Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors (2000)

I remember first hearing about Bright Eyes from a friend of mine who worked in a record shop and had often introduced me to great new bands. Something about the way he talked about Bright Eyes told me that this would not necessarily be that easy band to get into. And fair enough, when I first listened to their album Lifted, I thought it was mostly a bit too lo-fi for my taste. Then again, there were already on that first listen a couple of songs that really struck me as something truly special. The more I listened to them, the more I liked them. When I finally found Fevers and Mirrors I was completely sold. To this day I think this is the best album by Bright Eyes. There's something really melancholic about this album and as you know, I really like that. Conor Oberst's trembling voice is perfect in interpreting these kinds of anguished and sad songs.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell (2003)

I remember being introduced to Yeah Yeah Yeahs a long time ago, but my first introduction to them was through their second album Show Your Bones, which I still think is probably their worst album. I borrowed that CD from a library because I had heard some good things about the band. I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with their music back then. It was too noisy and not melodic enough for my taste. If there's one thing that's important to me in music, it's the melody. This is why I've had trouble liking genres where melody is put into second place after lyrics or sounds. After that, not so successful, introduction into the band, I forgot about it for a few years. Then I started listening through albums in the book 1001 albums you must hear before you die and listened to band's third studio album It's Blitz! and that changed my view of the band.

Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain (2000)

I first heard about Goldfrapp when my sister gave me a compilation CD for Christmas present years ago. There was one song by Goldfrapp on it. I thought the song was okay, but I didn't get too excited about the band just based on that one song. At first I thought Goldfrapp was quite generic electropop band and that wasn't a genre I would've been too excited about. Nevertheless, I was interested enough to borrow some CDs from the library and copying them on my computer. The real change, however, happened when I happened to listen to this debut album of the band. Felt Mountain is mostly very slow and atmospheric. It contains more of a trip hop style than the electronic indie pop sound that dominates some of the later albums. Like with so many different artists and bands, Goldfrapp too was at their strongest on the first albums.

Johannes Laitila – Feathers (2012)

It's always really difficult to write about my friends' albums. I'm very conscious that they'll probably read these posts when I share them in the social media. I will, however, do my best to also include these albums in my blog. After all, I'm supposed to go through all the albums I own. I first met Johannes Laitila when we were studying at the social sciences faculty in University of Helsinki and I organised an open-mic night called Kuppala unplugged. I wanted to play to audiences and when I started the night, I realised that so did so many other people. Johannes showed up for most of those nights carrying his electrical piano and playing mostly his own songs. I remember thinking that he had similar kind of intensity in his performance as Jarvis Cocker did. He also had similar kind of longish hair and glasses, which made me think of him as the Jarvis Cocker of the social sciences faculty.

Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark (1992)

Iron Maiden was one of the heavy metal bands I was really into as a pre-teen. Fear of the Dark might've been one of the first CDs I owned. I even had a Fear of the Dark T-shirt that I wore in my fifth grade school photo with a sulky expression on my face. There was something incredibly cool about the monsters in the album covers and themes that played with fears and dark mythologies. Back then, Fear of the Dark contained some of my favourite songs. More recently I've come to realise that the earlier Iron Maiden albums were much better than this one, but to me personally this was a significant album, because it was my first one. In this blog, I have badmouthed Bruce Dickinson's solo career quite harshly, but I have to say that with Iron Maiden I can still clearly understand why I liked them. The fast guitar solos and almost symphonic melodies still sound exciting.

Father John Misty – Fear Fun (2012)

It took me a while to understand the brilliance of Father John Misty. I remember when this album came out and people started talking about it. I liked the cartoon-like album cover and listened to the album once. I didn't get what was so special about it. Here, I think, it's relevant to say that I rarely listen to the lyrics when I first encounter new bands or artists. Anyway, I knew that Father John Misty had played guitar in Fleet Foxes and I was just comparing him to his former band. I felt that Father John Misty was nowhere near as good as Fleet Foxes when it came to sounds and songs. It was only later on when I realised that Father John Misty's strength is in his lyrics and in his persona and it is absurd comparing him to Fleet Foxes. I've also enjoyed the quite retro sounds of this album a lot more later on when I realised what this was all about.

