Eppu Normaali – Kahdeksas Ihme

I know competitive Andy McCoy doesn't think of this as 'pure Finland rock n roll'. It isn't and it is. But it is pure international genius. OK so is McCoy and anything he touches. Don't be put off though by what anyone says. That this is Finnish melancholy. Or the music is too slick or Mikko (Pantse) Syrjä is too reminiscent of other guitarists. Anyone could argue the same about those others too. That would be peers squabbling. I recall Salieri in Amadeus trying to argue to
a royal audience that Mozart's music had 'too many notes in it'. Pantse is without question one of the finest guitarists and arrangers from anywhere. A maestro. The Syrjäs and Torvinen hit paydirt here. Be warned this is undeniably one of the most well crafted masterpieces by anyone. It is punk where punk meets genius. It is new wave where new wave comes of age. It is mature where maturity means you've arrived. And it is spellbinding. Martti Syrjä creates lilts that sometimes seem right on the money like a Finnish punk Morrison or when crooning like Bryan Ferry on Stranded shifts gear emoting like old father time perfectly cadenced like Curtis on Closer..Bowie on Heroes..or Mac from Bunnymen being timeless but Syrjä's unmistakenly his own man. Did someone grab hold of him and say, to paraphrase like Tenacious D, 'write the best songs in the world'? He left the late Mikko Saarela's lyrical shadow like a phoenix. Sonic seducers too, not reducers, eg qua "Vuonna 85", (the year 85), a mid 80s centrepiece of epic pop rock and eurobeat punk fusion, nothing Simple Minds didn't do, you say, only to notice that no previous generic identity can predict the folk punk as epic swing that EN present here- country europunk that reinvents how we hear melody. Subtle as Matlock and Jones reimagined as, say, Creedence Clearwater, or the Doors, trying to weave something new after 'NMTB', dialling your number to say we won't sweep u off your feet with a wall of sound but somehow they do and it's a tsunami that takes us unawares with a stealthy backdraft rollercoaster sidewinder of melodic waves into a delightful whirlpool of bliss. Juha and Pantse only let rip after their Jones/Richards interplay finds gaps in the rhythm to peep through. They don't Good 'ol boy you like Springsteen or Steve-O lads' fave Jones, Spectoring u with too glib a soundscreen but they do create a new party singalong urgency as they necessarily creep through gaps of adrenalin teasing you and manipulating your consciousness and Yr subconsciousness into statin dropping dopamine elation deftly making feet pump and your mind and ear follow adverse tricky time shifts that just test the boundaries of the musical bar forcing u to be part of the process, yes that successful.. cousin Aku's percussive instincts have never been better as eerily illustrative of profound time and space with crucial interplay, nimbly so, akin to Stephen Morris in Manchester. Producer Pantse no doubt building in architecturally clipped drumclaps like Hannett before him with Aku as sacrificial pawn for lamb slaughter. Track after track has a ' rock n roll/over Beethoven' grandeur, swinging in a way only EN can but with concerning pathos whilst striking us to our core and making one reflect on Eliot's 'time present and time passing', the symbiosis demands your attention. For punks from Tampere's hinterlands this is something else. As well balanced as anything by their equally worthy peers, Hassisen Kone, or Pelle Miljoona Oy, as beautiful and elegant as an elegy by Goethe or anyone you care for this is rock at its very finest. And if anyone is ever gonna take note of Finnish music this album is irresistible and irrefutably one of its classic achievements.
Occasionally sad, mostly extraordinarily uplifting and life enhancing, it makes most music seem not quite as succinct as before. A total monument to the ebbing Scandic tundra or thereby the briefness of life but all the while embracing it to celebrate its power when sometimes it unwittingly makes musical sense. Or state that travels thru to the here and now were ephemeral unless the band could reach you. This really is the Eighth Wonder. And they know it. Hence that phrase became the eighth album title.
And that r n r is in there too, I swear lol...!
Above all: when the spirit takes hold then u know
And you will know
As Eput's unreal presence will blow your preconceptions away
Breathtaking!