We may be a few weeks late on this one, admittedly…
[Video][Website]
[7.00]
Alfred Soto: Oh dear: Robyn clones already.
[4]
Jer Fairall: An effervescent melodic whirl, reminding me blissfully of referents as dated or exotic as Roxette, Scarlet, Stretch Princess, Lights, Belinda Carlisle, The Bangles, Emm Gryner and Nina Gordon. What it reminds me nothing at all of is the hard, cynical edge of what qualifies as pop in our current Britney/Ke$ha state, against which I suspect this will have to function as my salve for quite a while yet.
[9]
Martin Skidmore: Pleasant Swedish Idol-derived pop by a woman who is also a model. Its dancey electro backing has some energy, and she sings it well enough, though she gets very thin on the high notes. The “I want a perfect moment” stuff does sound like the worst kind of uplifting nonsense those TV shows love so much, but this isn’t bad.
[6]
Ian Mathers: I usually watch the video first, then listen to the song while I write my blurb, and in this case I happened to watch this version of “White Light Moment.” I thought it was a perfectly fine ballad, a little more muscle in the chorus than most (and some fine “aww, Swedish people are adorable” lyrics) but not too distinguished otherwise – and I think that reaction actually helped endear the studio version of the song to me. I still like the piano-y live version just fine, but that burbling digital spurt galloping through the chorus really picks the song up by the scruff of its neck. I hadn’t managed to contribute to the Jukebox for a little while until our Nate Dogg week, and this is the kind of unexpected, joyful collision (“White Light Moment” doesn’t sound like a rave remix of a ballad so much as the mutant offspring of the two) I really missed discovering.
[9]
Jonathan Bogart: Is it just the grass-is-always-greener effect that makes Swedish woolly-headed ambition and emotionalism more immediately appealing than the homegrown variety? Or is it because she and her producers hold back more than the American version of this kind of pop would? Either way, she’s very nearly got me singing along, and if a White Light Moment doesn’t mean anything in particular, that means we can each of us make up our own meanings, and love the song more for it.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: For a song like this, score pretty much has to correlate to excitement, no? [10] = ZOMG MOMENT MY RETINAE ARE GOING SUPERNOVA; [0] = well, um, I guess this is OK, kinda. So on this scale, the music gets a [10], being the exact sort of kinetic joy Robyn wouldn’t let loose in “Hang With Me.” Lyrics, who gives a damn. Vocals, [5] — you can’t really want to start fires and watch stars explode if you’re just gonna mumble away at the bottom of the scale, backing vocals on the bridge excepted. Time to average…
[7]