40. Olavi Uusivirta: Preeria

There won’t be many major label releases on the list, but I suppose also those big boys need to get the credit when they deserve it. Olavi Uusivirta’s latest album Preeria was a beautiful 70’s kind of pop album. A couple of horrible songs as well, but I can forgive that, because this is mostly either great or really good pop music.

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39. Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love

Oh yes, I know this is a shocking place for Belle & Sebastian. Maybe I just haven’t really listened to this one enough, but you have to earn your ice time on hockey and I suppose an album has to earn the “air time”.  Write About Love is definitely a good album. Even a really good album. It might be a bit unfair, but I always expect something special from Belle & Sebastian and therefore just a good pop album feels like a minor disappointment.

38. The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever

Pretty much the same goes here. Basic goodness from The Hold Steady, but nothing really earth-shattering this time around. Well apart from Soft In The Center and Weekenders. Those two songs are pretty damn wonderful and I love them to bits.

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37. Kim Curly Band: Kim Curly Band

Kim Curly Band’s beautiful debut album has gotten criminally small amount of attention on this blog. It ain’t perfect, but it’s still a pretty convincing debut album. If you are looking for finnish americana, look no further. For example Beauty and Through My Window are such a magnificent songs.

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36. Chatham County Line: Wildwood

Chatham County Line wrote possibly the greatest song of the last decade, The Carolinian. New album Wildwood doesn’t  contain equally stunning songs, but the band is still in very good form and deliver beautiful bluegrass and americana songs.

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35. Kasey Anderson: Nowhere Nights

Kasey Anderson was a new find for me and what a great find he was. A wonderful singer-songwriter capable of writing powerful country rockers and captivating folk ballads. Nowhere Nights isn’t perfect from start to finish, but there’s a bunch of really fantastic songs in here.

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34. Drive-By Truckers: The Big To-Do

Certainly not their greatest album, but the highlights like Fourth Night Of My Drinking and Birthday Boy are freakin’ awesome. I think that this time they really succeeded with those rockin’ country tunes, but some of those slower numbers didn’t quite rise to their standard level.

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33. Topi Saha: Verta ja lihaa

I’ve been waiting for this album since I heard Hämeentie 61 a couple of years ago on myspace. Topi Saha is a young finnish folk singer-songwriter and this is his debut album. It’s mostly gorgeous. Hämeentie 61 still sounds perfect and there’s at least 5-6 almost equally wonderful songs. There are a couple of “just ok” tunes, but hey.. it’s a debut and pretty damn impressive one.

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32. The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang

Maybe the weakest The Gaslight Anthem so far, but still pretty impressive stuff. And I’m not sure is it the weakest either. It could be just the fact that the thrill of finding them is gone and therefore it’s harder to find the same kind of excitement as before. It sounds like they have just one song, but thankfully that one song is so damn good.

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31. Lemonator: Shake, Shake, Shake

Lemonator: Shake, Shake, Shake (Fried Music, 2010)

Lemonator is one of my favourite bands. They played a big part in my music education and got me into this beautiful pop mess back there in the late nineties. I’m grateful for all that, but hey.. finally there’s no need to sink into some strange 90’s nostalgia when talking about Lemonator. The boys are back in town and they are still making wonderful pop music. However, I admit that I was a little scared when the first single Shake, Shake, Shake hit the surface and I still don’t like it that much. A friend of mine said it’s kind of like Sloan and actually I can hear that now, but I still have my doubts. That’s just one song though and there’s no need to get stuck into that, because while the song Shake, Shake, Shake is just ok, the album Shake, Shake, Shake is just great.

The album is a slice of harmonic pop heaven and it sounds joyful, warm and everlastingly beautiful. It might steal and borrow a bit from several pop vaults, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I prefer the latter half of the album and my own favourites are the should-have-been single I Always Wanted To Be A Drummer, A Beautiful Sun that reminds me of Linus Of Hollywood (or sounds like they’ve been influenced by same california pop treasures)  and the marvellous last song Always Look After.

Oh.. one more thing.. I’ve really missed hearing Lasse Kurki sing. He might be one hell of a producer for other artists, but with that voice you just can’t get completely buried behind the producer’s desk. If you have a voice so warm & beautiful, you should just sing, sing, sing. Therefore I hope that this will be the last comeback album for Lemonator at least for the time being. Which means that don’t stay away so long that people can call the next one a comeback album. Let’s say a new album every two years or so. Deal? Yeah, I’ll shake, shake, shake on that.

Lemonator Website
Lemonator at myspace

New album Shake Shake Shake out and available right now.

Lemonator Website
Lemonator at myspace

PENNILESS

New album A Cab To The City out and available right now.

Penniless Website
Penniless at myspace

(sorry that I didn’t write anything more. I have the flu and I’m tired. However, I love both of these bands, I’m extremely excited about these new albums and these albums will most likely get a lot of high praises on this blog in the not-so-distant future. Now I’ll put just hit the play button on the new Lemonator album and try to shake this flu out of my body.)

New Lemonator single Shake Shake Shake is now on their myspace. It’s great to have them back and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming album.

Lemonator at myspace