#knipi

If you're familiar with Finnish pop music these days, perhaps the name Regina would ring a bell. Spanning over four full-length albums and with their members and into splintering off into side projects such as Cup and Shine 2009, it’s surprising that it was only this year that frontwoman Iisa Pykäri decided to venture out on her own and record a solo album. While comparisons to her former band are may be tempting to draw, Iisa’s eponymous debut stemmed from a desire to explore the idea of making the songs she herself would like to hear.

The feature single of the album “Perjantai” (Friday) is an ode to those feelings. It’s an emancipation of sorts, about those lazy days leading up to those “pleasant, lonely and free weekends where you can do whatever you want with no one disturbing you”, says Iisa. While it may be convenient to draw comparisons to Regina considering Iisa is still on the vocal forefront and the fact her husband and bandmate Mikko Pykäri is on the production, “Perjantai” drives heavier with pop hooks and quicker beats. Despite the track’s hard-hitting drum-and-bass backing and its cascading xylophone drizzle, Iisa’s vocals light as air never drown out, playing a careful balance between extremely upbeat and intoxicatingly calm.

Another track of similar vein in terms of the easy, breezy Mikko Pykäri production and also which happens to be single material is “S€ Pyörittää” (it revolves). With its full-out Eurozone insignia, the 16-bit video game vibe of “S€ Pyörittää” heroically rails against the heavily-monetized world. It’s a sort of Finnish “Gangnam Style” of sorts (even the accompanying video even has a dance sequence to it) mocking capitalist society and materialism but at the same time but it carries the fact that ultimately musicians like Iisa can’t avoid worrying about money every now and then.

Despite the fact that this is very much an Iisa record, the fact that some elements of Regina resurface are if anything inevitable on her self-titled debut. There’s definitely some of clunky and incongruent beats that feature in some of Regina’s earlier work also that finds its way on the record such as “Rakkaani Nukkuu” which translates to “beloved sleep”. The track deals with a very Finnish topic, a song dreaming about warm weather, with her bare feet to the sky while she sits by the heat by the window sill. Then there’s also “Sata Toista” with its revving guitars and again those clunky beats, that falls between their last shoegazing record “Soita Mulle” and their previous material in a track about getting noticed by someone in the daily grind of everyday life.

However what makes this record different is perhaps more than anything is that Iisa’s record is more personal and not just about financial freedoms like in “S€ Pyörittää”.  It’s an album about uncertainties and insecurities like unanswered loves in the campfire guitar and boom-clap melodies of “Kirje” (letter) or perhaps being a bit too much of a stalker in love in the twisting woodwind sound of “Psykopaatti”. Maybe it’s something about living in cold and light-deprived Finland, but Iisa’s record is indeed quite dark and wintery despite her light-and-easy vocals. Like a twinkling snow globe sitting on someone’s table, track “Brooklyn” speaks about a pipe dream, running to the big city and ending up being depressed. Even her duet “Puutarhajuhla” (garden party) with compatriot Knipi is not your traditional love ballad. Illustrating the story of two lovers slowly becoming apart, “Puutarhajuhla” shows strength and fragility on the same page. While Knipi’s heart-drenched delivery easily complement Iisa’s vocal crispness on the track, gently-plucked strings and slow and solemn piano keys are held in contrast to the massive subwoofer boom of the track.

In all, Iisa’s self-titled debut is an incredibly diverse album that is hard to put your finger on. Does it really similar to the likes of Regina, a band that has spanned over four albums and re-invented their “sound” each and every time? Or is the record really that dark or happy considering we have “Perjantai” on one hand and “Puutarhajuhla” on the other? Whatever it is, the record is Iisa in its entirety much like the winds of change that blow on Iisa’s 30th “Syntymäpäivä” (birthday). Her self-titled debut is very much the complexities of a young adult becoming a woman - looking back while facing forward at the same time. The debut is about striking balances whether it is her wispy pronunciation of the otherwise harsh Finnish language with its long compound words and double vowels or even just wading through those melancholic feelings that are so pervasive in the Nordics. Iisa’s record is not something one could call “beginner’s luck” but in a way is an emancipation of sorts, as it is Pykäri’s attempt to connect with her music on a more personal level. Although while listening to the lyrics behind Iisa’s work that it’s obvious that she has her personal flaws like everyone else, it’s hard to find such a diverse collection of feelings and sounds more perfect that what this record has right here.