Hockey break is over (+ Joe Pug)

Sorry for the long break. I didn’t plan it, but hockey addiction took its toll. Quite frankly I was more worried about Sami Vatanen’s ankle than this little blog. But JYP won the title for the second time, so it was definitely worth all the excitement and anxiety. Of course there’s still the NHL Playoffs and the Kummola Hockey Games and I probably end up watching them more than I should. Thankfully those are far less important and I can focus on other things as well. So blog should be back up and running with new updates starting tonight or tomorrow. Now I’m listening to the new Joe Pug album The Great Despiser. It’s fantastic and definitely the new album of the month.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkz4ROGgGWc]

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Johannes Laitila – Hearts Somewhere

Hearts Somewhere by Johannes Laitila came out last week on the 28th of march. Hearts Somewhere is his second album. The debut flew under my radar, but this new one has gotten quite a lot of air time in this household during the past few weeks. It won’t make me shout his name from the rooftops, but I enjoy listening to the album. You can listen to the whole album on his Soundcloud. This is the music video for the song entitled November.

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Piilomaa

Ville Härkönen is currently exploring the Ethiopian pop music scene, but thankfully that hasn’t stopped him from writing new music and forming new bands. Piilomaa = Ville Härkönen, Ensio Kinnunen, Heikki Marttila, Pekka Kupiainen and Petri Varis and they’ve put together a promo EP, which you can hear below. My own favourite is Vaativaa seuraa. It’s been stuck in my head since I first heard it on Ville’s solo concert sometime last year.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1759695″ height=”200″ iframe=”true” /]

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David Myhr – Soundshine

Monday was a great day for fans of power pop, because Lojinx released David Myhr’s solo debut Soundshine. The expectations were sky high, because David Myhr used to play in The Merrymakers, which is one of my all-time favourite power pop groups. Thankfully Soundshine fills those almost unrealistic expectations extremely well. This really is pure pop perfection and it’s no wonder that the album has gotten a fantastic reception in the pop-minded blogosphere. For example both Powerpopaholic and Absolute Powerpop think it’s the the album of the year so far. I can pretty much agree. Even though my addiction to Mörönsyötti has reached such heights that Soundshine probably can’t knock it out from the album of the year spot, this definitely is my favourite pure pop album of the year (and the opening track Never Mine is a strong candidate for the song of the year award). This catchy-as-hell pop heaven has more beautiful melodies than there are country songs about Carolina. I enjoyed the lyrical side of things as well. I have to mention the opening lines of Wanderlust. Sometimes I’m able to make art out of indecisiveness and therefore the line “I used to think I had a problem making up my mind / Now I’m not sure anymore” just made me smile. If you are looking for timeless melodies and harmony-filled pop music, you really can’t go wrong with Soundshine. Perfect spring soundtrack and if you are listening to this I guarantee that even the nastiest sudden cold spell can’t remove the sunshine from your heart.

David Myhr Website

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