The Felice Brothers – Favorite Waitress (2014)

It's always fun to hear music that sounds completely new and super innovative, but at least to me, there are many times when I just want to hear good old-school music with all the fun of making music. The Felice Brothers sound like they couldn't care less about sounding different or unique. They're just having fun with music and you can really hear it. I guess this is also explained by the band's history. They started their career by playing on the subways in New York City. Most of their songs are strong in Americana folk and country influences and they haven't put much effort in thinking about sounds for their albums. They just play organic set of instruments that sound like they would do live. They have lots of humorous lyrics and the melodies are simple, yet kind of catchy. It's simple music, but it makes me happy to listen to them.

Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou (2011)

In my youth, the musicians I discovered were largely just from Western Europe or North America (well, also from Australia and New Zealand). Anyway, I didn't really know that much about the music from other continents. Then I moved to London where the diverse atmosphere introduced me to many new artists from all around the world. I also started writing my music scene geography blog, creating playlists of great music from different geographic areas. That's when I broadened my horizons on music big time. When creating the list for Malian music, I came across Fatoumata Diawara. She's a folk musician playing guitar and singing in Wassoulou. Even though the songs are mainly very melodic and beautiful, there's a really good feel for the rhythm in this songs as well.

Art Garfunkel – Fate for Breakfast (1979)

I think it's quite clear that Paul Simon was the better musician of Simon & Garfunkel. I'm not really a huge fan of either chap's solo careers, but at least Paul Simon has made his mark in music history outside the duo as well. I don't think I had ever heard Art Garfunkel's solo stuff before I got this album from my grandma's place among many other vinyl albums. It's interesting that Garfunkel hasn't actually composed any of the songs on this album. Most of the songs on this album are incredibly cheesy. It is appropriately called soft rock by Wikipedia. There are various different album covers for this album, but in each one, Garfunkel is enjoying breakfast in his bath robe. I find it interesting how both Simon and Garfunkel stopped playing folk music after their duet years. They were undoubtedly one of the greatest folk acts ever and then they both replaced the amazing sound with cheesy crap.

Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (2009)

Dinosaur Jr. is one of the loudest bands ever. The trademark of their music is sharp and aggressive overdriven electric guitars and piercing solos. The frontman J Mascis has pretty much written all the songs and he plays the lead guitar and sings. So, he basically is the band. His vocals are fairly laconic and lazy, which is a nice contrast to the aggressive sound of the songs. Farm is the band's first album released by Jagjaguwar record label that has produced numerous fantastic indie records in the last couple of decades. The songs are a bit more approachable than the songs on their 90s and especially 80s albums, but the same general elements are still there. The album cover is one of the coolest ever. The green giant ents are carrying children away from the polluted city. I feel like Dinosaur Jr. has always had bit of an environmentalist approach in their music.

Regina Spektor – Far (2009)

My ex-girlfriend didn't really share my musical taste. She particularly didn't like female indie singers. As I was actively discouraged from listening to them at home back then, I didn't really discover all the amazing musicians and bands out there. Around 2009 I started to rebel this by actively finding new interesting female artists. Incidentally, one year later we split up. Regina Spektor was one of the first ones I discovered after my draught. Of course I had listened to other great female artists before and during the relationship, but this was a time when I remember deliberately deciding to discover more indie female artists. My friend at the time was writing a music blog where he introduced Far by Regina Spektor as one of the best albums of the year. I listened to it once and bought it the next day. Since then, I've also discovered all the great other albums by her.

Jonathan Wilson – Fanfare (2013)

I consider myself something of an explorer in music and I try to find new bands and artists all the time. This means that I very rarely get really excited about anything new anymore. It feels like very few artists or bands can really make a lasting impression on me. Jonathan Wilson is one of the exceptions in the recent years. I have been listening to his albums a lot in the last few years. Fanfare was the first album of his that caught my attention and I liked it straight away, but it took me quite a long time to start actually loving it. Wilson makes quite complex songs that can reveal new perspectives even after years of listening. He's really retro in some ways, but at the same time the songs sound very unique and you can't really pinpoint any particular artist or band he sounds like. But it's clear he knows his history of pop music.

