Jesse Kaikuranta – Vie Mut Kotiin

I spent the first minute of this hoping that it kicked in.

Tom: An anonymous reader sends this in, from The Voice of Finland contender Jesse Kaikuranta, along with a translation of the lyrics that I’ll add below in the comments. Very thoughtful, but it’s for a reason: “I think Finnish is one of the world’s most beautiful languages,” they add, “especially in his mouth.”

I spent the first minute of this hoping that it kicked in…

Tom: …and it does, but never for long enough, never quite enough.

Tim: Seriously? I think it gets it exactly right.

Tom: It’s a slow tease of a song, too slow, and that left-channel woodwind in the middle-eight is distracting rather than fitting.

Tim: You really think? Because I think it’s just lovely. It’s not often that I’ll go straight back to the beginning of a track after a first hearing, and especially not with a slow song, but this is just, well, lovely.

Tom: But oh, that last chorus. We’ve complained before that a song can start so heavy that it has nowhere to go: well, this goes somewhere wonderful, just not quite for long enough.

Tim: I disagree. It starts weak, sure, bit then when the chorus hits you realise it’s meant to be like that, and that actually it works. It’s all wonderful.