Jimmy Eat World gained my attention when I read a review on their latest album in a Finnish rock magazine Soundi several years ago. According to the review, Jimmy Eat World is like Weezer but even more geeky. The comparison to Weezer and the geekiness fascinated me, although I still don’t know what that geekiness actually means. Jimmy Eat World didn’t turn out to be particularly geeky kind of rock music, so it might refer to the band’s hobbies or something..
I listened to a couple of Jimmy Eat World songs from their 2001 album Bleed American (that was re-released as Jimmy Eat World due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks) in 2004 or 2005 but for some reason I didn’t listen to the entire album then. That sometimes happens to me. I don’t have time to listen to an album more or I somehow feel it’s not time to listen to more of it yet. However, last autumn I listened to this album in its entirety several times and discovered its beauty.
This album and the single The Middle gained Jimmy Eat World success, which is very nice. Genuine, high quality melodic rock deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. Bleed American is a wonderful album filled with emotion, it’s all very human and at many points has a very personal lyrical approach. What is also important is that it rocks!
The album starts with a track that has two names: originally it was Bleed American but later it was also named Salt Sweat Sugar. It’s an excellent rocking track with amazing sounds and quite claustrophobic lyrics. The next song, A Praise Chorus is one of my biggest favourites. The song contains some serious kick! It’s perfect for its drum beat alone, the kind of beat that constantly seems to turn upside down. It sounds so fresh and energetic. Add great song – the result is perfect. The lyrics have a carpe diem theme and deal with praising several famous songs (check ‘em out here).
The Middle is good, although I don’t find it the most interesting thing on this album. Sweetness, on the other hand, is awesome! It has a very exciting, dynamic, agitated, intermittent, hard rocking arrangement and great structure. I really enjoy the woo-oo-oo’s in the song. Jim Adkins has a brilliant singing voice, I love his vocals.
Your House and Hear You Me represent the softer side of the band. Especially the latter song is very, very gentle. If You Don’t, Don’t follows Hear You Me with a nice yet highly bittersweet feel. It’s another song that is not so very dramatic but gives me shivers anyway. Get It Faster is also awesome. It’s actually quite scary.. In the song Jim Adkins takes a highly cold attitude. With a huge barrier of distorted guitars the result is very impressive.
In the end of the album there is Cautioners, a very pretty song with again a very interesting arrangement. The Authority Song is upbeat and frustrated at the same and has great melodies. My Sundown is a peaceful ending track – good but not very memorable.
The songs on this album are in excellent order. The running order helps to display all the brilliant dynamics, and when the songs are also all good, it’s impossible not to enjoy it. This album is a real experience.
My summer holiday has begun. This means I’m gonna have lots of time to blab about whatever type of music I choose, and I really don’t have much else to do.. However, I intend to do lots of other things, too, such as watch good movies and my favourite science fiction TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation!
Today, I think I’ll blab a bit about great 90’s alternative rock/power pop (someone might even call it emo..). Already for four years one of my ultimate summer soundtracks has been Weezer’s self-titled debut album from 1994, also known as The Blue Album. The first Weezer album that I listened to was The Green Album in the summer of 2004. I remember I liked it instantly: although it didn’t really sound like anything I’d listened to before, something about it struck a chord with me. It was very loud and distorted music with harmonies and a sympathetic feel.
Soon, I found out Weezer had made a great debut album back in the 90s, produced by Ric Ocasek. I studied the band’s interesting history and started listening to The Blue Album. It sounded very good right from the start and as weeks and months went by, I noticed I never got tired of the album. My little brother liked the album, too, and it’s still one of the few albums that we both love very much.
What is so great about The Blue Album is that it’s quite simple. It’s not very fast-paced and there aren’t dozens of different instruments or basically anything too complex on the album. Instead, there are excellent Rivers Cuomo compositions and melodies added with very economical arrangements. Those features and the huge wall of distorted electric guitars that were to become Weezer’s trademark make this music magical. Personally, I find that distorted sound very comforting. The loud, yet soft, kind of fuzzy but tight sound always makes me feel good.
All in all, this music is very genuine and sincere. Rivers Cuomo’s brilliant lyrics add a very important layer to this geeky rock. In songs like No One Else his straightforward style of writing very emotion-appealing lyrics is clearly displayed. No One Else is one of my favourites, although all ten songs on the album are worth serious attention – and appreciation.
