II

This Finnish act led by Matti Kervinen debuted in 2020, and finally the second album had been released. For starters it's disappointing to see that the album length is only about 30 minutes, and that the violin of Elisa Heikkinen is narrowed down to only two tracks out of six. It was precisely the feature I liked so much on Aurora Borealis and what distinguishes Sunhillow from Kervinen's preceding band Pax Romana.

This melancholic album is beautiful nevertheless. The opening song 'The Beast from the East' is an excellent piece of proggy pop, up to the strong chorus and Markus Väisänen's guitar solo. The lyrics contain the line "where's that simple human kindness" taken from the classic album Nuclear Nightclub which started WIGWAM's "deep pop" era in 1975. The newer Wigwam, especially the last albums from the 90's and 00's (Kervinen himself has worked on some of them), indeed are a central reference. 'The Circus and the Sea' is fairly good too. Three songs feature backing vocals of Sunhillow member Jari Loisa who passed away during the album making and whom this album is dedicated to.

Instrumental 'Circus Outro' as a keys and violin duet is truly beautiful in its sadness. 'Meanwhile Between the Tides' is a longer instrumental (and the only track over six minutes) dedicated to the keyboard wizard Esa Kotilainen. These two deaths of dear colleagues and friends have understandably affected deeply to the album process. However, this fairly proggy piece is not melancholic. It has great Moog parts but in its jam-like spirit I'd compare it to DAVID GILMOUR's solo albums, as well as the closing instrumental 'Afternoon Tune' for the Gilmouresque guitar work of Pekka Hakkarainen. This is the other piece featuring the violin and hence an obvious highlight. The lighthearted comfort song 'Gonna Get Better' in between the instrumentals makes me think of Lou Reed, of all artists, but that's mainly because of Kervinen's vocal style in it. The musical backing is of course more prog oriented than Reed's.

There is some sincerely moving sad serenity on this brief album. Primarily for them I finally chose to give a four star rating, despite the facts that not all material is equally strong and that I really miss more violin contribution.

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