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.