Buddy Holly is a classic. The Happy Days-themed video for the song is also memorable. I remember seeing it on MTV although I was only six years old at the time. The song is a great example of what Weezer, in my opinion, is at its best: easy-going (and perhaps happy, too). The entire album is quite easy-going and happy although there certainly are a couple of more melancholic tracks. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here is beautiful and sentimental. It’s amazing how effective it is despite its relatively discreet, peacefully sad feel. Say It Ain’t So is also quite melancholic, and its totally enchants me with its gorgeous dynamics. Only in Dreams ends the album wonderfully, with its bass line bringing Pixies to mind.
In the Garage is a salute to all garage musicians, such as myself.. The song and the sound of it is amazing, listen to that low-tone guitar - it’s insanely crunchy! My Name Is Jonas, Holiday, Surf Wax America – they’re all great. Debut single Undone -- The Sweater Song is another song not to be missed. It includes hilarious geek lyrics, and everything about it is brilliant.
The Blue Album is such a classic. I’m so happy that so many people have discovered it and its greatness, and new people keep discovering it, too!
What would be a better match to a sunny summer day than a nice winterly music video that is filled with tremendous emo/gothic beauty! Since I don’t have time to write anything big now, I’ll throw here a nice YouTube clip that has given me some pleasure during the past few days.
So, here’s a video from AFI, a band which I like quite a lot. Love Like Winter is an excellent and catchy song – great pop in every way! Lead singer Davey Havok looks gorgeous. His fake eyelashes are so cool…
I wish they’d show more videos like this on MTV – songs with good melodies (melodies of any kind seem quite often to be too much to ask for, though..), and no naked women at all. Gothic visual themes are also really good!
Right now I just feel.. restless. In fact, I’ve had this feeling for a few days now. There is nothing unclear about the reason to this. Yesterday, I saw 30 Seconds to Mars live at Helsinki Ice Hall. There were two warm-up acts, Killer Aspect and Sara. I couldn’t concentrate much on the gigs but they sounded good.
There was quite a lot of waiting after the warm-up bands finished their sets. Finally, the ice hall went totally dark – the audience SCREAMED! The dramatic sound of O Fortuna filled the air.. and soon the gig started with A Beautiful Lie, continued with Battle of One and From Yesterday. There they were: Tomo Miličević on guitar, Shannon Leto on drums, tour bassist Tim Kelleher on bass... and Jared with a paste hairdo and some war paint on his face.. They were really there. They were too far, though. I used binoculars during the entire show to see what was happening on stage.
The songs.. They sounded so, so, very good! It was probably the best and most pleasant mix I’d ever heard. The music wasn’t too loud, it even could’ve been louder. It was good the way it was, though, because the audience screamed so loud that it made everyone’s ears ring.
What a thrill it was to hear Jared say “Minä rakastan teitä”! He praised our country quite a bit and put on a nice apron with the Finnish flag that was passed to him from the audience. That apron made him look like a baker.. The Finnish audience sang along to many songs – not very loud, though. Still, they surely knew how to scream their guts out after and during every song of the set.
The set consisted mostly of songs from the latest album. All songs from A Beautiful Lie except for The Story were heard. It was great - Savior and R-evolve were received with huge enthusiasm. I was also happy about Was It a Dream because it’s such a beautiful tune. The Kill drove the audience wild. Jared stirred the hype a bit by walking on the safety barrier and in the end running around the floor, chased by a few fans. Then, Jared threw in a couple of acoustic songs. Capricorn (A Brand New Name) was awesome, but A Modern Myth was the song that gave me real chills. With Jared singing “goodbye, goodbye, goodbye” and the whole ice hall filled with his emotion-filled and melancholic, almost desperate vocals.. It was all so beautiful. It didn’t look too bad either when a few thousand cell phones illuminated the darkness.
At the end of the show, Jared picked up a young male 30STM fan named Lassi from the audience to help him prepare Finns for the last song that would be The Fantasy. The result was somewhat hilarious, definitely the funnest part of the show. It included some unsuccessful communication and cool lyric translations performed by Lassi.