The Phoenix Foundation – Fandango (2013)

I don't know that many bands from New Zealand, but the ones I know tend to be quite cool. The Phoenix Foundation plays modern indie pop rock with some psychedelia icing. The more forward their career has progressed, the more they've introduced some electronic elements in their music, but it hasn't become the main thing in their music, which I think is really good. It's just brilliantly produced indie pop with some interesting sounds. Fandango is a double album even though there are not that many songs on it. It's just that it has quite a few long songs on it. This is something I like about the album. Long tracks give room to experiment on interesting things. I've listened to some of the band's earlier albums and even if there are some excellent songs there as well, I think I'm bold enough to say that Fandango is their best album.

Lightspeed Champion – Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (2008)

Lightspeed Champion is also one of those artists that I found from the Indie compilation album I bought at the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill back in 2010 when I was just visiting London. Lightspeed Champion is a pseudonym of Devonté Hynes, who later became to perform under the name Blood Orange. I feel like Lightspeed Champion couldn't be much different from Blood Orange. Where Blood Orange is electronic, rhythmic and vey much music for the young millennials, Lightspeed Champion draws its influences from older musical styles, such as baroque pop and alternative folk. I guess you might say that he has moved with his times, since this kind of folky indie rock was very popular back in 2008 whereas the more dancing-oriented electronic music saw a new rise in the 10s.

The Cure – Faith (1981)

I first liked just the hit songs by The Cure. Boys Don't Cry and Friday I'm In Love and similar kinds of melodic hit songs. I didn't fully understand the appeal in bleak and dark gothic rock that had very little in terms of melodies. I had to first find the brilliance of Joy Division to understand The Cure. This music is all about darkness and the aesthetics are drawn from horror film imagery. It very much depends on my mood what I think about The Cure. Sometimes their music may sound very crushing to me, while sometimes I can completely lost myself into their melancholic and industrial sound. I feel like, if I'm already feeling down, I can't listen to them, because it takes me deeper into despair. This is definitely not something that will lift your spirits and make you feel confident with yourself. This is something where you can explore the deepest emotions of human beings.

Yo La Tengo – Fade (2013)

It took me some time to get into Yo La Tengo's music. I started hearing about them at the latter half of the 00s, but at first, I didn't see what was so great about them. I felt like the songs didn't have proper melodies and even the sounds could've been more explosive. Nowadays I almost think that these are precisely the strengths of the band. Yo La Tengo's music is all about the mood. They build up their songs really long and because of the quiet bits, when the music suddenly does reach certain intensity, you can really feel it. I still do like their psychedelic almost Kraut-rock type songs the most though. Yo La Tengo is definitely the kind of music that goes sounds and improvisation first, not compositions first. I've only grown to love this approach fairly recently. I always used to think of music just as a mix of melodies and lyrics, at the expense of sounds and mood.

Handsome Furs – Face Control (2009)

Handsome Furs was a duo consisting of Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Alexei Perry, now ex-wife of the former. There are clear similarities between Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, but where Wolf Parade is a more traditional indie rock band, Handsome Furs relies on electronic sounds and can be more described as electropunk. Their debut album was named Plague Park after a park in Helsinki, Finland, under which there is a mass grave of people who died of plague. Face Control is more influenced by the couple's travels in rest of Eastern Europe. The title Face Control refers to the nightclub policies in Russia where only attractive people are allowed in. Boeckner was fascinated about how post-communist Eastern Europe adopted some blatant forms of hyper-capitalism. I guess to compensate for some of the luxuries they missed for the first halves of their lives.

Immaculate Machine – Fables (2007)

I found this band when I was compiling a list of bands and artists from British Columbia in Canada for my music geography blog some years ago. I had never heard of this band but it hit me immediately. They play energetic indie rock with excellent melodies. In a way, they sound a lot like another Canadian band, The New Pornographers. In fact, they did tour with The New Pornographers at one point in their career and as a result, Catherine Kalder joined them as a member. This band also has male and female vocals taking turns and singing harmonies. The sounds are really great on this album. They're really skilfully crafted but at the same time it doesn't sound like the instruments have been hidden under much studio trickery. You can hear that there's an aim to use interesting instruments when it's possible, but it doesn't sound fake.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Extended Revelation for the Psychic Weaklings of Western Civilization (1998)

This is the second album by the Swedish rock band The Soundtrack of Our Lives. It's mostly known by the title Extended Revelation, but the full name is the very long 'Extended Revelation for the Psychic Weaklings of Western Civilization'. This is by far the most psychedelic album by the band. The other albums also have some psychedelic elements in them, but they're more straightforward rock, where this album has long and hypnotic rock anthems that seem to draw most of its influences from late-60s psychedelic era. This album doesn't have that many hits and that's probably why I haven't listened to this album perhaps as much as the other ones, but I really like the more experimental approach of this album. For those of you who don't know TSOOL, they are experts in big-sounding alternative rock that works brilliantly live.

