Album Review: Architecture In Helsinki - "Places Like This"

6.5 STARS (out of 10)
It's been about three years since Architecture In Helsinki released their first album Fingers Crossed in the states and a lot has changed since then. Not only has the band played with the likes of David Byrne, Belle and Sebastian, and Yo La Tengo; but they released one of the most undeniably great indie pop gems ever, In Case We Die. Where Fingers Crossed was subtle and sweet, In Case We Die was forceful, but still undeniably upbeat and happy. It was a pretty natural progression and a necessary one lest AiH be stuck playing 1 to 2 minute toy-pop jams the rest of their lives. The band managed to transfer the beauty of those short tracks from Fingers Crossed into full length, wonderfully bizarre, and completely disjointed pop nuggets that bursted at the seams with a collage of unusual instrumentation, childlike yelps, and a start/stop pulse that kept the album throughly interesting. Now, however, the band have taken the same step In Case We Die took, even one step further with Places Like This.
From the opening arial sample attack on our ears of "Red Turned White", reminiscent much more of The Go! Team than Architecture In Helsinki, it's clear that AiH are here to prove something different than on their other two albums, they can rock too! Much of the same giddy nature of AiH's music is still there on most all of the tracks of Places Like This, but the underlaying forum for them has severely changed. Where once there was glockenspiel, trombone, and light triangle taps there's now heavy insistent drum beats, catchy buzzing synthesizer lines, and lots of bass. Another element taken away from, or at least diminished on Places Like This is the herky jerky nature of In Case We Die. On In Case We Die songs were always changing their direction, tempo, instruments, beat, or anything else that makes the foundation of a standard pop song. Sure, it sounds like it would be sloppy and ungrasping, but it was what made AiH who they were, and they did it perfectly and pleasurably. On Places Like This the tracks follow a much more standard song structure, by no means are they making straight forward pop songs now, there's still plenty of breakdowns, track jumping, and other intricacies that make the album entertaining; but in general the songs are much more linear compared to their previous works.
"Red Turned White" opens Places Like This with Cameron Bird near screaming above a catchy synth line and buzzing guitar patterns (i wouldn't be surprised if they were even employing one of the always entertaining Casio Keyboard/Synth/Drum Machine Guitars). Next comes the album's first single "Heart It Races" (which i posted an mp3 of a while back on my page, "HERE":http://mog.com/max/blog_post/66473) which sounds, well, almost dark and slightly African infused with it's loads of bongos, steel drums, and orchestral a cappella backdrop is a perfect little capsule of the ways in which AiH are changing and growing. "Hold Music" and "Nothing's Wrong" both sound most similar to the AiH of late with their trading boy/girl vocals and jittery, horn tinged anthem like status. "Like It Ar Not", reaches the pinnacle of greatness for AiH on their new album, and is justly right in the dead center of it. It's happy, almost tropical, there's a bunch of "wa wa wa wa's", and thank god there's some acoustic guitar, plus it's just so damn catchy!
Architecture took a step out of their comfort zone on this album to create Places Like This which grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't ever give you a chance to come down...The only problem is that those come downs were simply necessary for Architecture In Helsinki. You can't overload anyone with a ton of spastic (and bombastic) crashing noise without a soft note here or there or an all acoustic, jangly, starry eyed girl led ballad. What's also lost is the playful nature of AiH, this album feels like the evil twin of In Case We Die, it means well, but it just doesn't always do the right things. There's no doubt that this album has it's moments, but for Architecture In Helsinki I don't know if it was a step in the right direction.
p.s. let the track get to the 34 second mark before you start thinking it sounds awful, i still don't know why they did the whole slowed down opening, almost ruins a great song!