Here we are at the 31st and last match of Europop 2008 – Switzerland v Italy. As ever, track details and analyses can be found below the cut!
How to vote: Just pick the track you like best. Please don’t download if you’re not intending to vote! This match will end at noon on TUESDAY 1st JULY.
Switzerland v Italy: Which track do you prefer? [ballot]
- Switzerland: CAMP 55%
- Italy: Giorgia 45%
Total Voters: 44
Poll closes: 1 Jul 2008 @ 12:30
Loading ...SWITZERLAND: CAMP – “From Extremely Far Away”
The manager says: ““Plucky underdogs or pop titans? I think a fair few people are surprised to see Switzerland make it to the final, and we definitely waltz in as underdogs against the Italian pop titans. And the Swiss squad limbering up for the final is fit, keen and raring to go. BUT, do they have it in them for this final gasp? The scouts have spent a lot of time scouring the Swiss charts: spending a considerable amount of time at Wankdorf records. And so to the final decisions. Left on the bench are the arresting Electric Blanket with I Never Ate That Bird, Tim And Puma Mimi (worried about the Japanese influence) and the Swiss Hadouken: Must Have Been Tokyo. Just missing the cut were a couple of terrific tracks by the Round Table Knights: mainly a Rock Around The Clock mash-up worrying the selectors about its provenance). And Valeska’s Cool As Berlin got passed over because Berlin is not in Switzerland and thus not very patriotic.
In the end as manager I had to stick with a keen squad player who had been threatening to break through for the whole league, but I never quite had the courage to risk them. But Sven made a mistake not throwing the young Theo Walcott up front: so here is my version in the untested form of CAMP. A robust defence is evident but admittedly this is tactical programming, and I am not sure where the goals will come from. Actually I know exactly where they are coming from .The are coming From Extremely Far Away. Lets see if the Swiss excel with the long ball game, and if I win, I promise you a Poptimism Podcast of all the tracks mentioned above.”
Our analyst says: In his refreshingly candid pre-match conference the Swiss manager isolated the problem with this formation – it has pace and energy, certainly you couldn’t accuse them of negative tactics, but there’s an awful lot of emphasis on getting balls to a frontman who may not be up to the task.
ITALY: Giorgia – “Spirito Libero”
The manager says: “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my young lads and ladies to get this far, we’ve had a lot thrown at us, we were only a couple of Romanian votes away from another ignominious group exit, but we managed to throw even more back out there and I’m proud of every single one of them. I think the Swiss have also done fantatstically well to get here, I’ve got the utmost respect to them as another team full of attacking flair and they’ve been a credit to this tournament. A victory either way wouldn’t be an unjust result, and my squad may never experience another night like this, so I told them ‘just go out there and enjoy it’. We hope you do too.”
Our analyst says: Italy have certainly put together a side who can play prettily here, but I wonder if their more languid approach might tell against them – they’ll be looking to dictate the tempo of the game, but too many flicks and tricks and the fast-moving Swiss will be able to counter. Some lovely attacking interplay – do they have the end product?
Coming Next…: That’s it! At the weekend look out for a Muxtape of the best tracks. At next week’s Poptimism dance to a “best of Europop 2008” set. And keep your eyes and ears open for news of the 2010 Pop World Cup, preparations for which may already be well underway….
Unfortunately Matt is away at Glastonbury, so the trash talking will be kept to a minimum.
This feels like a classic cup final, oodles of expectation but both teams a bit tired, not quite playing the best of the tournament. Both very cagey picks too, I am flattered that the Italians appear to be trying to dodge the notorious Swiss energy.
I think this will be closer than I thought it might be (bearing in mind I thought the Italians would house me out of the stadium).
Switzerland: I quite like the solid beat, “dance-oriented punk rock,” you might call it, Buzzcocks with muscle, recalling that rock was once a music that people danced to. Weakest aspect is that the keyb (or whatever) that provides melodic atmosphere gets in the way of the rhythmic bite. Ambivalent about the vocalist. Half-rueful voice makes one think of current, feckless Brit indie, but this fellow does have fire, albeit held in reserve, so has a hint of Kinks-Buzzcocks teeth to him. Not that he’s nearly as good as prime Davies-Shelley-Devoto.
Italy: Right on the border between funk and disco and black pop, but the delivery is very Italian, hard shiny syllables but w/ gospel roughness. So the style and singing are excellent and this builds to a strong finish as sparklers sparkle and bombs explode; rhythm is adequate but surprisingly not up to the pushy rock of the Swiss, and the melody itself never rises above generic, even if the genre is an interesting mixture.
From the looks of this match, reading the program, I’d have expected the Italians to romp, but as the actual contest gets underway, it seems very close.
Swiss vocalist sounds a LOT like the chap from the Maccabees. I quite like the tune!
I prefer the Swiss song, but I am slightly concerned that the Swiss manager might have “bribed” the officials by offering a mixtape of those players that missed out. That’s providing an incentive right there, and I’m sure that must be against the Poptimist rules? Might the Italians suffer from a spot of match-fixing that they themselves would have been proud of?
I don’t think anyone feels like they are being bribed by the ones that got away. Here have one for free:
Electric Blanket’s – I Never Ate That Bird (They aren’t much to look at…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viffcm-sE2s
Well, CAMP certainly cheered me up after a depressing wade through the Camp Rock OST.
But Italy has the edge for me, and would be worthy winners of the tournament based on their performances in the knock out stage.
Yes, I am finding it harder and harder to think good thoughts about the Jonas Brothers. However, the Lovato kid has talent, if she can find people who won’t waste it for her. Bad news: “She is currently in Puerto Rico filming a new Disney Channel Original Movie titled Princess Protection Program with Selena Gomez and recording her debut CD in Miami, Florida. The Jonas Brothers have helped her to write 11 songs for the album.”
But no matter, this match is ace, and I still haven’t decided how to vote. The Swiss start strong and never stop, but are perplexed by Italians who run in gleeful circles for two and a half minutes and then switch into overdrive and become relentless.
hurray for switzerland! it’s like the return of elkland
I voted for Switzerland, finally, ’cause I think more people will vote for Italy. (Of course, I voted for Italy over Greece in the quarters because I thought more people would vote for Greece.)
I don’t like the Italy track. I am going to call it slightly jazz, because that is my new phrase for things I irrationally dislike and also there’s something about the vocal stylings that reminds me of kind of overblown house track singing but without actually being an overblown house track (even in the admitedly-much-better last blowout bit) which is the only way to get away with that kind of thing, in my book.
So I voted for the Swiss. Even though they do sound a bit like one of those things that appears midway through a Guitar Hero game that no one’s ever heard of or cares about but has a fiendishly difficult chorus or something.
What the hell, 41 voters?! That’s double the amount of most ties here, certainly the crowd are out in numbers.
An online soccer management game forum linked to it! But we couldn’t work out which thread. From the voting patterns they clearly were from either Switzerland or Italy, though whether that makes a difference I’m not at liberty to say.
You have until noon tomorrow to vote in this, by the way!
Now Matt is back can I official trash his track? I mean it fizzes nicely in place, but it lacks DRIVE. If we compare this final to the one that took place on the football field last night, its more than clear who is playing like Spain.
It’s a game of 90 minutes, which happens to be exactly how long you have to vote in this final.
i looove this song!! it definitly stands out!! i LOVE JB!!