric Lady Lab have also lost some absolute bops, maybe they are too dancey?

I can understand low scores for The One in English, I can't think of a bigger discrepancy between an original language and English version.

Anyway, Junior Senior out next please

 

Can you live with out (in the) next (batch)? If so I am happy to announce that I can oblige.

#15
MØ – “New Moon”
Average: 8.6
11: @BubblegumBoy

The Guardian:

MØ is in London to shoot a music video for the aptly titled New Moon. It’s the central banger on the album, which articulates the past two years spent taking back control of her life and work. “I was super burnt-out at the beginning of 2019,” the Danish singer says. “I was having panic attacks. My voice was broken. Everything was spinning.” Real name Karen Marie Ørsted, the musician had been a relentless pop presence since 2014. She first generated a buzz with her debut No Mythologies to Follow, building to a globe-shaking bang in 2015 with the Major Lazer and DJ Snake collaboration Lean On. It is one of Spotify’s most-streamed songs of all time, with more than 1.5bn listens. She has collaborated with Diplo, Charli XCX, Iggy Azalea and Bleachers. She toured the world multiple times – both headlining and supporting the likes of Sia and Years & Years – all while working on her second album, 2018’s Forever Neverland.

Yet she was left feeling empty. “I was riding on the success of those collaborations. I was chasing the stars,” she says. “I don’t regret the opportunity that a worldwide hit gave me, but I was so hard on myself. I loved a lot of the songs but it didn’t feel unified or what I ultimately wanted to present.” The shimmering dance-pop of Forever Neverland was a critical success, establishing her reputation as an individual rather than just a featured artist, but the protracted recording process didn’t feel satisfying.

“On the cover, I look distant,” the 33-year-old says. “I was frustrated by the lack of control. I was constantly moving, so I had no time to get deep into the songs or what I wanted to say.”

She took a break and returned to Copenhagen after the gruelling Forever Neverland tour aligned with the pandemic. Her mother likened her feelings of burnout to dødsdrom: the Danish word for the motorcycle stunt known as the “wall of death”, where drivers loop vertically and horizontally in a large mesh sphere. “That was my brain! I was terrified to stop and crash. I had to make time to reflect.”

Ørsted underwent vocal surgery at the beginning of 2020 – a daunting operation, especially for a musician with her distinct rasp. She had reached a point where “more was always better, my body was aching, and I had no boundaries – I had to work on forgiving myself.” In the months of recovery when she couldn’t sing, she dyed her hair a dark wine red, crocheted, and read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics, an elaborate fantasy narrative steeped in dark mysticism, about a spiritual being who personifies dreams and traverses hell and faerie worlds.

She worked alone, writing and playing piano at home. Goosebumps, a slow, vulnerable track about searching for an identity, was the album’s first song, written at a particularly low moment – “That was therapeutic. It brought me back to myself. I felt in the right gear again.” That precipitated a new outlook, with MØ shedding the squint-at-the-summer-sun bangers for a darker, more meditative sound. Not that the album is bereft of big tunes; far from it.

Slowly, she welcomed Scandinavian friends and collaborators for sessions: Sly, Noonie Bao, Caroline Ailin. “When it felt right, it was a joy to be surrounded by friends again and create together. I remembered why I love to collaborate. Especially with women, I felt that power of female unity,” she says.

Ørsted has been an avatar of modern Scandipop, an elastic sound of sweeping choruses and miraculous melodies with deeply emotional lyrics, which has stretched over the years from the original purveyors, the Knife and Robyn, to include newcomers Sigrid and Aurora. “I’m a bit stuck in time with Scandipop,” she says. “It has a grandness but a deeper sadness. I think there’s more of a searching mentality than a sound. I want to get better at understanding genres, because I want to define my own.”

She reached out to Coco O of electro group Quadron during lockdown. “For the longest time, I thought I was the only one having a complete meltdown about putting a vision out into the world,” Ørsted admits. “It was good for me to talk to someone else who had struggled. I want to be better, too, in the future, for other female industry colleagues – to reach out and connect.”

@DJHazey
It’s pretty good for a song that I feels like I’ve heard done better 1,000 times.

@BubblegumBoy
This deserved to be huge. I can picture someone like Miley owning this sort of material. Girl really knows her way around a hook

@daninternational
Pleasant but not got that special pop level she can hit

@berserkboi
Basic AF but nice beat!

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#14
Electric Lady Lab – “Open Doors”
Average: 8.625

@DJHazey
That dance section after “calling your name...” is crazy good; uplifting an otherwise ‘simply good’ dance song.

@unnameable
Gets top marks for use of “Crockett’s Theme”

@berserkboi
A bit more repetetive/less special than their others, and takes a while for that chorus to hit

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#13
Infernal – “Self Control”
Average: 8.6583
11: @berserkboi

Charts: DK #3; FI #6; UK #18

@DJHazey
The original is still unbothered forever. I’m finding that any super high score would be more of a toast to Laura Branigan than a credit to this cover.

@daninternational
Some songs are stone cold classics and should be left completely alone. Others are stone cold classics which should be covered as many times as possible to bring new chances to hear it

@berserkboi
I’ve been waiting for a rate to have this so I could 11 it my whole life! Ddd Also this is the film clip that made me fall in love with Paw

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#12
Junior Senior – “Move Your Feet”
Average: 8.6667

Charts: UK #3; DK #4; CH #10; FR #11; NL #18; AU #20; SE #22

Featuring the vocals of Private’s Thomas Troelsen in the refrain!

@DJHazey
That chorus certainly does what it sets out to accomplish. Also, this invented “vibing”.

@Sprockrooster
I forgot how hard this slapped. I wasn’t expecting to be actually moving my feet whilst rating this.

@unnameable
An instant classic when it came out

@daninternational
One of those overplayed (in UK) songs I couldn’t stand (see: Fascination)

@berserkboi
Bop de la bop de la bop!​

 

And let me toss this one in so that we are clear for the Top 10.

#11
Alphabeat – “Boyfriend” / Pete Hammond Remix
Average: 8.725

Charts: DK #11; UK #15

@DJHazey
That late 80’s teen pop/Hi-NRG throwback jam I needed.

@Sprockrooster
The only track from Alphabeat I actually come back to, because it is quite frankly a monument.

@daninternational
I mean, it’s fine, but there’s much cuter girls in this lineup

@berserkboi
Cute beat! / Modern Talking Greatness in the remix!​

 

Your Top 10:​

Alphabeat – “DJ”
Alphabeat – “The Spell”
Christine Milton – “Superstar”
Infernal – “From Paris To Berlin”
Infernal – “Ten Miles”
Medina – “Addiction”
Medina – “Forever” / “For altid”
Medina – “We Survive”
Medina – “You & I” / “Kun for mig”
MØ – “Live To Survive”​