The Scaramangas – All Is Good Now (2005)

Before university, I worked in a café in Helsinki city centre for about a year. During that time, I talked a lot about music with other employees there. We could play some of our own albums while working and the discussions went to music. One of my colleagues played keyboards in a band and I was interested to hear what kind of music they played. He invited me to one of their gigs. This band was The Scaramangas. I ended up buying their two first EPs from that gig. I really liked their original indie sound that was accompanied by melodica. Back in the day their music reminded me of The Coral that I had just gotten acquainted to at the time. After those couple of EPs I forgot about the band for a while, until a couple of years later I noticed this album at a music department of a department store in Helsinki and I bought it.

Mercury Rev – All is Dream (2001)

This was the first Mercury Rev album I ever heard. I had heard about the band earlier on, and someone mentioned that it sounds a bit like The Flaming Lips, which got me interested. I then borrowed this CD from the library and I was sold from the start. All Is Dream remains my favourite Mercury Rev album even if Deserter's Song is more legendary to big masses. The album contains massive sounds and amazing orchestrations. And yes, it does indeed, sound a bit like The Flaming Lips from time to time, but I actually have grown to like Mercury Rev even more than The Flaming Lips. The high-pitched vocals sound untrained but that just gives this music mystique and authenticity. The melodies are absolutely brilliant ranging from hopeful and happy to sad and melancholic. I bought this album on vinyl while living in Finland.

Sufjan Stevens – All Delighted People EP (2010)

Susan Stevens is one of my all time favourite artists. His album Come On, Feel the Illinoise! made a huge impression on me some time after its release. That album was mainly Americana folk, but there were some amazing orchestrated parts and strange noises on the album as well. Later on, I learned that Sufjan Stevens really had wanted to make a lot more alternative music in the beginning. His early recordings were full of experimental noise, but his father had convinced him that he needs to make more listenable music to reach audiences and if he wants to be a professional musician, he has to leave the experimental noise behind. He then gained huge appreciation from critics and also reached many indie audiences with his albums which finally gave him the opportunity to move his music into more experimental direction. All Delighted People EP is one of the first ventures into that direction.

Cats On Fire – All Blackshirts to Me (2012)

Cats On Fire is one of the most ambitious Finnish indie bands of the last ten years or so. This band originates in Vaasa, which is one of the most Swedish speaking major cities in Finland. This band is also formed of Swedish speaking Finns. The lead singer's vocals have been compared to those of Morrissey's over and over again. I'm not sure if the comparison is that accurate, but along with melancholic guitar indie pop on the background, Cats On Fire sounds often a lot like a modern version of The Smiths. Cats On Fire also draw clear influences from 1960's Finnish music that was in turn inspired by 1950's rockabilly with clear electric guitars. You might even say that Cats On Fire sounds like a collection of rock n' roll history, because you can find so many different influences in the songs. But that would be unjust description, because Cats On Fire also has a very recognisable sound of their own.

Bruce Dickinson – Alive in Studio A (1995)

I must say, this was the first album in this blog that I kind of struggled to listen through. I used to be a huge Iron Maiden fan as a pre-teen and this is why I ended up owning this album, but I would never really listen to this album anymore if it wasn't for this blog. Dickinson's solo material is not as melodic as Iron Maiden and the heroic guitar solos are absent as are the amazing bass lines of Steve Harris. The only thing that is left is Dickinson's screaming vocals. This album is not actually an album in a traditional sense. It's a collection of remakes of Dickison's songs from the first two albums. There's also another CD that is the live recording from Marquee Club in London. I wasn't that impressed by this album even back in the day when it came out, but now my musical taste has changed quite significantly and this album really wasn't that enjoyable.

Girls – Album (2009)

When you name your band Girls and the first album is called Album, you make sure that it's difficult for people to Google you're band or your album. Even now, when you just write those two things on Spotify, you won't immediately find what you're looking for. I guess this might actually been intentional move on the part of this Californian indie rock band. Their music draws influences from Californian surf rock and from 60's pop music. The mood is very laid back and it feels like this really is music that is meant to be listened to in the laid back surfer communities of California. The guitars sound charmingly authentic and you can hear every strum. That's what I really like about this band's sound. It definitely isn't ruined with sleazy studio polishing. The laconic vocals are also amazingly fitting for this kind of lazy music.

