Poets Of The Fall
Sticking to the cold, snowy lands of Scandinavia, we turn our gaze towards Finland.
While it doesn’t have the current cache of its neighbour Sweden (although very few places can boast that at the minute) there’s still enough from the land of a thousand lakes to catch your ears.
A thoroughly traditional rock band, Poets of The Fall are perhaps the easiest out of our collection to hop on board with in comparison to their UK equivalents.
Offering a finely machined and tailored form of rock, it’s the sheer speed and emotion though of Poets that makes them so compelling, while the band where their hearts on their sleeves at all times. When the band kicks into top gear and the guitars rush, there’s not much that can match up to them in terms of fun rock.
Now on to their fifth album, Poets continue to be big players in the Finnish music scene with only the latest album not becoming a number one seller. And that didn’t dip too far at reaching number three in the charts.
While not as genre breaking as many of their compatriots, Poets are a fine example of a band simply evolving a sound over the years. While they may soon need to start experimenting to keep themselves at the top of the rock pile, Poets catalogue of driving rock anthems, grand attempts at splendour and stripped back ballads provide more than enough ammunition to fuel a fandom.
On the other side of the spectrum are the ethereal sounding Magneta Skycode.
Headed up by producer and songwriter Jori Sjöroos, the seven piece are a critical darling in Finland after the release of their second album Relief.
Magneta Skycode have found success in their homeland though, with Relief staying on top of the Finnish charts for several weeks and won the Best Indie Album award at the Finnish Emma Awards, the Finnish equivalent of a Grammy.
Full of delight, whimsy, soulful lyrics and more harp the Florence + The Machine, Magneta Skycode are unabashedly soothing. Even when the colourful chanting’s gone and all that’s left is
With haunting vocals, this genre bending lot are easily one of Finland’s best and brightest and deserve a place on your music playing device of choice.
Unfortunately for those of you who aren’t in the very small group of non-Scandinavians who speak Finnish, the domestic market is rather proud of its mother tongue. If you’re willing to take a risk however, two of Finland’s biggest hitters offer a great listen.
After being one of the winners of Finnish talent show Popstars back in 2002, and Jenni Vartiainen enjoyed a moderately successful time with her band mates before going solo. After a rocky start here though, Jenni has risen to the very top of Finnish pop with her critically acclaimed duo of albums.
A blend of sultry vocals and fast paced piano pop, Jenni Vartiainen could, with a little bit of translation, fit in anywhere internationally.
It was Jenni’s second album Seili that made her a star, going multi-platinum in and an absolute sack full of awards at the 2011 Emma Awards, picking up seven gongs including Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Female Soloist of the Year.
While Jenni Vartiainen’s an easy transition, our last selection tend to be a little bit odder.
Wildly successful, PMMP have been a juggernaut in the Finnish charts, with three number one albums and another two that got into the top three.
This girl group try to defy bracketing. Wildly swinging between bouncing bubble-gum pop to full on metal with a couple of dabbles at electronica along the way.
The vocals are sheer innocence incarnate; the two make the bands more light-hearted tracks feel like giant nursery rhymes, an oddly compelling proposition.
The sheer variety on offer from PMMP makes them one of the country’s most intriguing bands, for those willing to take the plunge into something quite so strange.
The release of a new album after taking three years out may just be the ideal gateway.
Despite being just a hop across the border from cutting edge Sweden, Finland has its own identity. Still in love with rock and pop and far less aware and tailored to the foreign market, Finland’s a harder nut to crack, but the rewards are worth it. So have a little watch below and tell us what you’ve got to think about it below.
FemaleFirst – Cameron Smith