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 album cover is very interesting with an empty shopping cart and a range of different fonts. It does look like it was quite cheaply made and not necessarily given that much thought, but at least it's an album cover that you can remember.

The album starts off really strong with the song Don't Hold Your Breath. The guitars are very familiar from many American power pop bands, but when the vocals come in all soft and bright, it creates a nice contrast, much like with Teenage Fanclub's more rock-orientated songs. Million to One has some excellent guitar riffs especially at the beginning of the song. It's sounds a bit too 90's maybe, but in case you like that sound, this is a great song. Always Changing is the first ballad on the album. I've always thought Mummypowder makes amazing ballads. When it comes to melodies, ballads are always more difficult in terms of songwriting, so the fact that they make good ballads, is a proof of their songwriting abilities. Right This Minute continues the ballad sounds, but the song grows a bit by bit and actually when the bouncy rhythms hit in, this song is reborn in a really nice way. I really like the clean piano sounds in this song. No-One There to Entertain You is a classic power pop song with chiming guitars and excellent doubled vocals. This song sounds incredibly lot like Teenage Fanclub. Another Stupid Way to Die features some excellent songwriting. The way the intensity changes between the slow verse and a pounding chorus is amazing. Things Turned on Reverse cranks the volume up a bit and the guitars turn on overdrive. There are also some lo-fi elements in the solos of this song, which makes it sound a bit like some Pavement songs. Wanna Fight pushes the tempo and volume up even further. In this song, the drum sounds could maybe have a bit more strength in them. they sound a bit hollow considering the rest of the sounds of this song. Not Funny Anymore returns the intensity to quiet ballads. There's some great acoustic guitar picking in this song and it's exactly the kind of song that is fun to sing alone at home while playing the guitar. A Million Typing Monkeys is one of my favourite songs on this album. There's something special in the melodies that makes it sound very emotional. Also, the rhythms change neatly many times during the song, which to me is another great example of Mummypowder's songwriting skills. The album ends with One Hour to Change My Life, which is another faster track. I personally would've rather ended the album with a ballad, but I guess ending with a song with similar intensity to hte opening song kind of closes the circle. The chorus of this song is absolutely beautiful.

There's even a music video from this album. The music video for Don't Hold Your Breath is a black and white animation of a man, who expressionlessly looks at different screens, his tv, a drive-in movie screen, a CCTV footage etc. In all the screens, you can see footage of Mummypowder playing the song. If I understand the video correctly, the man ends up stealing someone else's identity and gets eventually arrested by a police officer and the man ends up in prison.

I really think Mummypowder would've deserved a bit of recognition outside Finland as well, as it's one of the greatest bands ever to come out of Finland. Especially this album is an excellent album where pretty much every song is a potential hit.

Listen to the album on Spotify.