CMX - Veljeskunta (1991) / Veljeskunta [Gold] (2002)

1) Kulje vasten; 2) Neljäs valtakunta; 3) Metallipurkaus; 4) Kuu; 5) Veljeskunta; 6) Rytmitehdas; 7) Helvetin hyvä paimen; 8) Vaskiperse; 9) Ääni ja vimma; 10) Tanssitauti; 11) Kätketty kukka; 12) Enteitä; 13) Täynnä naisia; 14) Tulikiveä; 2002 Gold Edition Bonus Tracks: Tanssitauti EP (1990): 15) "Matti"; 16) Tanssin jumala; 17) Hän on tullut; 18) Pimeä maa; 19) Pornogeneraattori; Musiikin ystävälliset kasvot EP (1991): 20) Musiikin ystävälliset kasvot; 21) Vieraita avaruudesta (I); 22) Polyhymnia; 23) Vieraita avaruudesta (II)

A new line-up arrives with a desire for a new sound. Not quite there yet, but close.

Key tracks: "Veljeskunta", Helvetin hyvä paimen, Kätketty kukka

Veljeskunta brings with it a few shake-ups to the CMX story. One is that after a few guitarist shake-ups the band now features both Timo Rasio and Janne Halmkrona, fixing in place the band's double-guitarist format with the two axemen that would continue with the band for the decades to come. The other, somewhat relatedly, is a change in sound. The band's crooked idea of punk had ran its course and inspired by the addition of fresh blood in their ranks and their respective skillsets, the band decided it was time for a change. A firm change, as well: Veljeskunta would turn out to be CMX's last album on Bad Vugum, and there's a great anecdote about the label head having a chat with the band after the release of the record and the subsequent Musiikin ystävälliset kasvot EP, and how he had started to feel the band was getting a little too commercial for the label.

The familiar zeal and fury of Kolmikärki is well and present on Veljeskunta but CMX have, indeed, largely given up the old punk aesthetics in favour of other ideas. Calling this close to mainstream is a reach, but it's inarguable that the band is moving to a more digestible direction compared to their first EPs and album, including a couple of attempts at more direct alternative rock cuts which would comfortably slot in many of the band's later albums: “Kätketty kukka” unofficially sets the blueprint for many CMX radio singles to come and A.W. Yrjänä’s more dissonant chorus vocals come across as an intentional attempt to tone that friendliness down, and “Helvetin hyvä paimen” shifts to an acoustic gear while retaining the angular nature of the record, and it sounds closer to classic CMX than the acoustic experiments on Kolmikärki. Other, similarly non-abrasive influences are starting to also come through more audibly - there's more keyboards and in particular the atmospheric closer "Tulikiveä" leans on them entirely, and "Täynnä naisia" has a clear hint of early R.E.M. to its swing. Alongside these is a scattered number of wildly varied pieces which are least awkwardly described as post-punk, with the band’s hardcore past making cameos at best even when the throttle pedal is pushed all the way down. Veljeskunta is a transitional record where the band are flexing new ideas and throwing out suggestions of new ideas to intake, and like so many transitional albums it's a little unfocused, slightly overlong and somewhat chaotic.  

