Kiki Pau: White Mountain (Johanna Kustannus, 2010)
I have a lot of respect for Kiki Pau and I understand why people are so excited about them, but personally I haven’t totally fallen for them. Maybe it’s my silly mind trying to resist the hype or maybe I just think that The Rollstons can come up with something much more convincing and original out of the same influences or maybe I’m just one damn fool who doesn’t understand a thing about good music. Anyway, White Mountain is Kiki Pau’s second offering and it’s a good record that blends together 90’s US indie rock, 80’s british indie pop and trendy modern indie music. There’s not much to complain. I just got the ticket to a wrong ball game and therefore I’m finding it hard to fully enjoy what is going on. I’m just not really into them when they throw in the indie rock gear and start to sound like Arcade Fire, but the softer and slower moments sure do sound good and show that the band have an ear for beautiful melodies. Therefore songs like Quiet Mountain and Small Cuts are the highlights for me, because they have enough room for subtlety. I suppose qualitywise White Mountain would deserve four hearts, but because I write from purely subjective perspective anything above three wouldn’t be honest. I hope they succeed though, because even though this isn’t totally my cup of tea, it doesn’t taste any weaker than similar kind of tea from the international indie hit charts.
