Laakso
Mother, am I good looking?
V2
I've been formualting this review for a the better part of a couple of weeks and now I think I've got something that makes a bit of sense. To start, the album is flawless - and is the work of a band fully realizing a vision and fully realizing their detachment. Laakso has always been a band slightly skewed, in what direction (or directions) I don't know, but it's always been prevalent in their music and part of their charm. This time around, the music is a bit sunnier, yet the lyrics are some of their darkest. "No one is completely faithful" is the acceptance of defeatist truth, yet sung with one of the band's prettiest melodies to date; "Norrköping" is one of the best coming-of-age songs to be written in a long, long time; and "Dropout" just stuns with its Freddy Mercury-esque wall of harmonies bridge. The lead single "Italy vs. Helsinki" is, just as Avi posted before, completely over the top in all aspects. In fact, one may view the whole album as being a bit over the top, but it works perfectly - in fact, if anything played or sung on this album was absent, the album would feel incomplete. Fans of Laakso with fall in love with the record, but its natural detachment may not be understood by all, but then again, not everyone gets the best albums.
- Matt Giordano
