WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

OUT: now

Lithuania have never finished better than 6th at Eurovision but are 1 of the joint favourites this year after this fine song dropped recently.

• Read on for reasons including how this sounds like Mika fronting Franz Ferdinand

Band The Roop won the ticket to represent Lithuania in 2020’s Eurovision-that-never-was although we weren’t fond of their entry On Fire which we described by saying: ‘We always chuckle at a ‘higher, fire, desire’ rhyming lyric because it seems the height of laziness and we’re struggling to see why this was so well fancied by the bookmakers. The vocal has an outsider quality and the music is interesting but it’s not an entry we’d find easy to love.’

Band members Vaidotas Valiukevičius, Robertas Baranauskas, and Mantas Banišauskas are pre-qualified to the 6/2/21 final of Lithuanian selection Pabandom iš Naujo 2021 (Let’s Try Again) with the vastly superior Discotheque (watch below).

We think lead singer Valiukevičius sounds a little like Mika and there’s an agreeable indie sensibility about the band with the much-underrated Franz Ferdinand springing to mind in terms of a sonic counterpart.

The ‘Dance alone’ refrain of Discoteque will strike a lockdown chord and, while the song is more of a groove than a traditionally structured song, its simplicity means it has an advantage of seeming longer than its 3 minutes yet packing a real left field pop punch.

The band has history and has already released 2 albums and the video displays a Tik Tok influence while its formation dancing reminds of last year’s big Eurovision winner-that-never-was Daði Freyr.

We’re especially enjoying the uptempo ‘running man’ sections of the video above with the band and several extras waving their arms frenetically in the air.

The Roop’s victory to win the Lithuanian ticket is still not guaranteed but the band is so assured and this entry so much poppier and more impressive than their previous effort that we suspect if they do make it to Rotterdam they might do considerably better than the previous Lithuanian high of 6th by LT United’s with We Are The Winners in 2006.

• Picture via Facebook courtesy The Roop Tickets
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