This was 30STM’s last full-length gig of A Beautiful Lie era. The show ended with lots of red and black confetti, which was nice. I would’ve wanted to get autographs from the band but it wasn’t possible. It kind of left me very disappointed but I also realized that I just might get that chance if I go to their next show in Finland (or somewhere else) – and reserve tickets FAST.
They really are going to start working on a new album very, very soon. I wonder what it’s going to be like.. They’ve already made two albums that represent totally different music genres, and the third probably isn’t going to be similar to their previous work. Can’t wait to hear new stuff.. and see the videos! Video clips from the show on YouTube
I just love it when I change my mind completely. I saw clips from 30 Seconds to Mars music video for The Kill numerous times on MTV two years ago, and I remember I didn’t like it much. I probably thought to myself something like: “Eh.. Nice tonsils.”
It took about two years before I actually listened to the song in its entirety, and concentrated on it. As usual, the song sounded good at that point. What made me take this step was actually my friend who likes this band – and Jared.. Being a multitalented guy, Jared Leto makes both great films and music, and for some reason, is adored by a few billion women..
Yes, I love him too. I had only seen one of his films before my friend recommended watching some more. On May Day I decided to check him out, and found some seriously good-looking pictures. Then, I found some more, and more, and more.. I found some nice interviews, television appearances, DVD’s, and tickets to the 30 Seconds to Mars live concert in Helsinki.. This is one of the greatest obsessions I’ve ever had, and I’m really enjoying it!
It is simply great that the best-looking, most beautiful, and gorgeous human being on the planet makes amazing stuff - films and music. I love watching Jared’s films, and I’m particularly happy about the music. 30 Seconds to Mars has been number one on my playlists lately. Listening to 30STM hasn’t been very difficult at any point. In fact, I’m totally hooked on that stuff. 30STM has even triggered a wider interest in emo (or polka, or whatever you want to call it..) in me.
A Beautiful Lie (2005) is the second and more recent album by 30STM. It is very different from the band’s first album that was created by Jared and brother Shannon Leto without any other band members. The most important thing is that it really is a wonderful, emotional, and atmospheric album with awesome songs.
The singles Attack, A Beautiful Lie, The Kill, and From Yesterday are all great. However, I’m positive about the fact that the band achieved their goal of making a listening experience out of this album rather than a collection of singles. The result is a very consistent album with only great songs, added with utterly wonderful emotionalism and melancholy, very similar to the feel of The Cure’s masterpiece Disintegration. Savior sounds like an impressive modern recreation of Fascination Street. Was It a Dream is very Cure-like, too. The sound of rain and thunder is combined with a gothic guitar riff, Shannon Leto’s brilliant drum beat, and Jared’s wistful vocals. It’s all very enchanting and wonderfully sentimental.
My favourite song is From Yesterday. I just love it, it’s so powerful and awesome, and I never seem to get tired of the beautiful melody and Jared’s perfect vocals. Major chords and angst make a winning combination. The music video for it is also something astonishingly beautiful, I might add..
The 2007 version of this album is actually quite brilliant because it features two excellent bonus tracks and a hidden track. This means that the album has, in fact, three different endings. I find all of them great. I really enjoy Battle of One, the first of the two bonus tracks. Björk cover Hunter is also brilliant. Jared sings it so well that it makes me want to listen to Björk (since I haven’t done that much, yet).
This is so beautiful music. Something else than sugary power pop, for a change.. Stuff that is sentimental and kicks ass – could I ask for more?
This happens to me every spring. I listen to happy, sunny pop all winter, and then it starts getting brighter.. Seriously, in the winter you hardly ever see the sun, and then you suddenly notice that the summer is really on its way. It’s hardly ever dark anymore! At that point, I always get the feeling that I really must listen to the darkest, most angst-filled music that I have in my CD collection. Strange? I think this whole thing has quite a lot to do with finding a balance in the middle of the huge daylight change.
Consequently, I’ve hardly listened to anything else than emo and other kinds of dark alternative rock during the past 1,5 weeks. Right now, I feel really good. Sometimes listening to the most angst-filled music can actually be the thing that makes you happy. Also, I think it’s good that I finally found a way out of constant power pop listening. It’s only a good thing to have a break from something you’re totally addicted to. Recently, I’ve been listening to Jimmy Eat World, AFI, Disco Ensemble… and of course my new #1 favourite band, 30 Seconds to Mars.
