Stone Temple Pilots – Core (1992)

I grew up with grunge, but I was a bit too young to really appreciate the full range of the genre back then. I pretty much just listened to Nirvana like everyone else. I do remember a few hit songs from other bands of the time, but I never really listened to them properly. A couple of years ago everyone started talking about 90's coming back and if people we're going to be logical about it, grunge would be the first thing to make a return. That didn't really happen, but personally I had a shortlived grunge revival phase, where I listened to a lot of grunge and now I also discovered fully what bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees or Soundgarden were all about. Of these, Pearl Jam really hit hard for me, especially their first two albums. But also, I really enjoyed this debut album of Stone Temple Pilots.

Sugar – Copper Blue (1992)

Sugar's debut album Copper Blue was elected as the album of the year in 1992 by NME and deservedly so, because this is a fantastic album filled with hit material. However, even though I'm quite a big fan of 90's alternative rock, I had never heard of the album until a few years ago when I was going through the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Apparently Sugar's fame was quite shortlived and not many people remember the band or the album a couple of decades later. I was personally too young to be looking at alternative charts when the album came out. I'm really happy to have discovered this album now, though, because it's an absolute 90's gem. The Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould founded Sugar in the 90's after leaving Hüsker Dü.

Woman's Hour – Conversations (2014)

Woman's Hour is a London based indie synth pop band. They play dark melodies filled with airy echo sounds. The most obvious reference is the band Warpaint, which is maybe not as electronic, but otherwise plays really similar sounds. Woman's Hour gets its name from a BBC4 radio programme. These synth pop sounds get lots of influences from 80's synth pop bands, but at the same time, the sounds are way more modern and actually very typical for bands around 2010. I think I first discovered the band on Spotify's Discover playlist, or potentially on a list of some record shop's albums of the month. This is not maybe the kind of music I regularly listen to. Having grown up in the 90's, electronic music and synth pop started to sound okay to me only very recently. But after discovering Beach House in 2010, I've started enjoying some of these bands.

Mummypowder – Consternation! Uproar! (2004)

This is one of my all time favourite Finnish albums. Mummypowder was one of the most promising Finnish bands in the mid-00's. Their music is melodic power pop, with hints of indie rock. If I'd have to guess their influences, I'd say they've listened to The Posies, The Lemonheads and Teenage Fanclub. Consternation! Uproar! was the first album I heard from them and I still think it's the best one they ever released. The best thing about this album is the songwriting, which is excellent. The songs are catchy and there's enough drama ranging from melancholic to happy. Also, you can hear that the band is very talented and the production is also very good. Also, worth mentioning is Janne Lehtinen's vocals. His high-pitched clean vocals are work really well in this kind of music and he can easily interpret both sad and happy songs.

The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely (2008)

The first Raconteurs album was an interesting experiment combining Jack White's rough garage rock sounds with melodic songwriting of Brendan Benson. Back when it came out, I thought it would just be a one-off project, but I was proofed wrong when The Raconteurs released this second album of theirs a couple of years later. The band didn't market their album in advance in any way, so it was largely a surprise to everyone when it came out. Consolers of the Lonely continues the super-band's career with quite similar sounds to the first album, although this is maybe slightly noisier than Broken Toy Soldiers was. It's more clear where the influences are with this album. I'm sure they've listened to their fair share of Led Zeppelin and The Who before making this album. There are excellent songs on this album, but it didn't raise same kind of excitement as the first album.

Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst (2008)

The self-titled album by Conor Oberst was his first solo one since he started making albums as Bright Eyes. His solo stuff is a bit more approachable and simpler. There's no noisy first song on this album that drives occasional listeners away and all in all, this album has some very catchy and easygoing songs. Saying that, some of the magic of Bright Eyes is missing from this album. What's great about the Bright Eyes albums was their intimate lo-fi sound that made them feel really personal and endearing. This solo album sounds a lot more professional and confident. There are also more country influences and I'm sure this album was well received by the American audiences. I can hear the influence of artists, such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Wilco in the sounds of this album, which is not bad at all. In terms of songwriting, this album has some absolute jewels.

MGMT – Congratulations (2010)

As a young adult when I was studying in the University of Helsinki, I was a DJ in many student parties playing indie tunes for drunk students. In these parties, the crowd was really difficult to please, because about half of the people wanted to hear normal pop tunes that they would've heard in normal commercial discos, while about half of the people wanted to hear more critically acclaimed indie music that they normally couldn't hear in Helsinki's nightclubs. I was known as the indie DJ, who the other half loved to have play records, while the other half hated. For the indie kids, MGMT's debut album was one of the must-play albums. I would play the song Kids almost every night since the release of the album. This second album of theirs is not filled with danceable indie hits, but with psychedelic and strange indie pop.

The Temper Trap – Conditions (2009)

I saw The Temper Trap live even before they had released this first album of theirs. They played at this one-off festival in Helsinki, Pitkä Kuuma Kesä, early in the summer of 2009. They had a couple of songs on Spotify, which I liked, so I went to see their gig and they were even better live than what the songs sounded like on the album. I bought the album fairly soon when it was released. My interest for the band, however, faded quite soon afterwards. Even though the album has quite catchy songs and well-produced sounds, it becomes a bit boring after a while. The last nail in the coffin came when they released their second album. Around that time I would've had my second chance to see the band live, but after listening to the second album, I decided not to go. I feel like they made the classic mistake of going too electronic with their sounds and they lost their authenticity as a result.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Communion (2008)

The Soundtrack of Our Lives was one of my favourite bands as a young adult. Their live shows were amazing, their rock sound was melodic yet tough and all of the band members were really skilled in their instruments. Communion didn't come out until 2008 when I had already lost my biggest interest towards the band. By that time, more modern indie sounds and especially indie folk had become more interesting than basic rock sounds. Therefore, I never really got that much into this album even if I bought it quite soon after its release. The album cover is the most absurd one I've ever seen. There's a wealthy looking couple in bath robes drinking green smoothies. It looks like a commercial for some beauty salon or a diet product. I don't know exactly what it means, but I'm guessing it's an ironic portrayal of consumerism saying that capitalist society is our communion in the modern age.

