CMX - Isohaara (2002)

1) Päänsärkijä; 2) Pohjoista leveyttä; 3) Veitsenterä; 4) Minne paha haudattiin; 5) Isohaara; 6) Revontulten repijä; 7) Minun sydämeni on särkynyt; 8) Post mortem; 9) Lihan syvyyksiin; 10) Silmien takana; 11) Tuulilukko

No plans, "just" songs in a breadth of styles - in good and bad.

Key tracks: "Pohjoista leveyttä", "Minun sydämeni on särkynyt", "Lihan syvyyksiin"

The album that restarts with each song, as CMX themselves have retrospectively described Isohaara. Recorded across several months with no real plan behind the sessions, Isohaara looks like an obvious U-turn to take immediately after the prog epic Dinosaurus Stereophonicus: just songs, with little cohesion in-between them. Within its eleven songs you can find punk-energised thrashing around, wistful pop songs, heavy metal, an ambient ballad, an acoustic cut and radio-friendly pop/rock - there’s no connecting tissue between any of them and the tracklist may as well have been shuffled (even the band would start posting alternative song orders in later years through social media once streaming became a thing).

Isohaara wears its flaws on its sleeves and so I don’t think it’s too surprising if I say that it’s an unfocused grab bag of a record. It’s the first - and only - CMX album that doesn’t have an identity beyond a selection of songs packaged in one disc, and that obviously has an impact on the overall experience. Nor is it therefore too surprising that the quality is all over the place here, and that does include the kind of bottom of barrel material we’ve not heard in several albums: “Isohaara” only stands out because of its children’s choir (which doesn’t really add anything either), “Post mortem” doesn’t even do that and in the tracklist it represents a three minute gap in my memory. “Silmien takana” is almost a guilty pleasure, so deep in soft rock cliches that it could be a parody and yet it’s positively catchy even if it feels wrong. You can never tell what's around each corner, in style or quality. Albums with no greater focus can turn their messiness into a boon if they tap into a certain kind of creative anything-goes ethos and turn their wildness into their focus - in case of Isohaara, it sounds like a band who have plateaued and who aren’t really sure what to do except to make another record, and some of the songs make that abundantly clear.

Nonetheless, just as much as it swings low it does also score high at an even greater frequency. The lack of any guiding musical concept or theme means that CMX (inadvertently or not) steer the good ship Isohaara towards some really interesting sonic places that haven't really had space in their albums before. "Revontulten repijä" echoes within gargantuan space, sounding both mystical and futuristic as it stretches its slowburning rhythm across six minutes like a deep space funeral march; with "Minne paha haudattiin" the band who have joked about their occasional metal flair finally lean right into it, with crushing brick wall guitar riffs, an inherently Finnish coldness and even a genuine, honest-to-god guitar solo (which CMX never do);  "Lihan syvyyksiin" is at its core a good ol' CMX rock number but its arrangement shifts shape throughout, lending the song a restlessly twitchy feel halfway between groovy and derailed. Other songs drill down on the essentials without anything superfluous in the way, primarily the balls-to-walls guitar energy of the punk-spirited lead single "Pohjoista leveyttä" and the sublime pop gem "Minun sydämeni on särkynyt", the most honest and earnestly immediate song CMX have ever dared to release, far away from any attempts of self-sabotage or trying to make it weirder and it's all the better for it. Sometimes you simply need a beautiful melody and set it to simple, resonant lyrics to create something immortal - "Minun sydämeni on särkynyt" does just that and decorates it with a wistful, lush arrangement. In the chaos of Isohaara it feels like a breather in the centre, the heart that pulls the rest of the songs together as much as it can. 

It's a simple case of the good songs outweighing the weak. On an album like Isohaara where there's no red line running through - that sounds like a compilation of singles and their respective b-sides - it's that simple factoid that makes it worth a check. It's an obvious hold note, a stop gap release between two high profile albums that define the band in their own particular ways; in-between them, Isohaara primarily acts as a reminder of CMX's diversity. If you think of the album starting over with each new song, the tracks here are almost like individual teasers of eleven entirely different albums, of which almost all would have been worth a punt exploring more. And the worst thing about it is how easy it is to forget that, simply because it doesn't have a strong identity and thus gets lost in this vast discography it's in. Coming back to Isohaara always means to also rediscover it; just separate the wheat from the chaff and it becomes clear just how much of the good stuff there actually is in its song selection, obscured by memories of the incohesiveness around them.

Rating: 7/10

Physical corner: As per usual with CMX, a standard jewel case and a booklet with lyrics - this time also some moody band photos and a cryptic "So the writings would come true" message above the credits.

Ville Leinonen - Hei taas (2017)

1) Kultani mun; 2) Tahdon sinut; 3) Vastaa jo, please; 4) Nasta pimu; 5) Sadepisaroita; 6) Sinä olet hän; 7) Anna rakas raju hetki; 8) Ota kii; 9) Tyydytys; 10) Me emme laske viiteen

A brief introduction to Finnish 80s synth-disco fever. In the form of a covers record.

