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.



After the band's career, Teemu Brunila has mainly written songs for other artists, but I feel like he was at his best headlining his own band. The melancholic, yet catchy songs remind me of Suede more than any other band out there. I remember seeing The Crash's music videos at the turn of the millennium and being really impressed. I also saw them perform live a couple of times around that time. I was never a huge fan of the band, but I did very much like their music. It wasn't, however, until many years later when I bought all of their albums when they were sold cheaply at yet another record store that was having their end sale in Helsinki.

The album starts with probably the biggest hit from this album, Sugared. The chorus is really catchy and I love the melodramatic melody of this song. World of My Own is not one of the songs I remember from years back, but now more recently when I've listened to this album, it's been one of the greatest tracks in there. The string arrangements and the melancholic melody work brilliantly together. Fidelity is another classic The Crash song with very memorable chorus melody. They sure know how to build up drama in their songs as well. Coming Home continues the list of melodramatic songs that play with switches of happy and sad melodies in different parts. Polar cranks the tempo up a bit and this starts to sound a bit more like the indie bands of the 00's. There are also some similarities to The Smiths in this song. I Never Dance changes the mood a bit with more dance-style beats and muffled vocals. This song is a bit closer to alternative scene of the late 90's. Muse features huge soundwalls on the background of the song, which kind of reminds me of the post-rock movement that was about to start around this time. Prophecy has some echoey and slightly electronic sounding electric guitars that actually remind me of Placebo. The album ends with another ballad Going Out, which doesn't quite have the drama of the ballads earlier on in the album, but it's still a good way to end the album with the same intensity it started with.

I already mentioned the music videos. The music video for Sugared is very memorable. The lead singer Teemu Brunila is sitting in the umpire seat at a tennis match singing the song in Lacoste clothing. This definitely fits the Britpop aesthetic of the 90's, since all the major sports brands were very visible around that time. Brunila is a very pretty boy, which, I'm sure, made The Crash even more popular back in the day.

I've never been a huge fan of The Crash, but I've always had appreciation for their music and I think they're one of the bands from Finland, who really would've deserved to make it big internationally. Their debut album features quite similar songs, but they're definitely a joy to listen to.

Listen to the album on Spotify.