Ana — “Youngster”
For a few seconds, I thought we were going to head down a new-age route with all the humming and vocalising, and the prospect of something different was exciting. But then Ana’s girlish voice came in and it was clear we were about to head back to familiar synth pop territory. I’m afraid I don’t find anything exciting about this — there’s minimal variation musically and Ana doesn’t do much with her vocals besides playing up her girlish voice, which I think backfires given some of the risque elements in the lyrics.

Andra Oproiu — “Younique”
In contrast, we have a hot mess. Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but while I think there’s a decent song underneath all this, you have to do a fair bit of renovating to get there. Firstly, the title should just be “Unique”, no ‘cute’ spelling. Next, the lyrics are clunky at times, and simplistic at others: need to be rewritten. Musically I think the backing track is catchy except for the vaguely dubstep drop to match the lyrics “dance to the beat of your heart / feel like nothing can keep us apart”, which really needs to be less abrasive. So it’s not back to square one, but maybe square two?