Lemonator – At the Presence of Great Beauty (2006)

Lemonator is one of my all time favourite Finnish bands. They were most active in the first half of 2000's when they released many great albums. Their songs have amazing melodies and there's great Finnish-style melancholia in the songs, but the music is still not depressing. The lead singer and songwriter of the band, Lasse Kurki, has also been a producer on multiple other Finnish albums and he really knows how to make albums sound great. His singing is also great and he doesn't have as clear Finnish accent in his vocals as many other Finnish singers. I don't really understand how Lemonator didn't make more of a breakthrough outside Finland. This kind of world-class indie power pop should've received praise all around. Maybe it was again the fact that Finns couldn't market themselves in the right way. Anyway, I encourage especially my non-Finnish readers to listen to this.



At the time when this album was released, I wasn't too happy about how it sounded. I guess it was because the band had previously released their best albums, The Waltz and Grandpop and I felt like this album didn't quite reach that level. Although, in hindsight, I think this album sounds nowadays as good as the other two. Anyway, I bought this album quite some time later than its release. I managed to find it on vinyl with a reasonable price.

I've also seen Lemonator live quite a few times. Their shows were really good and it was always one of those bands whose lyrics I knew by heart and could sing along to. I bet Lemonator could've taken on bigger venues with their music but for some reason they always stayed on smaller stages. Maybe it's just true what they say that it's really difficult being popular in Finland by singing in English. Then again, that's the only way to try to be popular elsewhere.

Lemonator is known for having great intros on their albums. This album is no exception. The great whistle and string Introduction is a great way to start the album. It follows straight through to a melodramatic song Love Disappear that has some great songwriting changing the mood of the song many times. Guardian Maria (The Good of Loneliness) has a great melody that would definitely stick in the back of your head if you heard it on the radio. Will I Ever Find Out shows the amazing melancholia songwriting of Lasse Kurki. This song reminds me of the Swedish band Weeping Willows. A Lonesome Dream has some excellent guitar playing that bows to post-rock of the time. Would You Die for Me? is an ambitious hit song with great melodies. Not Like the Rest is a very cute song and shows how simple good hit songs can be.

Lemonator doesn't play anymore unfortunately, but for me it will always be one of the most important Finnish bands. All of their albums were really good and I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't break outside of Finland.

Listen to the album on Spotify.