Architecture in Helsinki

I want to make sure you're all listening attentively to the debut CD from Australian indie pop octet Architecture in Helsinki. The album is called "Fingers Crossed." Why not check out more about it on All Music Guide here?

It's very soothing, laid back kind of indie rock. It's fragile and delicate, like The Aislers' Set, but not lo-fi like that band. I suppose it's sort of The Shins meets, say, Galaxie 500, but I had analogies like that, so let's just say that it's peculiar, multi-instrumental, and very cool.

It's one of those odd albums that I genuinely didn't like on the first listen. I picked it up because of the stellar (and, I now see, entirely accurate) Pitchfork review a few months ago. It sounded to me like the kind of music people call "experimental," when what they really mean is that it's cacophanous and irritating. Like a lot of Captain Beefheart. Sure, there's a few good songs on "Trout Mask Replica," but for the most part, it's just odd, atonal noise. Yes, I know, there are songs buried down there, and the spastic production was meticulously calculated, but it SOUNDS random.

Anyway, that's what Architecture first sounded like to me, but then I decided, for whatever reason, to give it a second try last week. And I can't imagine what turned me off initially. Immensely catchy, quirky little ditties like "The Owls Go" sit side-by-side with moody, mainly instrumental pieces like "The Vanishing" or "Where You've Been Hiding," and even though the music is pulled in these different directions, the album feels like a cohesive hole. Considering as well The Arcade Fire's "Funeral" and the first disc from the Eagles of Death Metal, this has been a solid year for debut CD's.