Kristiina Wheeler – Rikki

“Starts out a lot darker.”

Tim: You may remember Muukalainen, Kristiina’s previous track that we reviewed. If you don’t, go and have another listen, because it’s lovely, and this one’s not going anywhere. Nor, in fact, is it remotely similar to that one, but never mind.

Tom: Blimey, that starts out a lot darker, doesn’t it? What’s it about?

Tim: ‘Rikki’ means broken; as for the other words, I started typing them into Google Translate but soon got incredibly bored, so I can’t really claim to know what’s going on here, though the tone suggests a relationship’s somewhat on the rocks.

Tom: Top quality music journalism right here.

Tim: Alright, fine – you type them in, then, and see how far you get before the continuous pausing to check and annoyance that the results don’t make much sense wear you down. Now, if we could get back to the song, rather than cruel, unnecessary and unfair digs at me, it’s very different in style, at least to start with, which was slightly jarring – previously we’d had mellow guitars building into upbeat almost Eurotrance, and to be presented with rather melancholy bass and drumbeats was less than what I was hoping for.

Tom: I didn’t go in with that hope — not after those first few bars — so it works rather well for me.

Tim: Nonetheless, it does the same good job of towards the ending of building up to something approximating a bit of a raver – there’s a tinge of optimism in the choruses, and by the end it’s really picked up very well. I like this. Not as much as the first one, but if we kept judging songs by previous standards I’d never have had time for any Jedward song since they did Ghostbusters.

Tim: Hmm.