How is emo in keeping with my other favourite music, then? Here we go.. Take power pop. Remove all sweetness and jangly guitar sounds, speed up the tempo, replace lalala’s with woo-oo-oo, add some hardcore screaming vocals, and you’ll get emo. It’s not actually so different from power pop.. There are some bands that actually are emo and powerpop at the same time.
I started listening to emo about four years ago. I wasn’t aware of the term then, but now I’m doing some research, and I think I already have the basic information. I’m definitely an emo myself, too, at least to some extent.. I’ve always been. Listening to all this great music and getting into the emo aesthetics even makes me want to look like an emo. Unfortunately, I’m having some trouble with looking like emo, since I think I actually subconsciously aim to be a happy hippie popster while I also worship the dark gothic aesthetics (emo is a subgenre of goth), and somehow wish to combine the styles. Needless to say, that ain’t gonna work..
If you’d like some information about the subject, here’s a nice video about being emo. I think it’s brilliant, and totally hilarious.. Still, I believe it presents some actual facts, too.
It wasn’t long ago when summer made its first true appearance here in Helsinki after the long, cold, and dark periods of winter and early spring. Exactly then arrived Dave Dill’s latest album Follow the Summer(2007), and it made a perfect soundtrackfor thatmagical moment.
Dave Dill’s music is sunshiny pop characterized by those beautiful 70s-sounding keyboards and some awesome, rocking guitar work that brings Queen and 10cc to mind. Multitalented, as he is, Dill performs all instruments, singing, and almost everything else (compositions, production, recording), too. One of Dill’s assets is his nice, warm, and expressive singing voice.
Happily Ever After and Don’t Remember represent the more rocking, Badfinger-influenced side of the album. Meanwhile, Perfect There is an example of how Dill creates a heavenly and peaceful atmosphere, an actual mental image of summer – just like The Beach Boys and the great 60s sunshine pop groups. The acoustic guitar plucking and good harmonies will make you feel like you’re lying on a sunny, white beach with all your worries washing away.. That is really one amazing feeling, simply triggered by music. One of the most important reasons why I listen to music is that it can actually bring you a happy feeling through your ears. It’s such a great thing.
Never so Beautiful is a wonderful waltz. For me, the title track Follow the Summer/Pink Skies is also one of the highpoints of this album. The summery feel is very much present and the song and the melody sound really pleasant. Actually, all songs on this album are good. Together the songs are even stronger than when listened separately.
All in all, this album was a very pleasant experience. Great songs, great sounds.. Even the cover art is beautiful, it captures the spirit of this wonderful album.
Bewilderbeest (2000) is the final album of The Sun Sawed in 1/2. First of all, it’s awesome - that’s for sure. This album is a very interesting combination of traditional and untraditional powerpop songs, and genuine Slavic instrumentation.
Bewilderbeest is certainly not the most traditional powerpop album you’ll hear. It contains stuff that is very different from the other material on the same album, but it still sounds consistent. The main reason to this is probably the good song running order. The album starts with two perfect pop songs: Kiss Her Like You Mean It (100% catchy) and The Beholder and His Eye.
The Beholder and His Eye has become my favourite song. It’s actually great being able to name one song as your favourite. I guess it’s quite impossible for most people to pick a favourite song because there are so many perfect songs. For many years I couldn’t name a favourite tune either.
Here are the reasons for The Beholder and His Eye being my favourite song:
1. It’s jangly. It has perfect sounds, perfect playing, and a happy, easy-going feel. 2. The melodies are absolutely perfect in every way. 3. The vocals are the sweetest I’ve ever heard. 4. The lyrics are beautiful and perfect.
After Beholder and an interval comes the first Slavic song, Me, Myself & I. It sounds like Slavic folk music and it’s brilliant. Me, Myself & I, as well as Today I Fell, and the dramatic ending track What Soul Have I were recorded in Kyiv, Ukraine, with local musicians. The result is wonderful and unique. The other songs on the album, recorded in St. Louis, are a perfect match for the Slavic songs because of their melancholy. Ken Kase, who was with the band during this final album, sings two songs, Song No. 11 and Still Rain. Song No. 11 is his own composition, and it surely doesn’t sound like your traditional Sun song. It’s a very good song, and a great addition to this album.
