The Coco’nuts — “In and Out of the Dark”
Trip hop is an interesting choice for a Eurovision national selection, given that the slow, sludgy nature of the instrumentation risks being drowned out and overtaken by the bangers. The Coco’nuts attempt to combat this by building to a lengthy guitar solo in the final minute. It’s a pretty long wait though, with very little to keep us busy in the meantime except the lyrics, which I don’t think are enough. This might be a pleasant song for a chilled-out lounge or dive bar, but I think it will fade away into the background otherwise.

Zelma — “How”
For a moment, I thought there were two trip hop songs in this line-up, but this is more a case of minimalist pop-rock, even though this track also gives us a huge guitar solo that lasts for over a minute. The choice to have Zelma’s vocal accompany this solo for its final stages is a good one, but I don’t see how they’re going to replicate the fade out on stage. As I’ve said in earlier reviews, slow burn songs are at a disadvantage in these selections: they’re inevitably compared to tracks from other genres where there’s a more sustained pay off for less effort.

Miks Galvanovskis — “I’m Just A Sinner”
This is the song that won the “pre-contest” contest for a wildcard to Supernova. I decided not to cover this given that the schedule is incredibly busy this year (I won’t be covering Slovenia’s EMA Fres for the same reason). I guess the voters decided that the selection needed a straight-up rock song, and that’s what they’ve got. Galvanovskis’s growl of a voice takes us through lyrics perhaps inspired by hard-drinking desert rock from the US. It has similar vibes to “Outlaw in ‘Em” by Waylon, The Netherlands’ entry to the 2018 contest, if that’s your thing. From my perspective, it’s trying too hard to meet the criteria of its genre.