Chapter II: Album Reviews

I have gone from pleading that nobody reads me my own album reviews in the early 2000s to willingly reading reviews both good and bad. I have become the critic of the critics who is more interested in internal flow rather than how many stars they gave my music...

I have been the reviewers' pet for a long time. Always appreciated, never horribly misunderstood, ridiculed or hated. Maybe it is due to this safe feeling that I have begun to read reviews with a genuine interest in the writer's way of thinking, in their approach to music.

With the explosion of on-line media there are millions of platforms for music reviews these days and therefore all guidelines or common principles have been washed away. I think this suggests both immense possibilities and the danger of complete chaos. As the pretense of objectivity and unemotional evaluation is vanishing, album reviews now have the potential of rising from the listener's subjective experience. Putting this experience to a context that is informative or on some other level justified seems to be the problem at present.

What is the purpose of album reviews in magazines and on-line publications? Has it shifted as the printed press prints smaller and smaller reviews and the virtual reality knows no limitations of length? Has it changed when there is continually more and more music to be written about?
Are we reading the reviews to know what to buy, what is in or to learn about one person's experience? Does any one reviewer have authority to decide what we will listen to? Is the loss of authority in criticism a facet in dwindling sales of music?

At best a review of an album is in discussion with the music. It is inspired by it, it responds and creates onwards from there. I am still in search for such a review. I guess writing it would take a long time...In the meantime, I will keep reading.

On Reading My Own Album Reviews chapter 1.

Here's the Woody Allen case: Woody goes to Europe to make a string of movies mostly slated by the film critics for reasons such as 'not enough Woody in them', 'what does he know about English culture or Barcelona', and he should go back to New York and do what he does best. Woody's stock goes down critically (while a new generation who did not get Annie Hall do get Vicky Christina Barcelona).

Now Allen has gone back to New York (at least for this one film), he has found an old script on which he worked in the 1970's (his golden period) and has done a funny, twisted New York comedy which tackles with his beloved question: what's the point in life when we all die in the end? Classic Woody.

I watched Whatever Works in a cinema called Angelica in SoHo (on Mercer and 18 West Houston). It was a humid and overheated day in last August. I laughed with the responsive and explosive audience–popcorn was kicked and spilled and a man kept commenting loudly to the characters on the screen. We had fun and felt good about Woody's return and his recent victory over American Apparel.

But what do the film critics who hated Allen's European adventures say this time around? Well, they have reversed into 'we preferred his European films'. Plain and clear if not contradictory.
Tomorrow I will discuss the Finnish album reviews so far for Better Than Wages.

Stranded in Stereo & Lost in Music

American blog Stranded in Stereo has posted my video for download today.
The video was directed by Sami Sänpäkkilä (visual artist, filmmaker and the man behind Fonal Records) and it was shot in my home!

Tomorrow, Thursday we are playing at this year's Lost in Music festival in Tampere@Yo-talo.
We will share the stage with Cats on Fire and Regina.

Cocktail parties

It started last week with an invitation to an event that somehow related to the new subway line.
Then yesterday a good smelling invitation with candy, big red lips and the name Jade Jagger.
I was asked to enter one of those glitzy new night clubs in town, to wear red, drink champagne and eat canapes. If ever there was a chance to see the bare shoulders of rally drivers' wives and footballers maybe, it would be here...and maybe the infamous Mr. Mouth will be in town himself for his daughter's exclusive Finnish party. I was also sent an invitation to an auction house this week. Do they think they can lure me into bidding on some paintings now that I am a recording artist?

Thank you for the invitations, but I will be working on those dates. I will be in the unglamorous green rooms of small clubs and if anything on me will be red, it'll be my warm woolly leggins from Marimekko.

22.10. Yo-talo, Tampere w/ Cats on Fire and Regina
30.10. Bar15, Seinäjoki
19.11. Suisto-klubi, Hämeenlinna
20.11. Dynamo, Turku
21.11. Blue Pool, Forssa

Today at Tavastia (meet the sober and the drunk)

Good morning! Me and the Drunk Lovers are in the capital of Finland this morning, getting ready to play Tavastia this evening.
There will be some surprises in the show.
Cats on Fire start at 9PM sharp, so come early.
I remembered that their album is called Our Temperance Movement, which makes this evening a meeting of the sober and the drunk. I guess we have approached the same problem from opposite directions. In this promised land of alcohol all comments are necessary, I think.

Here is the lyric for Hands Tied. It is the last song on Better Than Wages.

the curtains are still drawn
It must be mid-day
you don’t wanna see the sun
it’s cloudy anyway

breaking up with someone
is better than all alone
waiting for a phone call
when the phone’s not on
is lonely

I never promised
but I let myself down
maybe it’s cause I’m tired
of trying to be something

breaking up with someone
is better than all alone
waiting for a phone call
when the phone’s not on
is lonely

you should have warned me
I should have let you in
you should have stayed
when I was sleeping

breaking up with someone
is better than all alone
waiting for a phone call
when the phone’s not on
is lonely
oh, it’s lonely

you left me with nothing
but my hands tied

Live Review and more lyrics

This coming Wednesday I will be playing at Tavastia, Helsinki with the notorious Drunk Lovers.
Cats on Fire is also performing on Wednesday evening at 9PM so all the more reason to be there rain or shine.

Here is a live review by Aamulehti of a show couple weeks ago (I guess it's for the Tampere show).
The review is very positive, which I am surprised by because it was a very difficult show for the band. I was recovering slowly from bronchitis and just before the show I puked the last antibiotic pill out of my guts and felt like fainting all the time. The next night in Turku we played the best show we have done so far...but hey, thank you for coming to those shows and we did our best on both evenings.

Here is the lyric for The Little You Give. This song is about loving a Pavement fan.

I have learnt two things from you
never to tell exactly what’s on my mind
and never to lie

I have said two things to you
always to say precisely what you feel
and never to die

I
don’t know why
we’re still dancing
around the table
I
don’t know why
we still hold on
to that old refrain:

‘And I accept the little you give
between the lies and the day that you die’

I have kept two things from you
they will forever remain unsaid
and you won’t be hurt

I have sung these words to you
when you had Crooked Rain on so loud
we both thought we were in
Pavement

I
don’t know why
we’re still holding
onto that same old song
I
don’t know why
we still dance
around the table
I
don’t know why
we still hold on
to that same refrain:

‘And I accept the little you give
between the lies and the day that you die’