Suede – Coming Up (1996)

Suede's self-titled debut album was one of the first proper Britpop albums ever to come out. Some might even say they started Britpop, although there are some other takers for that title. Suede's second album Dog Man Star was not as easily approachable and there were lots of long ballads that take a bit of time to get into. As a result, Suede was taken away from the limelight of Britpop while Oasis, Blur and Pulp were hogging all the attention. The lead guitarist of Suede, Bernard Butler, left the band after Dog Man Star and the vocalist Brett Anderson wanted to make Suede more popular again by making an album that would almost be an opposite of Dog Man Star, an easily approachable album full of straightforward hits. That's what Coming Up is really, an album with 10 hit songs that could easily all get on the radio.

Beth Orton – Comfort of Strangers (2006)

In the beginning I was really happy with Spotify's 'Discover Weekly' playlists. They were suggesting artists and bands to me that I had not heard of before and I frequently found something interested on those lists. More recently I think the quality has either gotten worse, or they merely had a limited number of suggestions for my musical taste. Anyway, I feel like I don't find many new things on those lists anymore. I did, however, find Beth Orton through those lists and I'm happy I did. I ended up buying pretty much all of her albums because they were so cheap to buy online. Comfort of Strangers is one of the strongest albums by Orton. Especially the first half of the album is really good. It's easygoing alternative folk that has some modern sounds but classic Americana folk songwriting.

The Crash – Comfort Deluxe (1999)

The Crash is one of the most ambitious Finnish bands of all times. They were maybe a bit late with their music, since their style of music is really close to Britpop of the 90's, but The Crash's debut album didn't come out until 1999 when the Britpop movement had largely ended in the UK. In Finland, The Crash was quite a big deal and many people were predicting international success for them. I'm sure, had they been a bit earlier, that would've also happened as long as the marketing of the band would've been handled properly. The Crash is one of the most well known bands to come out of Turku. Teemu Brunila's catchy and melodic songs and high nasal vocals give the band a recognisable sound. The Crash's debut album is an ambitious recording with great sounds. On their later albums, they went a bit disco, but this is still very much in the Britpop aesthetics.

Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel the Illinoise (2005)

This is one of my all-time favourite albums. It's difficult to classify this album into any specific genre. It sounds completely unique. There's some Americana folk, but spiced with some amazing orchestration, choral singing and electronic sounds. The rhythms and melodies are innovative and beautiful and above all else, Sufjan Stevens' vocals are amazingly delicate. Stevens' ambitious plan was to make an album about each of the 50 states of America and Illinois was the second one in the series after his home state Michigan. Stevens' career is filled with amazing songs and albums, but this album is the absolute hight of his career. If I had to list my top-5 albums of all times, this would surely be one of them. It shows a very ambitious musician at his best, combining his love for American folk music and experimental approach to making music.

Andi Deris – Come In from the Rain (1997)

You know the concept of shame record collection? It's the part of your record collection you bought as a child or a teenager that you liked back then, but that is kind of embarrassing nowadays. For many of us, they have been hidden away from the actual record collection that is supposed to tell you what kind of music you like and as a result also, what kind of a person you are. For most people my age, this part of the collection consists mainly of Eurotechno bands like Aqua or E-Rotic, but to me, the shame record collection consists mainly of power metal bands that I used to listen to as an early teenager. Specifically, I was very much into Helloween's music, because I liked their melodic approach and fast guitar solos. Andi Deris was a lead singer of the band for a while and Come In from the Rain was his first solo album.

Various Artists – Come Hear. Finland. (2012)

In 2012 I moved to London to do my internship at the Finnish Institute in London. I worked in their society programme, but the other half of the institute was about culture and arts. The institute started collaborating with Music Finland, whose aim was to introduce Finnish artists to audiences abroad. This compilation CD is their promotional album. The album consists of 3 CDs. There's one for indie and electronic, one for pop and rock and one for hard rock and metal (of course, this is Finnish music afterall...). Personally I really like the first CD, the second CD has some good stuff on it and I don't much care for the last CD. you might've guessed this already if you know my music taste. Anyway, I think this has something for everyone. It's good that it's divided into three separate albums so everyone can choose music that fits their style.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cold Roses (2005)

In the year 2005 Ryan Adams released three albums of which this one was a double album with 19 songs. There aren't many other artists who could've done the same. Ryan Adams was definitely one of the most productive artists in the mid-00's. Later on, he has commented that he just recorded everything he wrote and that resulted in many albums, but the quality wasn't necessarily of the best quality. Then again, there's some amazing songs on this and the other two albums. One album definitely wouldn't have been enough. On the other hand, I do think that Cold Roses could've been just one CD album with slightly fewer songs. By dropping five to seven songs from the album, this could've been one of the greatest Adams albums. Now I tend to doze off a bit towards the end. Cold Roses was the first album with the band The Cardinals.