With Group B still posed on a knife-edge, can Austria and Poland find a way to break the deadlock?
How to vote: Just tick the track you like best! This poll ends at lunchtime on May 1st.
Austria v Poland: Which track do you prefer? [ballot]
- Poland: Blog 27 79%
- Austria: Product.01 21%
Total Voters: 19
Poll closes: 1 May 2008 @ 12:00
Loading ...AUSTRIA: Product.01 – “Heart Ov Glass.”
The manager says: “Many players in this team enjoy duel eligibility with Austria and other nations so it’s always a delight to find such talent committed to a host nation with something to prove to the pop world. Product .01 are just one of the bright talents bringing a degree of technique to the squad that gives us a real chance. Now witness a classic style of play people have always loved but infused with modern twists and tricks. For a few years now I’ve watched fans from all over react with pleasant surprise and intrigue to what these kids can produce and I hope for a similar reaction tonight.”
Our analyst says: Can modern players adapt to vintage tactics? This Austrian squad have plenty of muscle but do they possess the lightness of touch needed for the 70s-style “total pop” they’re aiming for?
POLAND: Blog 27 – “I Still Don’t Know Ya”
The manager says: “We are Poland. We see your feeble offside decisions. We reply: “Oh uh-uh oh uh-oh (uh huh, uh huh)”. We do not care how you like us now. We are Poland.”
Our analyst says: Every pop tournament sees a young striker emerge and take the game by storm – in the Pop World Cup it was Brazil’s first-round side, but could this be Poland’s moment? Their fresh-faced attackers have pace and control, and a midfield who look able to spot the killer pass at just the right moment. You can’t fault their skills, but will they have the stamina to last the 90 minutes?
Coming next…: Two powerful pop forces. Two disappointing opening matches. Holland and France will see this as a crunch game. Holland need the points badly after their ageing backline was exposed by an ordinary Italy side in their opening game. France fought Romania to a draw, but more was and is expected of them this time. Both managers have promised younger squads so this could be an intriguing, high-stakes clash.
Wait, there is a band called BLOG 27?!
An enjoyable contest, I thought.
In the end the Austrians came out losers for me. They were working with some classic material of course, and the backing was solid. Unfortunately it just didn’t all come together on the day. Too much individual flair, not enough team effort perhaps. And it went on a bit.
The Austria track would probably have seen off most opponents, but was completely taken apart by Poland. The first couple of bars were suggesting ‘glam stomper’ to me, and the laid back pop that followed took me by surprise. I particularly liked the way they counted in the choruses.And the rap. Maybe it’s the fact that I can see some glorious sun outside my window, but that chorus has got me *right there*. Excellent.
Curse you Idolator!
That is to say, after seeing the Blog 27 video linked on there last week I had a feeling I would be facing off against it in this match. Talk about yer freebies!
This in turn explains my choice – I will live or die by the song’s reworked familiarity. I think we’ve got the power but will it be enough? Audacious tribute vs generic honesty: FITE
Are you suggesting the Polish manager doesn’t pick his own team? Mind games at its most cynical!
Team details, team talks etc. now added.
FIPA would like to apologise for this late delivery of the matchday program, caused by a slow-moving herd of cows in an Alpine tunnel.
This ain’t their new single. This is from back when they were a duo, think it was summat like the third or fourth single off their first album.
I did consider their (or rather, her) new one, though. And then I heard it…
I think the Austrian coach is openly courting controversy here, given the furore over well-known team selection in other games. This is the first track I’d been familiar with before the start of the tournament and I was about to give the manager a rousing chorus of “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing” for the source material being TOO BLEEDING OBVIOUS BY HALF, but then I listened again and remembered how much I liked the track. So I’ll let him off.
Thankfully the performance of the Poland team makes that an irrelevance. Suddenly, France and Swededen shirts are being cast unloved into corners from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. “Poland! Poland!” the kids shout. Polish Europop 2008 Panini stickers have mysteriously becoming much harder to come by. The clamour is justified – this is a tremendous pop track from beginning to end. Comfortable win for Poland.
Austria may have played the game of the tournament, but that was last time, and they only got a draw for it. “Heart Of Glass” is a pretty song and I don’t mind hearing it again; the bass electronics are a combination of constructive and obstructive, which can work if it successfully moves you forward even while bashing you against the scenery, and I think the Austrians do this, but unfortunately for them…
THE GIRLS ARE HERE AND WE THE SWINGFLIES! Except not on this song, where, strangely, our live-wire teen Polish Eurobrats go relatively pensive. The result is nicely fetching actually, but they’re vastly more exciting being scamps and beating Teddybears STHLM at their own game. Please people click the link. Boom chicka-boom chicka-boom ch-boom-boom. (However, “I Still Don’t Know Ya” floats sweetly enough to get a solid vote from me.)
perhaps my voting for poland was a bad idea, i may have shot croatian hopes in the foot, it’s all going to get a bit tactical from here on in…
I have just spent a few minutes trying to work out how I should be voting tactically and I can’t work out which side winning would benefit me? it is v confusing. disappointingly I shall have to vote on the music, and…I’m not too keen on either! I knew the Product 01 track already, it’s years old, and my opinion is unchanged: totally unnecessary and clumsy futzing around with something which doesn’t need it. the Blog 27 track is just basic cutesy indiepop isn’t it? nothing special about it in the slightest. this sort of thing can be really good depending on the lyrics but this isn’t funny or rude or anything. cutesy is not enough. might go for AUT by default as the song itself is still great, even with the austrians doing their best to sabotage it.
One more day to vote in this tie – voting has been a little low on this one so get ’em in!
Oh dear.
Vienna roll-over.
Not the Poland we expected to play before the game so credit to them. I maintain we played well but today there was nothing we could do against a strikeforce particularly potent this time round and a disappointingly depleted and partizan crowd.
Lex is probably the first person in recorded history to refer to Blog 27 as “indie.” (Lex, in Poland Blog 27 might as well be Paris Hilton in the sense that anyone and everyone feels the right to villify Blog 27 as freely and meanly as possible.) But I kind of get what he means, in that this was the Bloggies being “sensitive” and guitary, probably in preparation for their tour with Tokio Hotel. But the voices aren’t indie, simply young. Click the link in my post upthread to experience them in full scamper.
(Btw, where have all the voters gone?)
I have been slack about cross-promoting on LJ recently – it’s also possible some people didn’t like either track enough to vote for it. The usual voting range seems to be 20-24, so this is one under that.