What the hell no one told me that the cheesy-but-oh-so-wonderful pop group The Crash had decided to finish their career last month and are about to play their last ever concert next month. This was a complete shock surprise when I randomly checked out their webpage yesterday for any news on new releases.

Sure, The Crash were never the sort of band who’d stand up in history books. Their music was heavily derived from 90’s britpop mixed with 80’s synths and while Teemu Brunila’s syrupy voice definitely gave the band their own tone, they didn’t do anything particularly original during their four studio albums. And they were cheesy as all hell. But what they had was heart. A big heart, made of soft cuteness and instant adorability. They are probably the most adorable band in my collection, a band that instantly puts you in an upbeat mood with their addicting sunshine.

And as such, some mp3s, some youtube and some ramble behind the cut.

Let’s start with a video.

Star (from Wildlife)

I’ll wait until you’re done with your insulin injections.

The thing with The Crash is that at any given moment the band is threatening to turn into a sugary farce, a corny pile of cheese the size of a particularly noteworthy sun. However, the band manages to turn this into an asset with their attitude. There’s always a little wink in the eye, a little smile and a nod to tell you that they perfectly know how silly they might sound and how ridiculously sweet they are. Then they proceed to play a song that’s crafted together with so many hooks of both musical and vocal kind, utterly irresistable melodies spawning from everywhere and lyrics that balance somewhere between ingenius and ridiculously naïve when soppy lovesongs mention the loved one’s booty, desire to go on pony rides, how goblins and bugbears will never take your loved one away, how someone is very uncool and that’s a very bad thing, or how you’re searching for the world for a big ass love.

The Crash’s gift was that they, or the frontman Teemu Brunila, were extremely well-polished songcrafters who could play their very hate-it-or-love-it style of pop perfectly to their needs.

The band released four albums during their lifetime. Comfort Deluxe (1999) started the whole thing with a rather big bang as the first single, the gorgeous ballad “Sugared” became a huge hit in Finland. And while CD flirted with being overtly adorable and fluffy, it didn’t rely on it. It’s simply the sound of a pop band who knows their 90’s britpop extremely well. In a retrospective I’d say Comfort Deluxe is the band’s masterpiece – not completely perfect by any chance but its got a huge amount of solid gold pop beauties while suffering from pretty much no filler, a problem all the other albums by the band suffer from in the form of a few songs that simply feel like plodding b-sides at best. Plus it has a lovely nostalgia value personally.

Three albums followed. 2001 saw the release of Wildlife that introduced a more emphasised role of keyboards to the basis familiar from Comfort Deluxe, hinting at the future direction and already adding some of that marvellous sugar. This then fully realised itself with 2003’s Melodrama, which could pretty much be called an 80’s pastiche. Eighties synths, stadium power ballads and big pop songs, lead single “Still Alive” having a main hook that sounds more than familiar to Van Halen’s “Jump”, etc. In short, it’s where the band’s sugary peak was reached. Finally, 2006 gave Pony Ride, an album that toned down the 80’s influences a bit while softening (!) and slowing down the band’s sound slightly. Each album can be described the exact same quality-wise: some masterpiece songs, a lot of good stuff, but essentially just the amount of filler that the full album feels just a teensy bit wonky. There’s also the compilation album Selected Songs 1999-2005 for those who’d rather pick some of the selection from the albums, also featuring two songs that were later re-recorded for Pony Ride. Which is a great compilation (with some nifty liner notes), but ultimately misses out some essential songs.

And as such, we wave goodbye to The Crash. Whenever I’ve been in the mood for some lovely, adorable pop music they’ve been my pick. The ingeniusly crafted melodies mixed with the sheer cuteness and loveliness of the music always makes one smile. It’s quite sad that they only left us four albums, but at the same time each of those albums contain some true diamonds. Thanks for the good music, guys!

Now, I leave you off with a cutesy video and some MP3s.

Big Ass Love (from Pony Ride/Selected Songs)

MP3: World of My Own (from Comfort Deluxe)
MP3: Coming Home (from Comfort Deluxe)
MP3: Lauren Caught My Eye (from Wildlife)

Buy The Crash albums from Record Shop X

Tags: The Crash

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Band Ramble, Retrospective. 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.