Delay Trees – Delay Trees (2010)

Delay Trees is a Finnish indie band playing impressive dream pop with, as their name suggests, lots of delay in the guitars. The expectations were quite high for this band around 2010 when their self-titled debut came out. I saw them live at least a couple of times, once opening for the Scottish indie legends Teenage Fanclub. Later on, I've seen them once here in London and once back in Finland at a small festival. Unfortunately, I think the debut album remained their best album to date. There's nothing particularly wrong with the later albums, but they just didn't raise same kind of excitement in me. This debut album of theirs is a fantastic though. There are influences from American dream pop and post rock bands and the songs are well written pieces with catchy melodies and beautifully echoey sounds.



Finnish pop music took a long time to mature. In the 60's, bands were still mostly just doing cover versions of international hits. In the 70's, more bands started exploring new sounds and in the 80's, Finnish rock had reached a very popular status in Finland, but international success was still quite far away. Around the turn of the millennium, Finland had gained success abroad with a few songs and bands, but I think only around 2010 bands started to sound, not just Finnish bands, but internationally ambitious bands that could make it internationally. Delay Trees is one of those bands that I think sounds very international.

The album starts with distant echoey guitars in the song Cold. This song starts out beautifully as a quiet ballad that keeps growing through the song and in the end there are quite huge post-rock-styled guitar walls in the background. Cassette 2012 is one of the most obvious hits of the album. It has a faster tempo than most of the other songs on the album and the melody is very catchy. About Brothers also has a faster rhythm and even danceable qualities, but the sounds are more dreamy and hypnotic. it's definitely not a bad thing. Pattern slows things down again and there is nice looming growth throughout the song. In February is a folkier bit with acoustic guitars and a beautiful chorus that sounds bigger each time it comes round. Quarantine has some more psychedelic melodies. There's a hypnotic vibe in the song and it sounds great when the song finally fully opens with power chords from the guitars. Light Pollution is a shoegaze song that reminds me of early 90's Biriths bands such as Ride or Stone Roses. I think the song could explode into even bigger sounds to reach its full potential. Tarantula / Holding On is essentially two songs in one. It's a bit longer than other songs on the album which allows the band to be a bit more playful, which I think pays off. Especially the strong guitar walls and wails in the end are spectacular. Whales & Colors is the quietest song on the album. I feel quite indifferent about the beginning of the song, but when the chorus gets going, there's some magic going on there. The album ends with 4:45 AM which has almost similar guitars to Bloc Party songs and some strong tom beats.

I don't think there are any music videos from the band's first album. At least I wasn't able to find anything. I could only find a live performance of Cold in Tampere. It shows how the band used slightly different sounds in their live performances than on the album, which I think is always quite welcome.

EDIT! Actually, just heard there IS a music video for Cassette 2012. So, enjoy!

One of the reasons for doing these kinds of blogs, and especially, doing them in English, is that I want to spread the word for all the excellent bands I've heard in my life, which may not always have appropriate channels to get their music heard by people in other countries. I think Delay Trees' debut album is a true masterpiece which deserves to be heard.

Listen to the album on Spotify.