Laura Marling – Alas, I Cannot Swim (2008)

Laura Marling seems to name her albums with names that come early in the alphabet, because this is already the second album by her in this blog. Alas, I Cannot Swim is probably my favourite album of hers. The sounds are very authentic and folky and there aren't that many studio tricks. The music speaks for itself. Marling's voice is easily audible so you can enjoy her lyrics. I also like the fact that you can recognise all the instruments and really hear how they've been played. This kind of purist approach appealed to me a lot when I had just moved to London. I found a whole bunch of artists that relied on songwriting and their musical abilities without trying to convert their sounds into something crazy. I like the fact that the album sounds like Marling would just perform in your living room. This is Marling's debut album and that is quite impressive as she sounds like such a professional on it.

Ismo Alanko – Alangolla (1997)

Ismo Alanko is a famous Finnish musician whose career started in the early 1980's and whose music has had a huge influence in Finnish music scene ever since. He has played in numerous bands that have represented very different styles and genres. Over and over again, he has managed to renew himself and all the different styles have found interested audiences. Alangolla is his 4 CD compilation box that includes the greatest hits from his first two bands and his solo career. The other two CDs are a collection of rarities and B-sides, including some live recordings. This box is not in its entirety on Spotify, so I have just compiled a playlist with most of the songs. The first band of his, Hassisen Kone draws its influences from early 80's post-punk scene. The second band, Sielun Veljet, mixes many different influences variating from new wave to shamanistic world music and to psychedelic rock. His solo career on the other hand has been praised for his witty lyrics and the styles range from folk to rock.

David Bowie – Aladdin Sane (1973)

Aladdin Sane is a serious competitor for the title of the greatest Bowie album. I can't really decide between this and Hunky Dory. Aladdin Sane was released after the massively successive Ziggy Stardust. The sound on this album is really what glam rock is all about. Big guitar sounds, artsy piano, funky bass and soulful rhythms. The lightning face album cover is one of the most recognisable album covers of all times. I bought this album relatively late considering how long I had listened to Bowie. I guess that is quite fortunate, since this album I have on vinyl. Earlier on, I had bought many of the albums on jewel case CDs and they really don't have the same feel to them. It's great to own Aladdin Sane on vinyl, because as an artefact, it's truly a classic. Also, the album includes some of my all time favourite Bowie songs.

Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun (1999)

This was the first Sigur Rós album I heard and it's still my favourite. I've heard from many other people that they've fallen in love with whichever was the first Sigur Rós album they heard. I guess this band is so unique that the first time you hear it, it's something magical and like nothing else you've heard before, but when you hear another album, it's not that new any more. I do think though, that this album has something very special even compared to other Sigur Rós albums. The album cover with a foetus with wings and no band or album title looks fantastic. It has undoubtedly been a really courageous thing to have an album cover without the band title for a band that wasn't particularly well known at the time of this album's release. But Sigur Rós really is a band that is a master of hiding their true identity by just letting the music speak for itself.

Prelude – After the Goldrush (1974)

This is the first time this alphabet system backfired a little bit, because the last post was Neil Young's After the Gold Rush and now here's Prelude's album with the same name named after their cover version of Young's song. Doesn't matter that much though, because as an album this is quite far from Neil Young's album. Prelude is a band that's mainly about beautiful vocal harmonies and folk guitars. The result is sometimes a bit cheesy, but it's by far not as cheesy as it could be. Some of the songs are actually quite enjoyable. This album like so many others ended up in my record collection from my grandmother's house from where I got quite a few a vinyl albums that used to belong to my grandmother or to one of my uncles. There were quite a few questionable albums among those, but this album is actually quite good.