That means that overall Veljeskunta is where the pieces start clicking in place, but the wider picture is still being sketched and we’re only getting excerpts of something greater. You can hear the potential, most vividly in the excellent middle section run, featuring the gothic post-punk of the title track with Kikke Heikkinen’s manic backing vocals, the steady and solid “Rytmitehdas” and “Tanssitauti” which remind me of the similarly chaotic enthusiasm of Manic Street Preachers’ very early years, “Vaskiperse”  and “Ääni ja vimma” with their bizarre but exhilaratingly contrasting surprises thrown in (the car chase soundtrack breakdown complete with a ridiculous MIDI horn section on the former, the wild backing vocals on the latter), and the aforementioned "Helvetin hyvä paimen" and "Kätketty kukka". After a relatively stiff and somewhat forgettable start, that central third is the album’s peak where its energy, brutality, melody and sense of humour (still intact from the debut, wonderfully) are in perfect balance; the same pace carries through to the album's end, but by that point the 14-track length is starting to show its length. Veljeskunta isn’t a long album - only 38 minutes - but it doesn't quite justify the amount of songs it has, because while it's got its strengths none of its songs are so good they'd carry the album. Veljeskunta is an acquaintance you see every couple of years and you enjoy spending time with when they do turn up, but who you don't really think about in the meantime and you've never felt a connection with to consider a friend. Maybe if it had been condensed into a tight ten-track movement (probably without the first four tracks, all of which are rather superfluous and starts the record off on the wrong note), we could be talking about a breakthrough record. It’s on the verge though, waiting for a nudge, and the band wouldn’t take too long to make that leap.

The 2002 “Gold” re-release of the record adds in the album’s surrounding EPs as the bonus tracks and they very much equal the main album in interest, giving the listener a sense of chronology and development in action as they fill in the gaps in the story. 1990’s Tanssitauti EP is the bridge between Kolmikärki and the band’s then-established hardcore punk sound, treating the listener to three snappy punk cuts (most famously the originally untitled but now officially nicknamed “Matti” which has become a fan favourite due to its brutally dark humour), glued together by two songs hinting at the wider sonic experimentation of Veljeskunta. The hysterical “Tanssin jumala”, with a piano section that sounds like an early 90s house piano approximated through the Sega MegaDrive soundboard and it's the best song on the EP, and the gothic gloom of “Pimeä maa" comes close in its bold, booming presence. 

But out of the two EPs, Musiikin ystävälliset kasvot is the one to really pay attention to. Prior to its original release Bad Vugum objected to its direction (see also the anecdote from the beginning of this review) and they cropped it to a two-song single release with the title track and the second "Vieraita avaruudesta". The Gold edition restores it in its originally intended four-track form, and you can hear why the proudly confrontational label was starting to think it was time for the band to move on. The entire EP has a heightened sense of melody compared to anything that the band had released before, and more adventurous arrangements and deeper songwriting are starting to regularise in their output. The first "Vieraita avaruudesta" has a brilliant bridge section that feels practically revelatory after such sections being glaringly absent from the last two albums, the second one moves the song into slower and darker waters with a heavy, processed sound (and a wonderfully crunchy bass) that acts as CMX's first attempt at using the recording studio as another instrument layer of its own, and the stripped down "Polyhymnia" breaks through its distorted chords with some actual beauty. The title track is a bonafide CMX anthem and absolutely the best song of their Bad Vugum years: a distinct lead guitar part that hooks instantly, the Kalevala-reminiscent lyrical meter in the verse that gives the vocals an eccentric but captivating melody, and the whole concoction thrashes through with a near-metal stomp under its feet. The whole EP is unmistakenly, thoroughly CMX and it's the starting line for the rest of their catalogue.

I'd probably give Veljeskunta itself a solid, positively leaning 6/10 but this is definitely one release where the extras go above and beyond adding value to the whole package. Knowing these EPs and especially Musiikin ystävälliset kasvot are essential to any CMX fan from a historical and from a pure song quality perspective, and so the final 7/10 really is for the entire 23-song package.  

Rating: 7/10

CMX - Kolmikärki (1990)

1) Johdatus salatieteisiin; 2) Sika ja perkele; 3) Nahkaparturi; 4) Kaikki nämä kädet; 5) Götterdämmerung; 6) Kuolemattomuuden ääni; 7) Pyydä mahdotonta; 8) Pyörivät sähkökoneet; 9) Taivas ja helvetti; 10) Voittamaton; 11) Suuri äiti; 12) Kolmas Johannes; 13) Hiljaisuuden pelko; 14) Liekkisusi ja sulkakäärme; 1993 CD Edition bonus tracks: Raivo EP (1989): 15) Lintu; 16) Rituaali; 17) Syvä vesi; 18) Jumalan ruoska; 19) Raivo; 20) Hiki; 21) Kolme näkyä; 22) Anathema; 23) Maailmoiden välissä;

A weird ass punk album which, while fun, is not something I unfortunately vibe with.

