Kemopetrol - Everything’s Fine (2002)

1) Goodbye; 2) Saw It on TV; 3) For Nothing; 4) Shine; 5) Everything that Surrounds Us; 6) Windmills; 7) Hypno Eyes; 8) Forest for the Trees; 9) Everything Under Control; 10) Everything’s Fine

The move from the debut's freshness towards slicker and more radio-friendly waters begins.

Key tracks: "Goodbye", "Windmills", "Everything Under Control"

Not to be too melodramatic about it but it’s Kemopetrol’s second album and it’s the end of them as they were. The start of something different as well, though.

Slowed Down, the band’s debut, sounded a little out of sync with everything else that was going on in Finland at the time. The general mainstream state was that of flux: the millennial shift times were characterised by the Finnish indie rock scene starting to find its feet underground, while the radio play belonged to groups trying their hands at adapting American and British mainstream approaches for a Finnish taste. Kemopetrol’s chilled out, daydreaming bedroom indie pop was something completely different. But the Finnish mainstream has a habit of adopting outsiders with a very open mind: primary examples include the mainstreamification of metal to the point of making Christmas and children’s versions of it, and how the country managed to turn the combination of reggae and Finnish folk music into a legitimate commercial trend. So Slowed Down became a hit and slowly started shaping the scene sound in its own way. And that’s where we come to Everything’s Fine, the second album.

It’s either a case of the mainstream adapting to Kemopetrol pretty heavily or Kemopetrol deciding to go on a more commercial route, but there’s a definite transitional transformation going on with the band’s second album. It’s slick, punchy and polished – the homely musicians have suddenly turned into radio superstars. This happened without warning: normally a development like this would take a couple of albums and a few careful toe-dips in the water before fully diving in, but as soon as the sharp, slick futuro-disco of “Goodbye” reveals itself it’s clear the band have gone through a reinvention. They’re shiny, painfully cool and painfully hip with the times. They’ve lost some of their original charm and have started on the road they’d walk for the next few albums (ie most of their active duration) as relative mainstream darlings.

Not inherently bad when you’ve got the songs to back it up, which Kemopetrol do. In addition, Everything’s Fine is a little bit of a transitional effort even if at first it seems like it’s loaded with just the suave hits. All the singles are loaded right up the front: the pounding “Goodbye”, the glitzy “Saw It on TV” that might as well be Finnish pop/rock of the early 00s in a nutshell, the name-appropriate “Shine” and the lightly rocking “For Nothing” (which wasn’t a single per se but still got some air play). They’re all fine tunes for most parts: “Goodbye” in particular is pretty excellent despite its anaemic and thoroughly pointless guitar solo. But once the initial hit wave has gone Everything’s Fine reveals its best parts by showing some different sides. “Everything that Surrounds Us”, “Everything’s Fine” and “Forest for the Trees” are all minimal piano driven pieces but each one approaches the formula differently: “Everything that Surrounds Us” swivels around intimately, the title track is a late night mood piece and “Forest for the Trees” adds a little beat to the backbone and is a surprisingly affective song despite being a glaringly simple and straightforward mid-tempo rocker. “Hypno Eyes” brings a sudden bit of tight groove into the mix, being led by a hypnotically thumping rhythm in some dark disco somewhere.

The most inspired are the last remaining tracks. “Everything Under Control” is bombastic and dramatic, almost aggressive - and in a fashion that suits the band better than the debut’s sudden forays into hard rock riffs. Instead, the song is driven by a simple piano melody, a swivelling accordion and a hoover (!) and it grows into colossal heights you would’ve never suspected from such a band who normally tends to stay grounded. “Windmills” is even better. The accordion is back, this time floating weightlessly around the airy production, and it meets with a dreamy chorus and Charlie’s Angels melodies, mixing into a daydream of a pop song. It also feels like the closest tie to the atmosphere set by Slowed Down (make of that what you will).

The sequencing is so that Everything’s Fine is a little bit of an album of two (almost) halves. The first half re-introduces Kemopetrol as a genuine mainstream force, then the second half applies the same production tricks to a group of songs more reminiscent of the first album. First re-invention, then natural evolution. If you want to be cruel about it, this is somewhat the end of Kemopetrol at their most original as the subsequent albums would see the band walking well-worn paths after others. At this stage though they still had enough of their own to lead rather than follow. Everything’s Fine is definitely not as timeless as Slowed Down but it still plays out strong, in particular during the second half that has aged very gracefully. It’s a little sad it doesn’t quite follow in the debut’s steps, especially since whenever it does it’s at its best, but time has definitely showed this to be a better follow-up than initially thought. Kemopetrol wouldn’t be the same band they were on the debut ever again, but here they’re still playing up to their strengths.

Rating: 7/10