Mike Oldfield – Exposed (1979)

This is another Mike Oldfield album that I got from my father's vinyl collection. It's a double live album with only three songs on it. Tells quite a lot about Oldfield's songs. I do like some of Oldfield's music, but on normal studio albums, the sounds can be a bit too clean and neat. The live setting makes these songs come alive a bit more. You can hear the actual instruments a bit better. Also, I think it's very impressive to hear all the string arrangements etc. on this album thinking that it was originally played live. The list of musicians is almost 50 persons long. Finnish readers will probably find it interesting that Pekka Pohjola plays bass on this album. I never knew they had collaborated. Pekka Pohjola is one of the most well-known bass players in Finland. There's also a film about this tour, which is why there's that bit of film in the front cover.

Procol Harum – Exotic Birds and Fruit (1974)

For most people, Procol Harum is a one hit wonder. Their song Whiter Shade of Pale was a massive hit, but not many people know any other songs, let alone albums, by them. This would've been the case for me as well, unless I hadn't gotten my hands on this album from my grandma's place. I don't know who originally owned this album, but I think it might've been one of my uncles. Nevertheless, I got quite a few vinyl albums from there that were just laying there un-used. Exotic Birds and Fruit is the seventh album by Procol Harum. The band is normally called progressive rock, but I feel like there are also some heavy baroque pop influences in the music, which makes the album sound a bit more modern than most prog rock albums of the time. There are quite a few similarities to more modern indie pop bands in the sounds.

The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main St. (1972)

Exile on Main St. is a very strange album for a huge mainstream rock band. It's a double album with 18 tracks and commonly rated as the best album the band ever released, while at the same time, none of those 18 tracks are among the band's biggest hits. For someone who doesn't really listen to The Rolling Stones, I wouldn't be surprised if they can't recognise a single song from this album. I myself wasn't very interested in The Rolling Stones for a long time and when I listened to this album for the first time, I don't think I was that familiar with any of these songs. In terms of songs, this album has nothing like Gimme Shelter, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Paint It Black or Street Fighting Man. I think this might actually be the reason why so many critics and fans of the band love this album.

Mojave 3 – Excuses for Travellers (2000)

Mojave 3 was born on the ruins of the British shoegaze band Slowdive (they made a comeback a couple of years ago). The style of their music changed quite dramatically with the change of the band name. Mojave 3's music has influences from Americana folk and country, while the melodies are channelling endearing indie pop. I remember falling in love with this album as soon as I heard it many many years ago. I only bought the album a lot later, because it was difficult to find. I have also listened to the band's other albums and even though there is some excellent stuff on those, I think this is their best album. It's one of those albums that are really great to listen to when tired. Even though there are some slightly rocking bits on the album, it mostly just stays slow and dreamy, which is great if you want to get meditative on the sofa.

Grandaddy – Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla (2005)

For some reason I haven't listened to this mini album that much since I bought it. I didn't think twice to buy anything that Grandaddy released, so I bought it as soon as I found it, but for some reason it didn't spark that much interest on the first listen. And fair enough, it's not as good as the full albums by Grandaddy. It is still Grandaddy, so it's pretty damn good. Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla is not so much a farewell to Lytle's former hometown Modesto, California, as it is a fuck off to that town. Lytle moved away around the time of recording this album and he really didn't care too much for his old home town. Apparently the title of the album comes from something Lytle saw in a vanity license plate in a truck in Modesto. Lytle always struggled with American consumer culture and I'm sure California offers plenty of annoyances for someone like that.

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges (2008)

My Morning Jacket was one of those indie bands I started hearing a lot about around the release of this album. Their name was everywhere, but I had trouble recognising their songs. It might've been because of Monsters of Folk super band project, but I somehow thought of My Morning Jacket as more of an alternative folk band than an indie rock band and whenever I heard their music somewhere, I didn't realise it was them. Then I decided to buy one of their albums from a record store end sale in Helsinki and I ended up owning this CD. It sort of changed the way I looked at the band, because this album features quite a few proper indie rock songs. The band had really wanted a more urban sound on this album than on their previous ones and they recorded it in New York. I can really hear the more urban tone in this album.

Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire (1996)

I remember when I first heard about Rage Against the Machine. I was an early teenager, not long after the release of this album. My best friend at the time introduced me to many heavier sounding bands of the time, such as The Smashing Pumpkins, Korn and Rage Against the Machine. I remember being really excited with the song Bulls on Parade. It was more aggressive than any other music I had ever heard, and I had just spent a couple of years listening to trash metal and hard rock. That song made me buy the album, but for a long time, that was the only song I really and truly enjoyed. Back in the day, Rage Against the Machine sounded a bit too un-melodic to my taste and I didn't really explore the rest of their repertoire. It was only years later when I found myself with a girlfriend who like metal, including Rage Against the Machine that I started listening a bit more of them and this time, I liked them a lot more.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything's Getting Older (2011)

There are some albums that are worth buying for just one amazing song. This was the case with this album. I'm not saying the other songs on the album aren't any good. I just mean that that one song was already enough to make the decision to buy the album. This song is The Copper Top. A friend of mine played it to me at his place when we were introducing each other to some new music out there and immediately I was blown away. The song has speech vocals and musically it's not even that interesting, but the mood of the song was just perfect. The amazingly strong Scottish accent in the album is everything and it works really well when it's put on top of melancholic and simple piano tunes. This album is about getting older and feeling left out of what the youth is all about now. I can definitely relate to some of the things like this even if I'm not that old yet.

Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go (1996)

I remember the first time I ever heard Manic Street Preachers. It must've been something like 1994 in my English class at school. Our normal English teacher had her son substituting for her. He was studying to become an English teacher and he had spent some time in the UK related to his studies where he had fallen in love with the music of Manic Street Preachers. He played us a couple of songs in class. This was before pretty much anyone knew anything about the band in Finland. Everything Must Go was the first album to gain some recognition in Finland, but it wasn't until two years later when This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours was released that the band became popular in the Finnish mainstream. So, I can quite confidently say that I knew about the band way before most people in Finland. I didn't really start listening to them properly at that time though.

Bill Evans – Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1959)

When you start exploring jazz of the 50s and 60s, it's quite easy to see who the superstars from that period were. You just look at the players on the albums and usually the players who appear on most well-known albums can be considered the superstars of jazz. Bill Evans is clearly one of them. In addition to his own albums, he has played piano on several other jazz superstars' albums. Everybody Digs Bill Evans is his second album as the band leader. At this point his best albums were still ahead of him, but this album showed already many signs that he was to become one of the best jazz pianists on the planet. As a rising jazz star it was probably not possible to get much higher praise than to get stars like Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley praise your talents in your album cover. The album cover might not be the most innovative, but it sure gives confidence in the quality of the record.

Ben Howard – Every Kingdom (2011)

When I had just moved to London, I found quite a few good folk artists that I hadn't heard of before. Many of those artists were just releasing their debut albums, maybe inspired by the success of Mumford & Sons. I was glad to see so many good singer-songwriters emerging at the time. However, there's one problem with many of these artists. If they gained recognition with their debut album, they more often than not got sucked into mainstream record labels and as a result their authentic acoustic sounds changed into awfully produced commercial sounds that usually included completely irrelevant electronic instruments as well. This is kind of what happened to Ben Howard on his later albums. This debut album of his is still a great folk album that deserved the buzz it got at the time of its release.

The Moody Blues – Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971)

The Moody Blues is a strange band. I sometimes really like them and sometimes they seem really lame. I really liked the band as a teenager after having heard one album played by my father and after borrowing an extensive CD box set from the local library and copying it on minidisc. Then, for quite a few years afterwards, I thought Moody Blues was kind of lame. They sounded really old and outdated. Now that I'm listening to them years later, I can totally see what was so good about them and even if the sounds are a bit old, I truly enjoy their music. This album I bought on vinyl when I found it with a very affordable price in a record store in Helsinki. I haven't listened to this album that much since the purchase because quite soon after buying it, I moved to London and I don't have the album with me.

