EP Review: Someday – Maini Sorri by Piers Ford 30 September

Someday: deceptively simple lyrics combine with melancholic undertones to generate an ABBA-esque frisson

Not everyone can take a quirky little ditty and make it credible. It takes sincerity, a deal of musical sensibility and a belief in the ultimate message of a song that is probably greater than the sum of its parts. Maini Sorri seems to have the ability in spades. How about this for a couplet?

“Truth is you were selfish and a phoney.

I shouldn’t have trusted you and your baloney.”

It’s one of my favourite snippets from her new EP Someday, a small collection of five songs that frequently reveal a melancholy undercurrent beneath their whimsical lyrics and well-crafted melodies. Does that sound reminiscent of a certain other Scandinavian outfit? I’m not suggesting that there are huge similarities between Sorri’s work and the nuances of Benny and Bjorn’s finest numbers. But in the deceptive simplicity of lyrics that can sound banal, even childlike, at the first hearing before they work their way under your skin, and the layered arrangements, guitar-driven and piano-based, with their minor accents, it’s impossible not to detect a hint of ABBA’s mastery of the accessible pop tune with the dark back story.  And it’s no surprise that she cites Agnetha Faltskog as one of her main singing influences.

Sorri is a Finn who lives mainly in Sweden and is gifted with a pure, crystalline voice that easily covers the ground between pop and the more mainstream reaches of modern folk. Her accent – more shades of that ABBA-like appeal – gives these songs an air of innocence, a lack of guile, that surely belies her all-round musical strengths. She knows exactly what she’s doing and the sound she wants to achieve, and the result is a modest little box of jewels, from the catchy, twinkling intro of the title track (don’t be fooled, it soon gets elemental and philosophical, and has its eye on the great hereafter) to the gently contemptuous “I Shouldn’t Have Trusted You” (source of the baloney reference) and the sadly defiant “I Am Leaving”, which is also offered in Finnish as “Lahden Yksin”.

My first thought on playing “Someday” was that it has a certain Eurovision quality – in a good way. I don’t know if Sorri has tried her luck yet in the Finnish or Swedish selection processes for the contest, but reading her thoughtful and intelligent blog posts on the subject, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has ambitions in that direction. With a growing following – not just in Europe but also in the US and Canada – this could be a prime time for her to make that particular move.

Piers Ford

“The Art Of a Torch Singer”

“SOMEDAY”,  by MAINI SORRI, on Reya Music, Review in County Times

Released next Monday, this EP has five songs by Scandinavian singer songwriter and composer Maini Sorri, who has been making a name for herself right across Europe and beyond.

With a Finnish background, Sorri has lived for most of her life in Sweden, but has also worked with an American songwriter and an Italian artist on various projects. These have  included the Sorriso band, which released an EP last January.

The new EP opens with a springy “Someday”, which is also to be released individually as a single. It’s followed by the more interesting “I Am Leaving”, and the sweet Euro sound of “I Shouldn’t Have Trusted You” with some amuzing phrases and rhymes. “Like An Angel” sounds a little rushed but is still fine before the final song in Finnish “Lahden yksin” and your guess as to what  it’s about is as good as mine. Still the band works hard and the set is well produced to introduce Sorri for British music fans.