Because of the size of my music collection, each week I randomly select a release from it to revisit on an ad hoc basis. It gives me the inspiration to get back to things I may not have listened to for a while, relisten albums I may not have spent much time with in the past, and lightly re-evaluate. So I'm going to try and post a little something each week about my revisits.
This week I've been revisiting the Finnish synth / indie / art / hipster / ?? -pop trio Regina's third album Puutarhatrilogia (Garden Trilogy) from 2009. A bit of a "level up", or perhaps a growth spurt from the group: the first two albums had a bit of a ramshackle attitude and vocalist Iisa Pajula's lyrics had an intentionally naïve twang to them to compliment her eccentric schoolgirl vocals. This time around I think everyone just got tired of people making those observations and so the group took a more focused approach to both the music and the lyrics and made a subtle and alluring concept album about life after a break-up divided into three acts, bursting with suave rhythms and quirky melodies. It's been a grower, and the older I've gotten the more I've appreciated its more laidback charms. It's super hard to rank Regina's albums because they basically transformed completely between each one, but this is probably my joint favourite with their fourth album, the dreampop-esque Soita mulle.
I leave you with the video for the lead single "Saanko jäädä yöksi" ("Can I Stay for the Night?") which sadly has had to let go half of its length with the single edit, but it still frolics wonderfully.