Gavin Clark & Toydrum – Evangelist (2015)

The English singer-songwriter Gavin Clark played in numerous bands during his career, including Unkle, Clayhill and Sunhouse. I'm not too familiar with those bands, but what I've heard from them, I can fairly securely say that none of those projects are as good as Evangelist, the last album he ever made. Clark died as a result of his alcoholism and Pablo Celements and James Griffin from Tyodrum and Unkle had to finish the album that was unfinished when Clark died. This album is a fantastic ode to Gavin Clark's career. It's filled with very sad and beautiful songs and at the same time, it has many songs with powerful angst and attitude. The black and white album cover with Clark with an accordion is as cool as the album itself. I can't name that many albums from last few years that would be as cool as this one.

Allo Darlin' – Europe (2012)

Today, this album by a London-based indie pop band seems very evidently like a political statement, but when you consider this album was actually released already in 2012, it's not quite as evident. Allo Darlin' is actually very un-political in their lyrics on this album and despite some references to EU politics, this album is mostly about everyday encounters on their European tour where they drove across the continent in a van. Then again, it seems to me like this albums is a manifesto for free movement in Europe. It tells numerous stories of different cities, memorable experiences and the sense of freedom of driving from country to country and feeling part of it all. I'm getting quite emotional now even just thinking about how my adopted home country is willingly trying to give up something this amazing. 

Various Artists – Europe House Presents: Europa Jazz (2010)

In 2012 I did my internship at the Finnish Institute in London. They are involved with societal and cultural exchange between Finland and UK and they've been involved in many interesting cultural projects. This has included various compilation albums of Finnish music that have been promoted here in UK. This album is not their project, but nevertheless, they were, I guess, partly promoting jazz collaboration between European countries and this album includes one Finnish song as well. Unfortunately I can't find the album cover anywhere. This is a compilation album of European jazz from 2010. There are very interesting songs on here. I find that jazz is one of the easiest international musical styles, since there are rarely vocals involved and the whole idea is to sound quite original, so stylistic differences don't surface that easily.

Glasvegas – EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ (2011)

I was first introduced to Glasvegas right after their debut album. Me and a few of my friends from university had these music nights where we would each bring an album the others may not know and we listened through those albums. Glasvegas' debut album was one of those albums brought by a friend of mine. I was immediately impressed by their melancholic and grandiloquent sound. A big bonus went to the lead singer James Allan's amazing Scottish accent. I also loved the band's mini-album A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like  a Kiss). Around the time I was really drawn to these kinds of larger than life sounds that could fill the stadiums. This album continues the large sounds filled with guitar walls and huge emotions, but some of the intimacy is gone. Nevertheless, this is quite a good album and I wasn't disappointed when I bought this one.

7Suns – Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1 (2011)

This is one of the most random albums in my collection. Me and a few of my friends went to see this band live in Brighton in midsummer 2012. None of us knew the band in advance, but we just wanted to see some live music and this is what was on offer. One of my friends had just moved to Brighton and the rest of us were visiting her from London. My memory of that night is that Brighton had a particularly varied and interesting night life for such a small city. This view has gotten more evidence over the years. Anyway, this band gave away some of these albums for free at their gig and that's how I ended up with this CD. I have to say that I haven't listened to this mini album that many times since, but it sounds pretty good now. Although, I definitely think this works much better played live.

Turin Brakes – Ether Song (2003)

Normally the album I first discover from a band, becomes the most important album to me. This is not the case with Turin Brakes. Ether Song was the first album I listened to from them, but I still think their debut album is the best one they ever released. Nevertheless, the second album Ether Song, is among their best albums. It took a slight departure from very acoustic and quiet debut album Optimist LP and introduced electric instruments and so-called, normal pop band instruments started to dominate the sounds. The most striking feature of the band is, however, the lead vocals of Olly Knights. His slightly nasal vocals are very recognisable and his range is quite amazing. I always thought most of the vocals were just double tracked on the album, but when I saw the band live, I realised that Gale Paridjanian's backing vocals actually are an essential part of the band's sound.

Why? – Eskimo Snow (2009)

I discovered the band Why? in 2008 in Japan when a local record shop was playing their album Alopecia. I immediately became interested in their music after hearing just a couple of songs while browsing albums in the shop. I ended up walking to the counter, asking what it was they were playing, and I bought the album then and there. Eskimo Snow was released about a year later and I was quite excited about the new album, because I had been really happy with my purchase. Alopecia had some rap sequences on it. I'm not that much into rap, but the album was melodic enough that it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I really liked that I had finally found an album with rap that I really liked. Eskimo Snow has moved even further away from the rap origins of the band and I could describe the style of the album as just indie rock with quite melodic approach.

