Valley Below: Dog Day (VB Music, 2010)

Valley Below’s second album Dog Day is far from being entirely flawless, but in a way that’s part of the charm. There are bits and pieces that I don’t like at all, but it doesn’t matter because the album as a whole feels fresh and alive. Sometimes you just need to make a couple of wrong turns in order to make the trip interesting. There’s straightforward rock, harmonic power pop and beautiful folk. Sometimes even within a same song. For example Primitives kicks in like a 90’s weird finnish indie rock tune, then burst into a great pop chorus and then slowes down into something beautiful before the last chorus brings it to the end. The best thing about the album are the vocal melodies. Valley Below started out as an acoustic duo and they’ve played and sung together a lot. It shows, because every now and then the vocals just click perfectly. My own favourite song is Kick-Off that reminds me of Poverty Stinks, but several others come close. There are also 3-4 songs that I’m not a big fan of, but even some of those contain a few wonderful moments. Dog Day is far from perfect, but it’s a delightful and extremely enjoyable album and  the band deserves a lot of credit for not playing it safe.

Valley Below at myspace

The second Valley Below album Dog Day has been out for a few days. It’s a really good album as well. There’s 6 songs from the album on their myspace, if you want judge yourself.

Valley Below at myspace

FLANNELMOUTH

Flannelmouth’s new album The Heart Cannot Hold has been released by Jäänsärkijä Records. Check out their new website and myspace for more information.

Flannelmouth Website
Flannelmouth at myspace

CATS ON FIRE

New digital Cats On Fire single The Hague is available for free. It’s a co-release by Johanna Kustannus and Cosy Recordings. You can download it from the Cosy Recordings website.

Cosy Recordings Website

TINK

I just noticed that Tink has two new songs on his myspace. A very very fine songs too I might add. My soundtrack for this late night.

Tink at myspace

VALLEY BELOW

Valley Below is getting ready to release their second album Dog Day. The release date is 22.01.2010, but you can already listen to three songs on their myspace. My favourite is the last one called Kick-Off. Somehow it makes me think of Poverty Stinks which is a good thing.

Valley Below Website

Oh.. and that albums of the year list. It’s actually finished. I’ll start the countdown thingy tomorrow evening / night and work from the 40th place to the album of the year. That album of the year should be revealed on sunday at the latest. I’ll try to add 10 every day and that would mean it should be done on friday night. But in case I’m busy it might take a day or two longer. I will see how many times I can still change my mind about the first place during this countdown. It was a battle between TAB and BE and I had a hard time deciding. But now I’m fairly confident that I’ve made my decision… or maybe not…