If you asked me which band had the most impact in the Finnish music scene in the 90’s, I’d answer with two words: Ultra Bra. And despite me often being a non-conformist idiot who tends to disagree with the popular opinion, in this case I wouldn’t be shocked if I was actually correct. It was impossible to avoid the group in the latter half of the 90’s – in the just five years between their debut and their last album, they managed to score countless hit singles and album tracks that garnered enough radioplay to become a part of public consciousness. They were the Finnish soundtrack of the late 90’s and going through their best of album is like browsing through an archive of immensely familiar songs in an amount that most bands would be jealous if they could get even half of them.

Ultra Bra was a big pop band: 12 members (started with 13), composed of four singers featuring both genders and outside the usual rock fare it also contained an additional percussionist and three horn players. Their sound took cue from the Finnish 60’s political pop and rock scene, modernising it and adding emphasis on vocal power with their armada of different voices that could contribute in various ways. Despite starting as a vaguely political band – the band was actually formed to perform in the song contest of a political party’s youth group – and the frequent political and social commentary early on the career, the band soon drifted into exploring relationships and their ups and downs. The quirky, often both seemingly randomly rambly and almost naïvely matter-of-a-fact, lyrics became a hate it or love it kind of factor (not that it matters for anyone who doesn’t know Finnish, ie most of you readers). Despite the regular seriousness in the band’s lyrics, Ultra Bra also had a pretty strong lighter side as each album carries its fair share of more humorous songs with a more upbeat, goofier sound and dafter lyrics. Half the time you got brilliant material, half the time filler.

The band ended up crafting four albums before a peaceful end after they all just said “let’s quit while we’re out high”. The differences between the four are, well, minimal. Only the final album Vesireittejä went into a slightly different direction as it tinkered around with synthesizers, electronic elements and harder guitar tones but even those occur only on half of the album. The style is pretty much the same through all four albums and I’d be hard-pressed to think which one of them is my favourite because despite the fact that all four carry very strong songs, none of the four are also even. Each one contains some filler alongside the fantastic stuff and as a result none of them really end up being better or worse than the others. The two-disc best of  is therefore not only a perfect way to get to know the band, but a fantastic fan-grab too because of its second CD full of b-sides, rarities and unreleased songs.

All of this ramble is meant to give you some sort of background when I, after getting mini-addicted to Vesireittejä, felt like sharing some mp3s from this band that’s rather unknown everywhere else in the world. “Minä suojelen sinua kaikelta” is a classic, “Kirjoituksia” a brilliant hit single , and “Poika vuoden takaa”, an electronic-tinged moodpiece from the final album, is a big personal favourite.

MP3: Minä suojelen sinua kaikelta
MP3: Kirjoituksia
MP3: Poika vuoden takaa

Tyttöjen välisestä ystävyydestä

(by the way, ‘ultra bra’ means ultra good in Swedish. Stop thinking about women’s breasts)

Tags: Ultra Bra

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Band Ramble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.