I still have a collection of about a dozen February release Albums / EPs to wrap up from last month, but I’ll finish the more detailed write-ups with a real treat, courtesy of Finnish band Pintandwefall.
This is somewhat remarkably their 7th album, hence the title ‘Seventh Baby’, having started way back in 2007 with ‘Wow, What Was That Baby’, and along the way there’s been EP’s and a vast number of other projects for band members too, with Sanna Komi, Ninni Luhtasaari, Ringa Manner and Iiti Yli-Harja all being involved in ‘other stuff’.
‘Seventh Baby‘ is enjoyable partly because it fuses together so many indie styles, from indie pop to shoegaze to post punk, but all delivered in an unmistakeable Pintandwefall style, which seems to involve them doing whatever the hell they want, as long as they’re having fun doing it.
The album opens with the darker / melancholy guitars and vocals in ‘Aihai’, before the typically quirky ‘Annabella’, but for me really comes to life for me with ‘Tuesday, No Brain’, irresistibly catchy indie pop, with trademark Pintandwefall lyrics that focus on the smaller things in life. ‘Home Alone, Sane’ carries on the same spirit, with an ethereal harmonised choir delivering the chorus.
‘Clues’ is outrageous fun, with the competing guitars becoming almost mesmerising by the end of the track, ’Friendly Hand’ heads gently in the direction of 90’s shoegaze, whilst ‘Hard Work’ starts off in a post punk even maths rock style and ‘Dust Maker’ heads even further in the punk direction, a high energy infectious track that rattles through in just over 2 minutes.
The album ends with pre-album single ‘Last Minutes’, an obvious highlight before they end with ‘Mostly Me’, an melancholy perhaps reflective track which at close to 5 minute is probably the longest too.
Indie guitar pop (if that’s what it is) doesn’t get a lot better than this, with ’Seventh Baby’ packed full of tunes, twists and turns from start to finish. With 2022 somehow being even more distasteful than 2021 we really do need something to keep the spirits up, and a daily dose of Pintandwefall is pretty much guaranteed to put a brief smile at least on everyone's faces.
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