Key tracks: "Sika ja perkele", "Nahkaparturi", "Taivas ja helvetti"

It's a hard one for me to rate, this, because Kolmikärki is one of those cases where I understand its aims and respect it for them, but its chosen style just happens to be one I don't particularly bat for. CMX in 1990 were still a trio without any of their key members except for the lead man A.W. Yrjänä, and they were three eccentric and furious lads with a crooked sense of humour and a background in extreme punk. By their debut album CMX had already calmed down slightly (compare this to the hardcore punk blast of the Raivo EP from a year earlier, served as the bonus tracks, to hear the difference), but that's calm in a relative sense: for most parts this is still an explosive slice of art-minded punk recorded raw and rough, which isn't a realm I frequent.

Simplifying Kolmikärki by calling it "just" a punk album would be doing it a massive disservice though. Yrjänä, the key songwriter, has always had a love for prog rock and that love would colour so much of their later work, but even this early on and within the most anti-prog of genres, it's leaking to a point that it makes perfect sense how the band would turn out how they did. CMX on Kolmikärki are more like a prog or art rock band doing a punk experiment and while its foundations are in high-speed fury, a smattering of other sounds and genres from completely different ends of the spectrum keep appearing in Kolmikärki like they're leaks from another timeline. It makes for a seriously strange little record - one that starts with four minutes of shaman drums and throat singing ("Johdatus salatieteisiin", translated as "Introduction to the Occult" which is the best song title the first song on the first CMX album could have), and ends similarly with the moody "Liekkisusi ja sulkakäärme" which throws Yrjänä's murmuring vocals into the pile and melodically sounds like someone wrung R.E.M.'s "Time After Time" through a demonic portal. The brightly acoustic singalong "Pyydä mahdotonta" and the oddly earnest stadium torchlight (but not really) moment "Suuri äiti" are possibly even more perplexing given what they're surrounded by.

I didn't mention CMX's particular sense of humour for no reason in the first paragraph, and the combining element across the board is cheeky streak of erratic, risk-averse fun running throughout the record. For all its occasional aggro Kolmikärki never sounds particularly angry and rather, it's nearly fun, with even the more traditionally punk-esque songs being fuelled by an unholy sense of outrageousness and fun, the band coming up with both the wryest and the most over the top ways of expressing Yrjänä's cryptic lyrics. And then occasionally you can almost hear the band having a mad giggle in the studio at their own tricks, or how else could you explain the hilariously upbeat horn section in "Taivas ja helvetti"? Or the entirety of whatever the hell "Sika ja perkele" is doing, where the fake-out alternative rock intro moves right into a steamrolling punk blast, and just as suddenly it erupts into a funk rock section that wouldn't be amiss on an early Red Hot Chili Peppers album - and the fact that I'm comparing CMX with the Chili Peppers (and on their punkiest of punk days nonetheless) is just as mad as the song itself.

So it is fair to say that I do derive some enjoyment out of Kolmikärki, and it isn't so far removed from the band's later alternative rock/prog days as to completely alienate any listeners who got into them through those records (like me). Even some of the more straightforwardly delivered cuts like "Nahkaparturi" (its titular chant another tick in the bizarre sense of humour list) and the chugging metal-churner "Pyörivät sähkökoneet" do hit in varying degrees. The thing is, this isn't a sound or a genre that in the wider frame excites or resonates with me all that much and towards the last third the album starts losing me completed as it's shown everything it has to offer and even the quirkiness has become less interesting. It's an album I can comfortably listen to but the main question that keeps coming to my head is why would I, when I prefer what CMX have done with all these same quirks later down in their career, and the parts of Kolmikärki that belong to it alone are not ones I get much out of? As far as I can gather Kolmikärki has a positive reputation among people who are generally attuned to this sound and I don't doubt for one moment that the album doesn't deserve any of its accolades. But for the most part, it just isn't doing things that strike a chord with me and the main feeling I take away from it is no feeling whatsoever.

