The underrated Estonian pop icon Kerli has finally returned to the pop music scene with her new single “Feral Hearts”. This is her first solo release since her last EP, Utopia, in 2013 and marks the beginning of her second album, follow-up to her 2008 debut album Love Is Dead. Yes, you heard right: Kerli hasn't released an album in eight years, pretty much longer than everyone but Gwen Stefani and Fergie, but at least they released albums with their bands No Doubt and The Black Eyed Peas respectively as a form of compensation. Nevertheless, with this single, I'm sure the rest of the album will be worth the wait. Kerli has persevered through much label troubles with Island Records and Island Def Jam, who, despite giving Kerli reasonable video funding, have failed to give Kerli the promo that on-the-verge artists truly need and have increasingly put a limit to her artistic creativity and innovation as time progressed, particularly with her EP. Kerli then joined Ultra Records for a brief while, although she didn't release any music herself during that time, she merely took part in some features with other collaborators. Subsequently, Kerli went her own way as an independent artist and now she has complete artistic freedom, and this is definitely evident in her comeback single “Feral Hearts”. Kerli made this song with the help of producer Lester Mendez, who produced Kerli’s “Hurt Me” and most successful and arguably best song “Walking on Air” as well as his most successful and known song, Shakira’s “Underneath Your Clothes”. Thus, “Feral Hearts” mixes the elements of “old Kerli” (the Love Is Dead era) in terms of the darkness and emotion with the elements of “new Kerli” (the Utopia era) in terms of electronic elements. The song starts with somber strings and piano notes and Kerli’s soft, slightly-accented beautiful voice. Kerli sings in a low pitch in the pre-chorus, which transitions to a powerful and uplifting chorus in which Kerli sings about freedom and revival, perhaps influenced by her label situation. Her heart is full of love and emotion and creativity, enough to make this song. Kerli recently expressed her position on the Kesha court ruling against producer Dr. Luke and its unfairness and unjustness in figuratively imprisoning Kesha to a single problematic producer, which goes hand in hand with this song’s message about freedom. My favorite part of the song is the explosive after-chorus, in which Kerli sings “ahh” in her head voice, so simple yet so effective. The song is so mystical and cosmic a dark electronic-influenced soulful song, which also features real instruments. The birth of this song is thanks to Kerli’s newfound inspiration: Kerli left Los Angeles for solitude in “this magical land’s [Estonia’s] inspiration by practicing an extremely simple lifestyle by myself in a little forest temple, having not much else with me than my music making tools.” Hence, Kerli has delivered her most authentic and organic work to date, in terms of both sound and visuals. The music video, which is to be released soon, looks stellar and really implements the beauty of the nature of Kerli's native Estonia. It seems to be on the level of the music videos of “Walking on Air” and “Zero Gravity”, which are hard to beat. Kerli definitely puts the music and visuals first, and that's why her material is excellent, from her debut album Love is Dead to comeback single “Feral Hearts”, a great sign of what's to come later this year.