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cokemachineglow

Maybe that’s the real spiritual value of the album: rather than impress their personal convictions, the band acts as a conduit for all these forces to combine and radiate like a prism.

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Pitchfork

Laulu connotes this youth, motion, and playfulness in various states of repair and construction, and it does so by alternating well-formed, multi-faced pop songs with abstract head-scratchers, each component as warmly evocative and strangely necessary as the last.

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Almost Cool

Paavoharju have put together an entrancing second release.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

group functions as a collective led by two born-again Christians, but the sounds they make suggest Christians of an extraordinarily mystical sort.

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Village Voice

It's chaotic, but extremely beautiful and endlessly fascinating.

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All Music Guide

Other songs like the sea-shanty-goes-Jacques Brel 'Italialaisella Laivalla' and the more openly indie-pop 'Tytto Tanssii,' with its guitar lope and synth-horn break floating over a softly rumbling cloud of melancholic, echoing textures, further add to the understated but enjoyable variety of a fine album.

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PopMatters

Laulu Laakson Kukista is an almost perfect example of a band moving forward without forgetting what it was that made them loveable in the first place, of how to make music with a wider appeal without sacrificing the reason people were paying attention in the first place.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Andrea G gave it a10:
This album is so pure, amazing, and beautiful, the songs are so mystical and sounds like a Dead Can Dance, this is magic. Highlight Songs: The freak folk techno from the beauty "Kevätrumpu" , the beauty violins from "Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin", the beauty dark electro-gothic from "Kirkonväki" and the 80's pop from "Uskallan". Album's Centerpiece: The master pop folk track from "Tyttö Tanssii" ("A Girl Dances"), sounds like a sunny and beautiful more than Belle And Sebastian, lyrics like a wonderful poem, and this song its really perfect. One of the best songs from 2008, The Top 2 SONG FROM 2008!! ONE OF THE BEST ALBUM FROM 2008 SO FAR.

Gabriel C gave it a10:
This album si so spiritual, beauty and have many diverse tastes of music, from the techno-folk song of Kevätrumpu to memorable pop songs like Tyttö Tanssii, the best album of 2008, great.

Troy D. gave it a10:
Absolutely Incredible group, and indispensible album. Perhaps the most significant musical discovery since I first heard the Animal Collective. Best album of the year.

me you gave it a7:
A good album, it was always going to be hard to top their absolutely mind-blowing debut. Not that this album is less good, just different.

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Laulu Laakson Kukista

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