The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to listen to and rank the 20 songs competing in Eesti Laul 2018. Next is Vajé with “Laura (Walk With Me)”. Did we want to take a walk with them? Read on to find out!
Vajé – “Laura (Walk With Me)”
“Laura (Walk With Me)” reviews
Angus: “Laura Walk With Me” takes you to Nashville then on to an international dance interlude in Ibiza. Avicii-lite, in all the right ways, Vajé brings some pop promise to this year’s competition. It soars musically and tingles with possibility. Performed live in an arena, with the crowd clapping along, this has so much potential.
Score: 7/10
Chris: “Laura” has one downfall: it sounds so familiar that you end up trying to place the song references on first listen. On repeat listens, though, it’s absolutely a grower. That guitar solo seriously needs trimming though, because that’s the kind of thing that would die on the Eurovision stage.
Score: 7/10
Deban: Yawnfest! Seemingly, Vaje’s strategy here is to put Laura in a coma. This three-minute pop effort is jam-packed with average vocals, a lazy guitar strum and boring interludes. It must be a remarkable achievement to craft repetitive pop music that isn’t memorable.
Score: 2.5/10
Luis: The Avicii reference here is inevitable. The song promises a lot, but it doesn’t quite deliver. The music sections are not strong enough, and its transitions seem a bit forced. There’s also a beat which sounds weird, as if it was coming in earlier than it should. Despite all these flaws, “Laura (Walk with me)” is a decent effort and it should make the Eesti Laul final.
Score: 6.5/10
Robyn: The title sounds like there’s Twin Peaks reference hiding in there (Laura Palmer vs Fire Walk With Me), but while the song has Americana sounds, there’s nothing sinister lurking here. “Laura (Walk With Me)” is a fairly standard piece of post-Avicii electro-folk-pop. It’s pleasant enough, but it’s very repetitive and there’s no emotional hook.
Score: 6/10
Steinunn: It’s a nice song, the singing is nice, everything is just nice. Having said that it doesn’t have much impact in me. It’s a comfortable radio song, but nothing more than that. It needs some oomph, some excitement. Instead, it’s just meh. Very middle of the road.
Score: 5/10
In our Eesti Laul Wiwi Jury, we have 15 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Antranig: 5/10
Barnabas: 8.5/10
Cinan: 4.5/10
Jonathan: 6/10
Josh: 6.5/10
Jovana: 8.5/10
Lukas: 6.5/10
Rick: 8.5/10
Sebastian: 7/10
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 2.5 and a high of 8.5.
it is definitely a radio hit and I support it because they are home town boys, but the live performance should be a lot stronger. it is basically the only song of the whole bunch I´d play at a party.
I definitely like it. His voice sounds great. I hope he can get his live vocal close to what he does here. I love the guitar, too. This is the type of mock-country music I can endure at Eurovision.
There are some good harmonic clash moments in this song, which suggest a hidden deep yearning for “Laura” rather than an established relationship. It does give the song an extra dimension that the arrangement does not pick up on. Instead, we get out-of-place guitar riffs and acoustic guitar strumming, almost suggesting a “drive-your-car” song. But the music suggests the writer has a lot of feeling for this woman, and perhaps can’t articulate it properly. Since that might be the point, it deserves high marks for artistic concept. A shame about the sleepiness/coldness though (although that too is in the lyrics).… Read more »
Not nice
I really like this one. Like the music and especially the chorus. I’m not sure if it can do well at Eurovision though.
7.5/10
Horrendous. Lucifer Remmel should sue for using her name on this.
I like it. Sounds current and will apparently put detractors to sleep so that those who enjoy it can do so without bickering. A solid effort and should progress to final.
A 7/10,