Lasten Hautausmaa ‎– IV

Svart Records (SVART219CD)

Lasten Hautausmaa (Children's Cemetary) is a cool Finnish pop/rock band that has been gaining quite a lot of attention during the recent years. Their fourth album was released a week ago and I got to say I like it although it's really not my cup of tea musically. This means they are not psychedelic, spacey or heavy. The band was formed in 2013 in Kouvola and the first album was released in 2015 on Svart. They also have a couple of singles and an EP so I guess you could call them pretty prolific.

This is actually the first time I have really listened to the band's music apart from some video tracks etc. I had a feeling they have a great sense for melody and atmosphere, but IV finally proves it. You can hear echoes of some of the best Finnish pop/rock music since at least the 60's, mostly on the melancholic side of course. Also the lyrical themes are usually pretty gloomy but somehow beautiful as well. There's a lot of hit potential on several tracks, if not all. The female/male vocals work really well and the instrumentation is varied enough but still pretty normal. Some of the songs, especially "Punainen ja valkoinen" are like a bit updated Leevi and the Leavings hits and there's nothing wrong with that. There are also a few dreamy ballads of course. My favourite is the rather different, up-beat, rocking and hypnotic "Kaarlo Sarkia 29" that could be an early Death Hawks song. Cool to hear some fuzz guitar in there as well. All in all a nice, pleasant and rather interesting album with great melodies, good songs, excellent musicianship and production. Good, honest old-school pop/rock music with respect for the old Finnish masters.

The band is on tour right now and you can see them tonight at Tavastia in Helsinki!

www.facebook.com/lastenhautausmaa