ALBUM PICK : SUCKERS - "CANDY SALAD"

In 2007 Suckers released one of the best tunes of the year, "It Gets Your Body Movin'", an epic anthem rivaling Arcade Fire's Wake Up in all it's magnitude. Even if it sounded better than most released indie-pop recordings today, it was supposedly only a demo.

In 2007 Suckers had an EP amount of edgy, quirky and innovative supposedly-demo-tunes streaming on their MySpace page that were never released officially but were amongst others like Dirty Projectors and Yeasayer and MGMT to define the distinctively tropical, melodic and progressive Brooklyn-sound of the time, but their first official release followed only two years later in 2009 and featured some new songs instead of the already released "demos". What was still included, was "It Gets Your Body Movin'".

In 2010 the group finally released their debut full-length "Wild Smile" that took a clear turn to another direction and felt like the group was purposefully, almost too intentionally wanting to separate themselves out of the whole Brooklyn-pack with more edge than the others.

The turn to freaky 80s hard rock influenced, deliberately cheap sounds and way over the top mood alienated some fans and then again made some new ones. The album included also the third version of It Gets Your Body Movin' which was still clearly the highlight. I was still among the ones that "Wild Smile" turned off and it left me thinking whether the tale for Suckers would be at it's end for me personally.

What came in as a great surprise then was that Sucker's brand new album "Candy Salad" is a clear step back to the warm, diversely tropical sound with anthemic but (t)wistful tunes what the band was originally made of.

Going Nowhere starts the album with a nice punch, twists and anthemic qualities without going way over the top keeping the package still stylistic making it clear we're on a good step back to the golden age of the Brooklyn-sound and delicious melodic pop-crafting.

Figure It Out continues with minimizing everything but the important and packs less than 2 and half minutes of pure awe-inspiringly repeatable catchiness. Bricks to the Bones slows the album down to the chilled out mixture of the huge, instantly hitting bitter-sweet choruses and countless tropically zealous melody passages and hooks the album is mostly made of and George along with Turn On the Sunshine work well to lift the mood to a nice tropical dream.

All in all, "Candy Salad" is Sucker's most refined collection to date and raises the group back on the class A of finely crafted palm-obsessed freak-pop.

Listen to the album entirely below and watch the music videos for Easy Chairs from the first EP and It Gets Your Body Movin' from Wild Smile.


 SUCKERS - EASY CHAIRS


SUCKERS - IT GETS YOUR BODY MOVIN'

ALBUM PICK : KISHI BASHI - "151a"

One of the most endearing, graceful and uplifting albums of the year so far comes from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter K Ishibashi aka Kishi Bashi, whose lush new album "151a" is pure sky-lifting bliss from the heavens.

Striving from the same vein as Owen Pallett and Andrew Bird, K Ishibashi is the touring member of Regina Spektor and of Montreal.

Even with the comparisons, on "151a" Kishi Bashi is it's own animal, packing a much more energetic, fun and groovy way of expression and delicious pop-crafting skills with big dynamics within the songs and the album as a whole.

"151a" is simply a fun and heart-touching piece of heaven to listen and uplift the day.

Intro / Pathos Pathos with it's spine tingling orchestral arrangements and choirs touch the heavens, Bright Whites has that almost distracting quality of poisonously catchy, It All Began With a Burst makes the body move with it's deliciously inventive groove and I Am the Antricrist to You is, along Oh Lord by Winhill/Losehill one of the most emotive, heart-wrenching songs of the year.

You can listen and get the album from Bandcamp below and watch a beautiful looper-orientated rendition of Manchester below along with the music video for Bright Whites. The album can also be listened with Spotify and can be found on the "Stereotype Helsinki // 2012 Q2 Albums + EPs + Singles" playlist.


MANCHESTER LIVE:


BRIGHT WHITES MUSIC VIDEO:

ALBUM PICK : WINHILL / LOSEHILL - "SWING OF SORROW"

One of the most heart touching songs of the year is by far Oh Lord by Swedish 6-piece called Winhill/Losehill.

The group's name took it's form by two mountains called Win Hill and Lose Hill located in Hope Village, England where the band leader Jonas Svennem Lundberg took part in a folk music camp as a youngster.

The group's double album "Swing of Sorrow" is dedicated Lundberg's mother Karin, who died of cancer a few years earlier. Thus the songs were born from a grieving process and deals with the painful loss of a parent, about love and breakups, but also of reconciliation, hope and joy.

The two albums of vibrant, timelessly yearning and beautiful Americana styled folk-pop packed with lush string and horn arrangements are a lot to take in as a whole, but after a few listens the soulful emotion that carries the vast collection through takes over and highlights get clearer.

The lush string orchestra based intro dedicated to Lundberg's mother Karin's Hymn, leads straight to the big piece. Oh Lord instantly catches attention and can easily make a grown man weep. I Will Never Get Enough continues the album with that spine tingling fragility that the group is partly all about. The House Is Black as a contrast makes a nice feel good piece while the first album closes to the mellow serenity of Those Same Damned Days.

The second album starts off slowly with Winnhill/Losehill Part II picking up the pieces of the first album, but quickly makes it clear this time we're on clearer water, carrying on with the more feel-goody soulfulness that the first album only hints about. Don't Let the Inside Shine Out is packed with bittersweet head-bop that makes you smile and "aww" at the same time. I Leave You 'Cause I Don't Care continues with the recipe but adds a poisonously memorable, punchy chorus hook making it a clear second album highlight.

Hope Village is another highlight in it's serene feel good lushness and makes you think Lundberg must've been having the time of his life on the camp.

In all it's soulful emotiveness, "Swing of Sorrow" is still a very easy, approachable album to listen to. But being easy doesn't mean the lack of depth here, as the album is still a clear grower rewarding the persistent listener with something new to catch the attention on every listen.

Listen to "Swing of Sorrow" by Winhill/Losehill through Spotify and watch a graceful live performance of Oh Lord below. The album can also be found on the "Stereotype Helsinki // 2012 Q1 Albums + EPs + Singles" playlist.