Key tracks: "Kultani mun", "Anna rakas raju hetki", "Ota kii"

The late 2010s/early 2020s have seen a renewed interest in Finland on how our nation experienced and interpreted the 1980s and the synthesizers that came with it, both in form of a clear inspiration in new acts as well as through various selector compilations reintroducing the known and more importantly the now-unknown acts for modern audiences. Like so many countries Finland too was seduced by the new possibilities provided by the shiny technology of the era, and the various continental European sub-scenes (particularly italo disco and anything that was happening in Germany) acted as a firmer influence than what was happening in the Anglosphere. When those influences met up with the grand Finnish schlager tradition or our other charmingly awkward cultural peculiarities - including the language that at best was a clumsy match in this new environment - they lended the familiar electronic sounds a distinct feel: an imprint of our own that has now started to be re-appreciated as newer generations have embraced it rather than be embarrassed by it.

The adult contemporary singer Ville Leinonen was a frontrunner in this regard with 2017's Hei taas, the sequel to his 2007 album Hei!. The first Hei! found Leinonen digging through the 70s Finnish schlager songbook, covering a selection of carefully chosen songs with a faithful and loving touch. Hei taas does the same but this time the scope is aimed at the 1980s and the uneasy companionship that disco and synth pop made with traditional Finnish easy listening music. Five of the songs are Finn-originals, the other five are based on translated versions of international hits which success-seeking artists and producers converted into a more linguistically palatable form: most notably Modern Talking's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" ("Ota kii") and Irene Cara's "Fame" ("Me emme laske viiteen"). Leinonen keeps his versions loyal to the originals: the sounds and arrangements aren't 100% 1-to-1 but for most parts they're as close as you can get and the production sticks to the 80s aesthetic throughout and imitates the original synthwork as much as possible in tone (and most importantly the songs retain all those wonderful arpeggio fills that seems to be a signature move of this decade). Nine out of ten songs were originally sung by women and it's made very obvious in a very eighties-esquely stereotyped way, and Leinonen retains those original lyrics while keeping a straight face: there's definitely a clash between the lyrics and the performance here that's absolutely intentional and in itself a gimmick for some of these songs, most obviously "Sadepisaroita", originally sung by the then-12 year old Jonna Tervomaa and coming across nearly surreal when sung by a grown man.

The song selection is in general really well put together and bears the feel of an archival passion project where Leinonen has avoided any obvious big hits and instead he's chosen personal favourites and lost gems that time has forgotten. Some of these are real treasures and unearthing them for people who weren't there originally to discover now is a real cultural boon. "Kultani mun" (as made famous by Berit) is a dramatic 80s torchsong that's absolutely on par with any international classic, the aforementioned "Sadepisaroita" is lovely bubblegum sweetness, "Anna rakas raju hetki" (Nisa Soraya) has become a Finnish camp cult favourite and struts with confidence, and "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" is an absolute evergreen smash no matter what language it's in and thus "Ota kii", which doesn't dare to stray away from the original beyond the vocals, gets full points by default. Bringing them to the spotlight is a chance to give them the respect they deserve, especially non-translated songs - Finland could be toe to toe with the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) of the decade and before Hei taas and the various archival releases that have followed over the years, it wasn't something I really had realised. There's just one issue here, in this selection of various crate-digging catches - and that's Leinonen himself.

The thing is, Hei taas can't escape from sounding like a karaoke album.You can tell Leinonen is genuinely into this music, but it's also obvious that he's operating well outside his musical comfort zone and there's no way you can turn him into a convincing disco diva with his dry, almost timid vocals. His singing takes some time getting used to and even after you do get used to them, it just becomes more apparent that Leinonen himself doesn't actually add anything to these songs. If you play those original versions side-by-side as a comparison, you start to wish this was a compilation, a mixtape someone made to showcase some old favourites. The best of the best of the songs still shine bright even with Leinonen in the lead, but with many of the others you get this feeling like you've loaded up a track in a playlist and accidentally added a license-dodging "as made famous by..." version instead. Hei taas looks and talks the part, but doesn't walk it. Plus while the tracklist is mostly fine, when the album does take a dip it absolutely plummets. Funny enough, the most offending numbers are the onest that feature the most creative freedom in contrast to the originals: "Sinä olet hän" (another Berit cut) is destroyed by Leinonen's creative decision to turn the chorus into a monotonous churn with distracting backing vocals, and "Nasta pimu" (Kake Randelin) wasn't particularly good to begin with but the mindnumbing repetitiveness of it and the endless key changes and tempo increases that are piled up on its plain bones (which the song mistakens to be something actually interesting) turn it actually obnoxious. Even though Leinonen performing along a karaoke VHS for the rest of the album isn't ideal, it feels positive given what seems to happen when he finally doesn't.

I have a slight soft spot for Hei taas because it was what first piqued my interest to dig deeper into the Finnish synthesizer histories, but as it is sometimes the more you start listening to the originals the more the recreations begin to lose their shine. I practically feel bad for criticising Leinonen like I have - no one records an album like this unless they really love the source material - but it's him that has effectively converted this into a niche release and a collection curio rather than something genuinely unique and exciting. There's a great compilation inside these covers and the liner notes, which include brief biographies of the original artists and recordings as well as a general history of the period being paid tribute to, just further emphasise that. But that collection becoming a covers album simply leaves me conflicted.

Rating: 6/10

Physical corner: Standard jewel case, with a rather interesting booklet as described above.