Shining Knight is beautiful. I just love that song and the a cappella part so much. Everything Goes has some jazz quality, and it’s perfect. Painting, Today I Fell, Settle Down.. You can’t go wrong with Tim Rose’s excellent songwriting. The mystery track at the end of the album is also brilliant. I love this band – it’s full of surprises!
However, I think there is one small (very small) problem about this album. The song running order is good, but there are three interval tracks. Each of them serves a special purpose but, in my opinion, they still cause some fragmentation to the album. The songs on this album are very different from each other, and that’s why the intervals are quite useful. I think it’s just that I’m so used to listening music in an extremely economical form with no intervals of any kind. After all, I really don’t even mind this so-called problem. When there are excellent and perfect songs, these kinds of tiny things don’t really matter. In fact, I would never have wanted to miss a track like Denny’s Lounge! It’s great fun, and it adds one whole new music genre to Sun’s catalogue (lounge music that is).
For me, Bewilderbeest is at least hundred times worth its price already for The Beholder and His Eye alone (although determining a value to a song is in fact impossible). When you also have all those other exciting songs.. It’s like a dream come true.
No matter how hard I try, I just won’t get tired of listening to The Sun Sawed in 1/2. I’ve been in this state for more than a half of a year now. For me, that is a long time. Usually my favourite band changes at least once a month. And, yes, I had that huge Cars thing a while ago, but I listened to The Sun during that time, too.
I listen to The Sun Sawed in ½ every day and it sounds fresh and new every time. After finding the endless delights of power pop music, I’ve been in love with several other great power pop bands including The Posies, Wondermints, Fountains of Wayne, Super Deluxe, Big Star, The Rubinoos, Weezer, Cherry Twister, Jellyfish, and so on. Of course, I’m still very much in love with all these bands, but with The Sun it somehow feels a bit different. It’s like my love towards that music is more stable, more steady and regular, and more active than what it is towards some other bands, like The Posies.
I definitely love The Posies. I’d really consider The Posies to be one of my ten (maybe even five or three) most important bands ever. However, I rarely listen to them. I surely listen to some Posies every now and then but it’s not that often or that much. This is mostly true of all the other bands I mentioned. When I find a new favourite band, it goes like this: I fall in love, the music feels new and exciting, I may not listen to nearly anything else for a couple of weeks. At some point comes the moment when the enthusiasm goes away. I just don’t feel like listening to that music so much anymore, I’ve listened to all the songs so many times, I feel like it’s time to check out some other stuff.
This has never occurred with The Sun, although if I look at the calendar and think of how much I’ve listened to this music, I already should’ve got tired of The Sun. I haven’t. What is this?
I’ve been thinking about writing more about The Sun for quite some time. That’s why I’m going to write about my thoughts concerning each of The Sun’s albums. I consider this therapeutic and great fun. Also, when you write down your thoughts, you usually end up writing things you never even had thought of before.. Man, that’s exciting!
It would also be cool to hear other people’s thoughts. Is there some artist/music you just can’t stop listening to? How long does it usually take you to finish the most intensive listening period of a new favourite band/artist? How often/how much do you listen to those bands when that intensive period is over?
Until next time.. What is The Sun’s secret? How come, according to my Last.fm profile, I’ve listened 90 times to a song called Beholder And His Eye.. To be continued.
Somehow I knew this was going to happen.. Today, I ended up listening to Roxette’s greatest hits (and it even wasn't the first time). This compilation, A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs! features many familiar songs from this Swedish pop duo.
Roxette has been around since the mid-80s. Their most recent new studio album Room Service came out in 2001. I was only 13 years old at that time, and I definitely was too young to notice that this music was actually quite topnotch. Luckily, it’s never too late to discover good music, and I can now dance along to both The Look from 1988 and The Centre Of The Heart from 2001 as well as enjoy any other Per Gessle’s amazing composition. I’m really just starting to realize how talented this man actually is.