So, the harsh rating here isn't really a condemnation of Kolmikärki, if anything it's a condemnation of my music tastes - these songs and this sound aren't ones that resonate with me, and some kind of resonance is one of the main things I seek in music - so this friendship was unlikely ever really to be. If this didn't belong to the discography of a band whose works I generally really enjoy, I wouldn't have ever felt the need to write any thoughts down about this. So it's not you Kolmikärki, it's me, sorry.

And regarding the bonus tracks, i.e. the Raivo EP, if you take into account everything above and then understand that Raivo is effectively a more primal version of this album and more rooted in the hardcore scene, you can decipher where I stand with it. "Hiki" is the highlight, if you want to call it that. Just not my thing.

Rating: 4/10

Lady Gaga - Joanne (2016)

1) Diamond Heart; 2) A-Yo; 3) Joanne; 4) John Wayne; 5) Dancin' in Circles; 6) Perfect Illusion; 7) Million Reasons; 8) Sinner's Prayer; 9) Come to Mama; 10) Hey Girl (feat. Florence Welch); 11) Angel Down

Gaga tries to go for her roots but loses track of the road on the way there.

Key tracks: "Diamond Heart", "Joanne", "Perfect Illusion"

Fame was the drug, Artpop was the binge and the painful comedown, Joanne was the detox. The whole Artpop period was a notoriously difficult time for Lady Gaga mentally and physically, and to recover she needed to distance herself from everything associated with her career so far that had lead her down that path. She started to hang out in different crowds, started her acting career, there was a jazz standards album with Tony Bennett, and eventually she went home to her family for inspiration. Joanne, titled after her aunt, is an intentional clean break from everything that had come before, aiming for a rootsier sound more at home in dive bars than dance clubs - somewhere as far away from Hollywood glamour as possible.

Joanne isn't a rock or a country album even though it seems to have a reputation of being one, but that's precisely its problem: it exists in this awkward middle ground that doesn't strongly commit to anything, and so near everything featured on it sounds half-hearted or half-baked as a result. Its rock songs are weighed down by a pop production that fails to give the instruments the kick they need, its pop songs are let down by a wishy-washy need to strip things down when they would need to pop off instead, and its homebound country heart simply just means that there's more acoustic guitars in the back of the mix. You can't shake the pop away from Gaga no matter how much she tries and Joanne primarily acts as a testament to that as it tries to establish an identity completely separate to the previous albums, but is incapable of shaking off old habits. There's no doubt that it's an album that means a lot to Gaga herself, and so it's doubly awkward just how non-committed it sounds to everything it tries to do. Towards the end of the album there's an inexplicable retro tract where Gaga first flirts with a motown-esque 60s MOR flair ("Come to Mama") and then embraces 80s synths as she duets with Florence Welch in the out-of-nowhere J-folk pastiche "Hey Girl" (seriously, this sounds like an Off Course cut and the song is unexpectedly in my good books because of it), and it just highlights how disjointed the whole affair is. I just want Joanne to be something, because being in this weird partway point between everything in its DNA isn't doing any of its ideas a service.

