Islaja, Keraaminen Pää (side A)

Islaja's 2007 Ulual YYY has always impressed me — it's primitive and stripped-down, but also focused and impressively distinctive.  By 2010's Keraaminen Pää, she's self-consciously matured into a less distinctive artist.  While the album retains her sparse approach, the exposed and bare qualities of Islaja's early albums are gone.  While hardly as bombastic as, for example, Björk, who might be an obvious comparison, Islaja uses much bigger sounds here, and her vocals project with more confidence and power.  It's unclear whether she's seeking a broader audience, or whether the naïve qualities that I valued were unintentional on Ulual YYY.  No matter the cause, I appreciated the tiny austerity of her early work, and the more ambitious sounds here feel like a departure.  Islaja's still an impressively talented songwriter and arranger, and Keraaminen Pää successfully captures some of that magic.  The gestures in which her talent is wrapped feel a lot more purposeful and a lot less exposed than in her earlier work, and that transformation sometimes distracts me from the magic that's still here.  The cover image has also moved away from a rustic appearance and feels more stylish — it matches the contents perfectly.