Today sees the release of two excellent Finnish albums. First up is the Helsinki-based The New Magnetic North and their debut album Letters On the Floor. The core group of Pyry Suomala, Maria Pääkkönen, Mikael Tiittanen comes from the now disbanded Skip Zone, so if you got high marks on your Finnish americana exam, there’s a good chance you’ve already spent a while in the comfort of their songs. At first this was actually supposed to be just a project for the songwriter Pyry Suomala, but eventually one thing led to another and The New Magnetic North became a full six-piece band. The debut Letters on the Floor is a damn fine alternative country album with a fair share of pop melodies and beautiful harmonies. Here’s the gorgeous album opener and title track + another deep album cut Sky Hangs Loose. The latter one features Ninni Poijärvi on violin. Listen to / buy the whole beautiful album on their Bandcamp.
The New Magnetic North at Facebook
Next we have the Finnish indie songbook as presented by verões aka Petri Nakari. The self-titled verões album contains new versions of songs by (should be) indie legends ultrasport, Sister Flo, The Rollstons, Harry Hunks, Laidun and TV-Resistori. Onechordnet veterans are probably well aware of these lovely bands, because back in the day they all were a big part of the foundation of this little website. Therefore it’s definitely no wonder that I love to hear these beautifully re-imagined versions of these songs that are blissfully stuck in my heart for as long as I breathe. Here’s
verões giving a new leash of life to You Are Evil (originally by ultrasport) and Balloons (originally by The Rollstons). Listen to / buy the whole lovely album on his Bandcamp.