I use 'ideas' very deliberately there because even if you were to add a little more focus to the record, I still don't think the material would be near her past peaks. Joanne is an album largely composed out of the kind of late-album filler you'd find on an average pop album, awkwardly trying to maintain a presence as they're pushed onto the centre stage. "A-Yo", "Dancin' in Circles" and "Sinner's Prayer" mash together more club-friendly beats with the country house aesthetic but they're tired on arrival and sound like microwaved leftovers of better Gaga ideas from the past few albums with some acoustic guitar slapped on top, and "Million Reasons" and "Angel Down" represent the weakest parts of Gaga's balladeering. The confused production - which sounds weak no matter what musical angle it's trying to pander to - is a big part of the blame here but it would take a lot more workshopping to bring these songs alive in the first place. So much of the record feels like it's fighting with itself and at worst, the result are quite frankly boring, which Gaga should never be by her very nature. Even some of the album's bigger successes feel like compromises. "John Wayne" is a country disco stomper which is exactly what you'd expect from the concept of Gaga putting on an Americana cosplay and it's a really stupid and in some ways a cheaply obvious song, but it's also as raucously fun as it is camp; meanwhile "Perfect Illusion" features Kevin Parker, Josh Homme and Mark Ronson as Gaga's indie cred backing band but you'd never be able to tell because any rock edge it's meant to have has been polished off so as not to scare away the audiences too much - which is a big shame because it's the most impassioned and envigorated performance across the entire album and it just begs to explode louder.

I have absolutely no doubt that Gaga had the best intentions with Joanne, that it was meant to be something more insular and act as a quiet sweep to clean the slate so she could restart afresh; there was definitely a different kind of swing to her general comings and goings after Joanne (for better or worse) and it's undeniable that the process helped her find a new spark. "Diamond Heart" and "Joanne", the album's two best songs by far, even back up the notion that the general direction for the album could've worked very well - the former is the rough and gutsy rock anthem which embodies the album's more rebellious side perfectly, the latter a gentle and genuinely lovely ballad where the album finds its heart. But for an album that comes across like an attempt to refocus, it gives the impression that the attention span of everyone involved faded away partway through and what was meant to have been a cosy homecoming country rock album became what it is now because leaning into old comfort zones was a quick and easy way to wrap it all up. Joanne has gained an ill reputation in some parts for Gaga ignoring the dance and pop sound that she made her name with, but had she actually done so we probably could've had a more divisive but absolutely a more interesting record.

Rating: 5/10

The Shins - The Worm’s Heart (2018)

1) The Fear (Flipped); 2) So Now What (Flipped); 3) Heartworms (Flipped); 4) Dead Alive (Flipped); 5) Half a Million (Flipped); 6) Rubber Ballz (Flipped); 7) Mildenhall (Flipped); 8) Fantasy Island (Flipped); 9) Cherry Hearts (Flipped); 10) Painting a Hole (Flipped); 11) Name for You (Flipped) 

An equally baffling and exciting run of increasingly out-there alternative versions that turn out to achieve something the original songs didn't.

Key tracks: "Heartworms (Flipped)", "Cherry Hearts (Flipped)", "Name for You (Flipped)"

I can’t say I’ve encountered another album like The Worm’s Heart. Artists re-recording and reinterpreting their old songs is nothing new and in fact is almost expected at this stage as the big anniversary numbers roll in. It’s not too uncommon either to hear a specific album with a new sound: e.g. Jim James, Conor Oberst and Manchester Orchestra among many others have released twin versions of a particular album of theirs to showcase the same songs in a different way. But then there’s The Worm’s Heart, borne out of James Mercer’s absolutely bizarre whim to create two completely unique versions of each song written for 2017’s Heartworms. And it's unique in the very definition of the word: these aren’t acoustic versions or slightly tweaked arrangements or anything even remotely similar to what was heard on Heartworms. The hooks and melodies on this album are the same as they were on Heartworms, but the rest is something completely new and off the wall. The sunshine pop of “Name for You” has become a 80s Depeche Mode indebted synth brooder, the formerly acoustic “Mildenhall” has found a fuzz pedal and a goofball garage rock attitude, “Dead Alive” is a goth ballad now, “Half a Million” goes reggae. Anything is a fair game and Mercer turns the previous The Shins album into a series of stylistic experiments of any genre or idea he could never incorporate into actual proper album of his, but this time? This time he's indulging in his wildest ideas.

