Today we were given the exclusive first listen of the new single from Elin Lanto, ‘Tickles’. As you’ll know by now, Elin has started to merge rock into her normally quite club friendly style of music. So whilst ‘Discotheque’ was very….well, discotheque, her next single ‘Love Made Me Stupid’ was a song that had all the attitude of rock music but maintained all the cool of electro music. Most recent single, ‘Doctor Doctor’ followed suit. ‘Tickles’ on the other hand, steps up the rock gear, and actually drops the electro Elin of the past. Instead, it picks up a different sort of synth, a more pop orientated synth.
As a result, ‘Tickles’ is a complete and thorough pop tune, with all of the elements you’d want in a great pop song. The chorus is massive, and takes you by complete surprise when it starts off. It’s also insanely catchy, and gets stuck in your head really easily – helped by the fact that the melody is copied in synth form througout other parts of the song. Also helping the chorus to become so memorable is the simple lyric that’s repeated througout it; ”it tickles when I think about it”! We’ll leave you to make up your own mind about that means, but we have a fair idea!
The verses reminded us straight away of ‘Screwed’ by Paris Hilton, a criminally underrated gem of a pop song that was only given album track status on her debut album back in 2006. The chorus however, is so much bigger, and is more comparable to something that Max Martin or Dr Luke would write for Kelly Clarkson, P!nk, or The Veronicas. Or indeed what Dr Luke wrote for Paris Hilton, when he gave her ‘Nothing In This World’. All in all though, it’s a tremendously enjoyable piece of pop. Not at all what we were expecting from Elin, and probably not what you were expecting from her either. But a very pleasant surprise.
