If you are interested to see what Estonian pop music has to offer, look no further. As a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur and label head at the Mortimer Snerd Records, Vaiko Eplik has reached sort of a demigod status in the local scene. Garnishing his 7th solo LP is the lead single “Mõtetes Mõrudais” (“In Bitter Thoughts”), a track tagged as Rapla soul.

Broken down, Rapla marks the small-town where the album was recorded – and where Vaiko was born. Soul references the style he was pursuing. While soul isn’t a genre that has traditional roots in Estonian culture, Vaiko wanted to find an organic angle to approach it.

He explains: “When I was composing Mõteteis Mõrudais I asked myself, how would’ve Michael Jackson sung it if he were from Rapla? And how would’ve Whitney Houston performed it if she’d been born an Estonian man? These kind of mind games are a way to motivate oneself; a way to get the maximum out of yourself and put it in the track.”

It’s a pity there are only a few million native Estonian speakers in the world who are able to understand the lyrics, although it seems that the yearning for the highest beauty shimmers through the language barriers.