Jean-Michel Jarre – Équinoxe (1978)

Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène is one of the most well-known synthesiser albums. Équinoxe was released only one year after Oxygène and it is very similar in style. It's not quite as groundbreaking because there already was a very similar album before and also, the themes and melodies are not as interesting on this album. Nevertheless, this is a great example of a synthesiser album from the 70s that seems to predict the cold and industrial synth sounds of the 80s pop music. There is something beautifully futuristic in these kinds of sounds even today, over 40 years later. I can only imagine how futuristic it must've sounded at the time of its release. This is the kind of music people could've expected the music of the future to sound like. It's the music of 1950s sci-fi. The imagery of these albums is very appropriate for this futuristic aesthetic.

Spector – Enjoy It While It Lasts (2012)

Approximately five years ago I went to see Suede at Alexandra Palace here in London. I was excited to see them as I hadn't seen them live before. Opening for Suede was Spector. I had never heard about this band before, but it seemed that they had quite a few fans in the audience. The two guys in front of us were singing all the lyrics along. I had to admit that they had really catchy songs and I really enjoyed their set. Some time after I saw their debut album Enjoy It While It Lasts with a cheap price at a record store so I decided to buy it. Stylistically, Spector is more similar to bands I used to listen to some years earlier, but I'm still happy I bought this album, because it has some excellent hit songs. This is the kind of music I would've been really excited to see live a few years earlier when I still felt like really getting wild on the dance floor.

Weeping Willows – Endless Night (1999)

There seems to be something deeply melancholic in the Nordic state of mind. At least there are lots and lots of bands in the Nordic countries that channel mostly sad emotions in their songs. As even the name of the band might suggests, Weeping Willows is one of these bands. At the turn of the millennium, they were one of the most interesting Swedish bands out there. Endless Night is their second album and in my opinion it's one of their best overall. The album is very skilfully produced and there's quite big orchestration in the songs that remind me of some other indie rock artists of the same time such as Mercury Rev or Kent. There are also some slight influences from the guitar band Shadows in the guitar sounds. The album is overall quite melancholic and there are, above all, huge emotions in the performance on the album.

Eels – End Times (2010)

End Times is a classic break-up album. It features many different sides of a painful break-up. Different songs on the album are about sadness, loneliness, anger, remorse or about starting to feel better and living life again. The album seems to have a storyline from problems in the relationship, through the actual break-up to sadness and finally to getting over it. In addition to the themes of break-up, this album also deals with getting older quite a lot. When I first listened to the album, I wasn't too excited about it. It wasn't as good as most of the earlier Eels albums. But then, I broke up with my girlfriend shortly after I had bought this album and it gained much more meaning as a result. Many of the lyrics resonated with my situation and it definitely didn't help that this was playing when we were discussing the break-up in the first place.

Kaiser Chiefs – Employment (2005)

Around 2005 I started discovering lots of new indie rock bands. Post-punk revival had become the most successful indie genre with the help of such bands as Franz Ferdinand and Interpol. Kaiser Chiefs tapped into this success by their debut album Employment. Their songs have excellent melodies and there's some excellent punk rock attitude in their sounds. I also love the strong Yorkshire accent in their vocals. Kaiser Chiefs was one of the few bands I was into even before they had released any of their albums. I had already heard their songs I Predict a Riot and Oh My God before the album was released. The expectations were really high as a result. These songs had similarities to The Clash's classic album London Calling in style. Even though not all of the songs are as amazing as those two hits, this was a really strong debut album in its entirety.

The Cardigans – Emmerdale (1994)

The Cardigans was one of the most internationally well-known Swedish bands in the 90s. I'm sure there were quite a few people out there who never even realised they were from Sweden. Emmerdale, however, doesn't include that many internationally well-known hits. This is the band's debut album and in a way, they're still searching for their sound. There are some fantastic songs already on this album, but as a whole, it's a bit uneven. The title of the album is indeed taken from the British soap opera with the same name. This show was really popular in the Nordic Countries for some reason. At least in Finland it was on when I returned home from school, which meant that I got a glimpse of it quite often even though I never actually intentionally watched the show.

