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Review: 'Pennies By The Pound'
'Heat Death Of The Universe'   

-  Label: 'Lilith/Bandcamp'
-  Genre: 'Rock' -  Release Date: '21.5.21.'

Our Rating:
Pennies By the Pound are the latest band from Helsinki of Johannes Susitaival who apparently used to be in a punk band or two but has now decided to go prog, some listeners may well wish he was still playing punk. The album is produced by Rake Eskolin and mastered by Mark Gardener of Ride.

This album opens with The Waters that gently leads you into a modern melodic rock song with a slightly proggy edge to it as what sounds like some Keytar flourishes happen in places this sounds a bit Dream Theater like as the tune gets more episodic.

Strange Matter is a short interlude of keyboards swirls that leads into Strange Stars (Lies Closer To Truth Than Beauty) which is as much of a mouthful, as this song is over the top, while sounding like three or four songs mashed together and sort of rescued by the backing vocals that seem to just hold it together, as I sit and try to work out just how cold it leaves me.

139 is the number of people who usually die every day in Finland and they are boasting to an ex that they aren't one of them, this is a slow bitter and reflective with a really nice repeating piano motif that runs through the song and holds the other musical elements together while making it the most engaging song on the album.

Indigo Screams is the main single from the album and it certainly has more of a mainstream feel to it in a sort of early Muse way but with fewer histrionics as they hope that well make it through as the vocals threaten to get properly over wrought the song breaks down a bit and a guitar solo drives though ahead of some rather widdly keyboards.

San Francisco Skyline is about falling in love in Golden Gate Park near the turn of the millennium and from the sounds of it they had eaten some mushrooms and are looking for someone to latch onto before they try to stagger back out onto Haight Street, as they try to communicate, the singer in Finnish and the girl in American, before they have the sort of encounter San Francisco has always been good for.

The album closes with Heat Death which is of course something that is sadly becoming more prevalent, this gently fades in and the vocals go quite Thom Yorke in places with the vocals moving around the speakers as it slowly builds and they ask questions about The Heat Death Of The Universe, this album is for Prog fans.

Find out more at https://penniesbythepound.bandcamp.com/album/heat-death-of-the-universe https://www.facebook.com/penniesbythepound



  author: simonovitch

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