Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is no surprise these days when the mainstream finds the understanding of the power of the belief in parallel universes, the worlds in which we inhabit, the different turns that we could have made as a species, as individuals, the decisions that would have made our lives infinitely nobler, more virtuous, perhaps more deranged, more exciting, less convincing, the enormity of a single fated moment in time dictating the rest of your life, judging you for a single snapshot of left or right at life’s impossible junction.
The mainstream may have accepted the possibility of the parallel world, but it still takes a master of the art form in which to bring it to life, in which the fabric of existence is broken down and like a confusing jigsaw puzzle with a thousand alternate possible endings, results in a picture that can viewed with clarity. The dress worn becoming a symbol of repression, the flower plucked and held with open spirit and free hand, becoming a stick in which to whip the emotions overwhelmingly with force, anything is possible in Another World and in the hands of Erja Lyytinen, it has always been a universe of beauty and excellent Rock.
Ahead of Ms. Lyytinen’s new album, due out in early 2019, Another World encapsulates the feeling of different genres within the realm of the parallel existence, the love story, the dystopian experience, the realisation that the beauty you may feel is true but you have long been finding ways to believe that what surrounds you is not love and honour, but the distemper of pollution, the darkness that infects and crawls through your mind like a parasite. It is in this powerful musical statement that Erja Lyytinen has excelled and brings notice that we need to care for ourselves and the environment we inhabit more.
A song of absolute melody, of charm, one on which Erja Lyytinen perhaps leaves the dimensions of the comfort zone that so many associate her with, the Blues after all should not be confined and no human should accept other’s definition of them; it is now Another World in which we live, another time in which to create a place in which we can all find our version of peace and thought.
Erja Lyytinen’s Another World is out now and available via Tuohi Records.
Ian D. Hall