Vremya i Steklo – Troll

Introduction

For the 7^th straight week, Элджей ft. Feduk – Розовое Вино is number 1 according to Tophit.ru. This week we have a new number 2 song though and that song is Тролль by Время и Стекло! Макс Барских has been moved down to number 3 for last week after spending 6 weeks at number 2 on that chart, which is very impressive!

Vremya I Steklo is made up of 2 people: Aleksey Zavgorodniy and Nadya Dorofeeva who are both from Ukraine. They started working with Potap in 2010 when he founded Mozgi Entertainment. I learned of Potap, who is a Ukrainian rapper, through this song back in 2008 or 2009. In fact, I think you can see Zavgorodniy in that video during the breakdown bit. In any case, Vremya I Steklo has been active since about 2010 with their first single, Так выпала карта and they’ve enjoyed critical success since 2011 when they won the Golden Gramophone award in Ukraine for the song Серебраное море. Just this year in May, they won the RU.TV Award for best song for their song Навернопотомучто, which I happen to like a lot too.

Most of their music is fun, especially their recent stuff since about 2015. It’s upbeat and fun to listen to. Plus, they seem to enjoy some word-play in their lyrics which also makes it fun. Troll is no exception. Let’s go on to the review!

Things I liked about the song and music video

I really enjoyed this song and the music video. To start, I will talk about the music itself, which I think is a cool departure from a lot of pop music. To me, it seems very sparse and there isn’t that much going on so you can focus on the voices of the singers. It’s mostly dominated by drums and bass which, as a bass player, I can always get behind.

One other thing I enjoyed about the music itself is the synthesizer sound they have during the pre-chorus and chorus. It has a cool kind of 80’s tinge to it like the synthesizer in the original Bladerunner soundtrack. Also, they have some good samples. For example, the sample during the second verse at the end of the lines where Nadya is saying “быт с тобой” is a cool guitar riff (at around 1:15 in the video). It’s kind of subtle but I like that. It fills the pause and feels a bit like a call and response.

On to the video! I like the fact that this video is kind of goofy but artsy at the same time. It doesn’t take itself very seriously and I love that. A lot of Vremya I Steklo’s newer videos have been kind of like this. I also really liked the video for Имя 505 which is similarly artsy but also silly at the same time. It’s creative and fun. These are two things I can definitely support.

One kind of funny moment I liked toward the beginning of the video was when Nadya spanks and then caresses the lobster. The dancing throughout the video is silly but you can tell the dancers are all professional and they seem to be having fun. During the breakdown, Aleksey pulls out his banana phone and I love that too!

Lastly, I enjoyed the story of the song. It seems kind of like the woman feels a bit misled by the man she met at the club and maybe disappointed by his appearance. She says she’ll never be with him but then he apparently drives a Mercedes, so she seems to reconsider. Based on the whole “troll” element in the lyrics I feel like maybe this song is making fun of that but I could be totally off base.

Things I didn’t like about the song and music video

To be honest, I really like this song and I really like this group. One thing I think that is rather problematic in the music video that I didn’t really think about until I watched it a few times was there is a scene in it at around 1:02 where one of the male backup dancers is groping one of the female backup dancers. It’s hard to tell whether she thinks it is the guy directly behind her or the guy behind him but she seems to like it. Heck, I am looking for something to dislike about this music video and that’s the best I can do.

The other thing that was a little frustrating is that, since this is a pretty new song, the lyrics that are out on most sites don’t actually match the song especially in the breakdown part. I’m not sure why. Anyway, I found this link, which shows the actual lyrics for the breakdown, which was great.

Words I learned

Since the lyrics to this song weren’t completely accurate at my usual site, I also used this one to help me find the words. Here are a few of the words that I learned from this song:

Тряпка – milk toast, wuss, wimp, pushover

“Ты оказался тряпкой, я жалею что хотела” – is the second line of the song. We might be able to translate it as: “You turned out to be a wimp. I feel bad for wanting (you)”. Harsh!

Язык тела – body language

This was a little confusing but I was able to figure it out as it’s basically a translation of the concept in English. It’s in the second verse: “У тебя не все в порядке с языком твоего тела.” This could be translated as “Something is wrong with your body language”.

Погнали – Come on! – Go on! – Move on! (and other similar possibilities)

This is in the breakdown, which I had to find separately from the other lyrics. The line it appears in goes like this: “Всё по местам расставить. Погнали!” Maybe you could translate this as “All is in place. Let’s go!”

I hope you enjoyed the song too. If you learned any new words or want to share with me what you liked, please comment!