Happy pop with lots of interesting influences, sung beautifully by Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle - that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Sleeping In My Car, How Do You Do and ballads such as Wish I Could Fly are irrefutably good. Also, I still have lots of Gyllene Tider to check out. Ah, those Swedes are so good. I almost feel like cheering for them every time there is a Finland vs. Sweden ice hockey match.. But yeah, that’s almost, I definitely won’t be seen commit treason any time soon.
Sometimes song titles already tell you whether you’re going to hear dead-serious music or not… This disc has amused me quite a lot recently. It’s another release from John Borack’s power pop book, and it’s Bamboo Lounge (2001) by Sparkle*Jets U.K. (U.K.? Why U.K.? – I just don’t get it…).
This album really could be described as a divided personality. About half of the material is traditional, absolutely sweet power pop sung and written by Michael Simmons. The other half is Susan West’s energetic and quite unconventional and wild tracks. While Simmons and West pursue very different styles, that contradiction helps in keeping this album interesting through all 14 tracks.
Nearly everything on this album is fantastic. My favourites include.. well, I guess it’d take less time to mention the songs that aren’t my biggest favourites, but that wouldn’t make any sense.. I’ll just say that She May Be Nice, Sorry, and Beautiful Girl are awesome Simmons songs and Monster, Consult Your Physician, and They Shoot Square Dancers, Don’t They? are awesome West songs.
Here’s also a nice discovery.. From sparklejetsuk.com band bio:
”Robbie Rist: The sparkle*jet least likely to realize that he's a sparkle*jet. But that's okay. He's in about 200 bands at any given moment, which is why there are at least 200 bands on the planet at any given moment which completely kick ass. And it's all because of the Bob.”
I guess in a couple of years I’ve found all those 200 bands (all accidentally) and written about them to this blog..
One of the coolest things during the past few days has been 60s bubblegum pop. Listening to this music makes me understand how much it actually has common features with power pop. Catchy songs and great harmonies with utterly sweet and somewhat nasal singing – that’s exactly what some of my very favourite power pop is all about.
All those features also appear in the music of The Ohio Express, a 60s bubblegum/garage band that partially consisted of studio musicians and partially of real band members. The Ohio Express reached good chart positions, and their most famous and successful song was Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.
I’ve been listening to Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - The Best of The Ohio Express. It’s a nice 14-song compilation with awesome tracks. This music is so good that I always end up wondering: “Oh, did it end already?” Songs like Sweeter Than Sugar and Nothing Sweeter Than My Baby are so much about sugar and sweetness that I simply can’t help loving this stuff… My other favourites include Nighttime and 1, 2, 3 Red Light. She’s Not Coming Home is a more melancholic track, and it’s gorgeous.
Jellyfish is one of my all-time favourite bands. Although they weren’t a very long-lived band, they created something uniquely fresh that will continue influencing pop music for a long time. Jellyfish’s music is happy and timeless pop of high quality. I also have to give Jellyfish credit for guiding me towards listening to more psychedelic-sounding pop (and power pop generally).
I find it impossible to decide which one of Jellyfish’s two albums is better. They are so different from each other. Spilt Milk (1993) is astonishing with its awesome, polished sound, hilarious Queen-references and huge instrumental variety. On the other hand, Bellybutton (1990) always appeals to me with its better-balanced appearance and great songs. If I had to pick some favourite tunes from these albums, I would have to say “all of them”.
Also, when I found Jellyfish in August 2004 I found my #1 favourite singing voice, and that, ofcourse, belongs to Andy Sturmer. I was very convinced about this state of facts until I found a band called The Sun Sawed in ½. Since then, I’ve been slipping towards passing the status of favourite singer to Sun’s lead singer Doug Bobenhouse, and I’ve actually already passed it to him, but listening to Jellyfish always makes me have doubts over my choice. I guess I should just keep two #1 favourite singers. It’s quite difficult to compare Andy and Doug, although their voices bear some serious resemblance..
Also, where on earth is Andy Sturmer? He has surely been doing lots of music-related things, but, I mean.. Where is his solo career? As far as I’m concerned, I think a person with a singing voice like that should be singing all the time, recording that singing and releasing it. A cappella would be just fine..
Geez! Andy really seems to have come up with some solo material, e.g. a cartoon theme for Transformers. I'll check that out right away.
I’ve surely checked out Jason Falkner and Roger Manning’s solo work, The Grays, and a bit of all kinds of other Jellyfish-related music. A huge majority of that stuff is awesome. But, something important post-Jellyfish material is still missing..
