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Should...Would...Could: More Favorites From '05
This will be the first of likely many posts about albums released in 2005 that should have made it into my favorites list. Excuses, well I have many. Regrets, I got them too. If only the day was longer or the need for sleep less demanding I could have heard it all. Now I'll need the next six months to catch up while falling behind what's coming out this year. Sisyphus, meet your rock.
Dethroning Sigur Ros from the honor of My Favorite Band That I Can't Pronounce is Finland's Paavoharju and its equally unpronounceable debut album Yhä hämärää. Given proper time and attention, this album certainly would have ranked in my top 15. Brad Rose wrote for Foxy Digitalis that "Paavoharju's dense web of gurgling ambient beauty is unlike anything I've ever heard. Ina world where everyone seems to be copying everybody else in some way or another, Paavoharju resist that temptation and forge ahead on their own."
For a taste of Paavoharju, check out the free MP3s. Also recommended is Deaf Center's Skrekkfilmbok mix, which includes Paavoharju's "aauringon tuntuinen".
Now for a related rant:
A surface skim via Google reveals that reviewers made much of the band's Christianity. Having listened to Yhä hämärää several times without knowing this detail, the fact that it was made by - gasp! - born-again Christians matters not at all. How can it really when the lyrics are sung in Finnish? Particularly loathsome is this quote from Stylus:
If I sound skeptical, it's due to a snobbish reluctance to admit that a work of such nuance and grandeur was produced by born-again Christians. Perhaps if I could translate the lyrics, sung in gossamer soprano, I'd understand the religious intent of the album. Instead, I can only appreciate the reverence that infuses, hear the spirits whispering in the dense, foggy tracks, and shudder at the ferocity of these gentle devotionals
The assumption that someone's religious faith could prevent them from producing works of "nuance and grandeur" is so uninformed it's funny. And by the way, English translations of Paavoharju's are available on its web site. Don't worry Stylus, they are free of any of clumsy, simplistic born-again tendencies.