Neil Young – After the Gold Rush (1970)

Yet another classic. After the Gold Rush is in my opinion the best album of Neil Young. There are some amazingly beautiful and authentic sounding folk songs, some amazing piano ballads and also some more rock-oriented numbers with electric guitars. Neil Young's distinctive nasal vocals sound amazing and I really like the fact that they are actually mixed in a way that sound like he was singing right next to you. I started listening to Neil Young properly quite late. I guess I'm fortunate because of that I had not bought this album on CD back when those were the only format I was buying. I'm now a happy owner of a fantastic old vinyl pressing that is in excellent condition. There's something about a classic album like this that you just have to hear it on vinyl to get you in the right state of mind. The tiny scratching of the needle improves the experience.

Aerosmith – Aerosmith (1973)

Many people mainly know Aerosmith from the 80's and 90's when their popularity was skyrocketing, but the band has actually been making albums from the first half of the 70's. And even for a long term band like this, the debut album was probably the best album they ever made. I really liked the band at the hight of their popularity in the early 90's. That's also when I bought this first album of them from a department store in Tampere with my grandmother. At the time I wasn't much of a fan of the album because it sounded so different from the Aerosmith I was accustomed to. Now, however, I really think this album is the best one of their career. Steven Tyler's vocals are a lot clearer than in the later parts of the band's career. Maybe he hadn't drinker, smoked and used as many drugs yet at that time.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore (1998)

I don't really own this album. I've bought it, but I don't really have it. I bought this album as a used CD from a Finnish record store's end sale and only later on I realised that they had given me another Smashing Pumpkins album in the album cover of Adore. So, I now own CD covers for Adore and a CD for Machina. I didn't want to buy this album again, so I just did the next best thing. I borrowed the CD from the library and burned a copy of Adore to put into the appropriate covers. This album has amazing covers, so I really should've bought this on vinyl, but I guess vinyl wasn't really the thing when this album came out. Adore is probably the most mellow of all the Smashing Pumpkins albums. There are quite a few ballads on this album and there are a few really long and artsy songs that differ from the band's usual quite heavy sound.

R.E.M. – Accelerate (2008)

I'm not really much of a fan of R.E.M. albums that have been released after mid-90's. Most of those albums are quite boring to be honest. Of course there are some exceptions, but mostly R.E.M.'s best times were around the turn of the 80's and 90's. Accelerate is a nice exception to this development. It's probably the most rock-oriented album by the band with the growling guitars and proper rock drumming. I was especially impressed by the title-track of this album and when I saw this album being sold with a couple of euros in a sale box in Helsinki, I bought it. And to my surprise, I've actually listened to this album a lot more than some other R.E.M. albums I own. In a way, this album is a return to R.E.M.'s roots as the band started of as an alternative rock band with some punk influences. The songs on this album a re a lot more straightforward pop songs than on the couple of albums that came before it.

Muse – Absolution (2003)

I don't listen to Muse that much anymore, but at some point in my life the band was quite important to me. I first started listening to the band back in 2003 as I got my hands on their second album, Origin of Symmetry. I still think that is their best album to date. This album, however, is quite important to me as well, because it was the first new album that was released by Muse after I had started listening to them. Absolution was a bit more mainstream by its sounds than the first two albums. The most experimental space rock sound was gone and replaced with more straightforward rock sounds. This was also the album that made Muse an international superstar band. Especially the hit song Time Is Running Out was playing on the radio and on music television over and over again. I guess the time was right for well-produced and ambitious rock music with many guitar bands topping the charts.

Little Green Cars – Absolute Zero (2013)

When I had just moved to London the music world opened up for me in a new way. I was suddenly able to see most of the bands I like live, there were great record shops all over the place and even the small clubs had mostly great concerts with very little money. One of the things I started doing was that I always listened to Rough Trade's albums of the month. Also, Spotify got eventually its Discover Weekly function that I started using to find new bands. Because of all this, I started feeling like the amount of good bands around there was infinite. Little Green Cars is one of those bands that I just accidentally bumped into from one of these channels. I can't remember which one exactly. I first listened to it on Spotify a bit and then I found it in Fopp, one of my favourite record stores in London, with like three pounds, so I bought it. I've really enjoyed the album ever since.