The Worm’s Heart is obviously a mixed bag - how on earth could it not be? - but it's actually shocking how rarely the "flipped" versions stumble completely despite everything that's going on. In fact, in some measures this is arguably a better album than the actual Heartworms and that's because Mr Mercer's wild ride has a really infectious sense of fun. Heartworms was a weird album but it held itself back in some ways - in comparison, this is completely unhinged and I'm really responding to it. It's a complete mess of course, but in a positive way - in a manner that makes its incohesiveness its own mad rabbit hole that holds together by the sheer audacity of it. I don't think anyone could argue that this album represents Mercer or The Shins at their best, and at the end of the day as the melodies and hooks remain the same there's only so much that these transformations can do to uplift them - but it's simply so much fun whenever artists just have a go at whatever the hell they want and this is an album dedicated to that forbidden fruit of playing songs in styles you would never dream of otherwise recording because of some take on self-imposed artistic integrity preventing it.

 

Honestly, quite often The Worm's Heart downright improves Heartworms because Mercer's fearlessness gives him the means to break out of his creative shell in a manner most positive. Take "Heartworms" itself, and how its chorus finally gets the chance to jump out like it shyly backed out of doing on the milquetoast original version, jolting into the front of the race as a warbling, hyperactive synth pop number that’s a blast of energy and joy. I called "Rubber Ballz" one of the weakest songs released on a Shins album in my review of the original album and now its gently thumping acoustic form has a heartfelt sincerity that underlines the strength of the core melody that was practically buried originally. The too-cool-for-school synth pop vibe of “Name for You” is marvellous and an honest delight, a true love letter to a sound Mercer evidently has a great deal of affinity for, and it's actually more engaging than the very typically Shins-esque original version. “Cherry Hearts”, too, has simply evolved and it's now the jangly college rock number that it really should’ve been all along. There are also plenty of takes that simply stand on their own, including that reggae'd up "Half a Million" that starts out like a heart attack as it demonstrates why white indie nerds maybe shouldn't touch reggae, but it shifts and changes shortly thereafter to incorporate so much more than just a store value band island groove and by its end it's neck to neck with the excellent original; and similarly the new comically funereal "Dead Alive" is just so out there compared to the original (or anything else) that I respect it for it. 

 

As mentioned there are stumbles, but I'm still surprised just how few and far between they are. Namely, "Fantasy Island" has had the least changes and it's a little better than the dire original but not exactly notably so, and "Mildenhall" is responsible for a light chuckle when the loose and ramshackle rock riffs start but it takes about half a minute for the joke to grow old: the whole "make an acoustic song into a raw rocker" shtick is the kind of obviousness the rest of the album avoids and it's the most awkward fit in its new guise. "The Fear" is another bar rocker and while a little better, it doesn't really hold up for its whole five-ish minutes. But for a random pick 'n' mix album like this, roughly a quarter of weaker cuts is an unexpectedly high batting average - and even they're, y'know, memorable which is something I can't say from everything on Heartworms. The original album is one I'm still not entirely sure where exactly I stand on it even though I've reviewed and rated it and all, and yet I am increasingly confident in saying that this is the better version of the two despite how it's got the air of a weird alternate universe bootleg album instead of the artist's genuine vision. I've got a soft spot for albums that make it their central motto to keep surprising and which revel with a kind of creative frenzy that spray their inspiration everywhere and pray it hits the goal; but where even the misses have a rush of excitement to them. I repeat the word "fun" a lot with The Worm's Heart but that's ultimately why I appreciate it so much - it removes some of the self-seriousness that Mercer's been crippled by since Port of Morrow, and as a result his musical touch has grown warmer again even when he's doing a whole album out of cosplaying as his personal favourite acts.

Rating: 7/10