Jamiroquai – Emergency on Planet Earth (1993)

I really liked Jamiroquai as a teenager. I guess one of the main reasons was that at the time I was enthusiastically learning to play the bass and Jamiroquai delivered some of the best bass lines I had heard. At the time I wasn't really familiar with the original funk movement of the 70s, so Jamiroquai and Red Hot Chili Peppers were the two bands that introduced me to funk bass. Jamiroquai was the band out of these options that lasted time better and I still enjoy listening to them unlike RHCP. At the time, Jamiroquai was quite different from the other bands I listened to. That was the time when I was discovering 60s and 70s classic rock bands. In hindsight, I have to say that even though Jamiroquai's early albums still sound quite good, they're not a match for actual 70s funk classics, which I have only really discovered in the last few years.

The Pigeon Detectives – Emergency (2008)

I've written about a certain Indie rock compilation album that I bought almost 10 years ago in Notting Hill Portobello Road market a few times already. It features 100 indie hits, of which, many were already known to me, but it also introduced me to many new bands, The Pigeon Detectives being one of them. I wasn't massively excited about their music, but the couple of songs they had on that compilation made me interested enough to buy this album when I found it shortly after in a record shop in Helsinki with a cheap price. The Pigeon Detectives play quite typical mid-00s indie rock with fast-tempo disco beats and chiming electric guitars. Like Maxïmo Park, The Pigeon Detectives also sing in a strong Northern accent, which makes these two bands sound very similar. Although, Pigeon Detectives sing in Yorkshire. I really like it when you can hear the accent clearly in music.

Elliott Smith – Elliott Smith (1995)

Elliott Smith's self-titled album is his second one. On the debut solo album Roman Candle Smith was still trying to find his sound after his much more rock oriented band Heatmiser. This album already sounds like we've come to know Elliott Smith at his best. There are numerous very strong moments on this album. Songwriting is already fantastic. The sounds are very low-key, with most songs just having acoustic guitars and Smith's trembling vocals, which are already doubled on most of the album, creating a haunted mood to this album. I guess it's because this album was before Smith's breakthrough that came with the film Good Will Hunting that not many people talk about this album when talking about Elliott Smith. It does, however, have some of the best songs of his career. The overall mood of the album is very melancholic, even by Elliott Smith's standards.

22-Pistepirkko – Eleven (1998)

I've already written about a couple of albums by the Finnish alternative rock band 22-Pistepirkko. I'm sure this is quite a mouthful of a band name for non-Finns. The good news, though, is that the lyrics are in English. Although, I do need to point out that they don't make that much sense either sometimes. But that's only in a good obscure way. Eleven is not actually the band's eleventh album, it's seventh. So, I don't really know why it was titled that. Perhaps it has something to do with being half of 22. In my opinion, Eleven is the band's best album. It includes some proper garage rock songs that the band is known for, but it's also the first album by them to feature lots of fantastic electronic sounds as well. The album sounds wonderfully weird and there are various different types of genres on the album, while it still manages to sound like a coherent whole.

Hot Hot Heat – Elevator (2005)

The Canadian indie rock band Hot Hot Heat was one of the best guitar-driven fast-tempo indie rock bands in mid-00s. Their songs have great melodies, a thing that cannot be said of many other similar bands of that period. I was really into bands like this around the time when this album was released. Elevator is the band's second album and in my opinion it's their greatest album to date. It has the youthful attitude of the debut album, but the compositions are a lot more well thought of. In the following albums, Hot Hot Heat lost some of its edge as their sounds became more commercial. I bought the album on a vinyl and I remember thinking that this gatefold sleeve was really cool. This was the time when I started buying more and more albums on vinyl and I was extremely fond of all of my newly bought vinyl albums.

The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)

Elephant was the album that made The White Stripes a superstar. They were already well-known in the indie circles before this fourth album of theirs, but this album pushed them to the mainstream and things like Grammy awards. To me personally, Elephant was a bit of a disappointment compared to the previous album White Blood Cells that I still consider the best album by The White Stripes. On this album, the band kind of lost the rawest edge that had made their music so incredibly unique on the earlier albums. I'm not saying it's not there on Elephant as well, but the sound is much more carefully fine tuned that it doesn't sound as fresh and improvised as the previous albums. I don't want to badmouth Elephant, because I still think it's a fantastic album. I'm just saying that it took the White Stripes closer to commercial sound.