Siiri Nordin: Me Too

Me Too, screams the album title, and you can just hear Nordin screaming out along with all the other pretty girls with pretty voices for a release all her own. At least her smoky voice is well married to these jazzy pop songs, with their straight, acoustic, rootsy guitars and less melody than syncopation driving the compositions along. It’s nothing earth-shattering. But the first song, “Supersoaker”, is inexplicably six and a half minutes long — here’s something. Nordin must have ambitions above simple beauty, right, if she’s putting out songs with such heft? Unfortunately, it’s more a case of wandering repetition of a simple guitar line, without the improvisation of true jazz to sustain interest. “Black and White” incorporates tinkling shards of electronica, but they’re not a high priority — in the songs or for the listener. Nordin has an interesting history, the singer of very successful Finnish pop band Killer; but her debut is remarkably understated. It’s pretty and all; the only problem is, given the choice between Nordin’s easy prettiness and some more musically interesting offering from someone like Hanne Hukkelberg, there’s no comparison.