The recent Jellyfish tribute album might also be worth checking at some point. The most important thing is, though, that Jellyfish always sounds fresh and new when I listen to it. That’s not something that happens with all bands and albums. When I haven’t listened to Spilt Milk or Bellybutton for a while and listen to them again, I’m always amazed how fresh they sound.
The day before yesterday, I made a huge discovery. I certainly had heard the name Gyllene Tider before but for some reason I never found out that their music was actually great pop-rock, power pop in 80s style! I started listening to their music at MySpace and it sounded so good that I wanted to hear more of that stuff, lots of it. You can hear Farfisa organs in this music, and one of the best things about this band is that the singing language is Swedish!
The reason I never checked this band out before was probably that I knew Gyllene Tider had something to do with another Swedish band Roxette, and Roxette is something that I don't find mind-blowingly interesting (although I have to admit that I haven't listened to their music very much). Per Gessle is a part of that band, and as Roxette is very famous these days, he is the most famous member of Gyllene Tider.
Although most Finns probably aren’t very much fond of Swedish language, I really like Swedish. I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s a bit more difficult than English, and it’s great fun to listen to (and try to speak it yourself…). Swedish is a beautiful language, great for power pop, too!
Sommartider is Gyllene Tider’s most famous song. It’s played on Finnish radio every summer, but I haven’t heard the original version too many times. It seems like they like to play the cover by that some newer band – the original is of course much better. There are lots of Gyllene Tider songs that I instantly loved: Skicka ett vykort älskling, Ljudet av ett annat hjärta, (Dansar inte lika bra som) sjömän, and Flickorna på TV2 are all fabulous songs. Their cover version of The Rivieras’ California Sun (Tylo sun) is also totally fabulous. Gyllene Tider have dozens of great songs, I haven’t heard a single one I don’t like!
It’s great to find bands like this. I only wish I had more time. It’s gonna be busy with university entrance exams this spring, once again. Still, it’s amazing to have great Swedish pop to listen to during breaks!
I really enjoy Receiver’s Inspiration Overload (2001). I spotted it in John Borack’s power pop book Shake Some Action – The Ultimate Power Pop Guide (great book!). Borack himself used to play drums in the band, but on Inspiration Overload powerpop queen Lisa Mychols plays all percussions. Mychols also sings background vocals – sounding amazing.
This album was produced by Robbie Rist (who seems to appear quite often in power pop circles) and it’s a very strong collection of 11 catchy, energetic, and sugary songs written by Kenny West and Kerry Chicoine. It’s very loud pop - exactly the kind of stuff I tend to enjoy very, very much. Killer melodies, absolute sweetness, all wrapped up inside those distorted guitars and great riffs. It’s a simple path to happiness.
Oleander is my #1 favourite song on the album, it has pure low-tone magic, and those melodies.. They’re so good. Faster, Wind Up Girl and Inspiration Overload are also amazing tunes, to mention but a few. Also, it’s enchanting for a girl to discover power pop songs that carry your own first name.. Erica Kane is a wonderful tune. It isn’t even the only power pop song with that name (there’s Game Theory’s Erica’s Word, too), which is absolutely cool.
I just can’t get enough of music like this. Audio sugar and loud pop instrumentation– that’s my thing.
In this blog a Finnish pop music fan blabs about music and albums she has recently found interesting and good, and music-related live experiences. A lot of that music can be labeled as sixties or seventies pop, classic rock, power pop, baroque pop, bubblegum pop, psychedelic pop/rock or alternative pop/rock. However, there are no boundaries, and there will occasionally be talk about jazz and classical music, for instance.
The point of this blog is sharing (and hopefully receiving) music tips, joyful experiences and personal opinions - not files. Feel free to comment on anything you'll find here.
Jimmy Eat World gained my attention when I read a review on their latest album in a Finnish rock magazine Soundi several years ago. According to the review, Jimmy Eat World is like Weezer but even more geeky. The comparison to Weezer and the geekiness fascinated me, although I still don’t know what that geekiness actually means. Jimmy Eat World didn’t turn out to be particularly geeky kind of rock music, so it might refer to the band’s hobbies or something..
