Kalli Talonpoika earns a perfect score for new album

In a review first published by Müürileht, Kristjan Karron awards Kalli Talonpoika’s new album “Kuidas me saame üle vee?” (“How do we get across the water?”) a perfect 10 out of 10.

If the album’s title and lyrics were not in Estonian, listeners might initially assume that it was a long-lost post-hardcore classic from the vast archives of Dischord Records, a record label. Instead, the 16 tracks on the solo project, released in the height of summer, sound so homemade in both their lyrics and production that they are almost startling. Is it really possible to make something this good in Estonia almost as if it were nothing?

The confidence flowing from the album’s melodramatic pores is awe-inspiring. Of course, making an album like this is not simply a matter of going into the studio and recording it in a day. Yet the all-encompassing vision holding the work together makes it feel as though the record has fallen through a hole in space-time, landed in this universe and arrived perfectly intact.

Musically, the album can be clearly compared with the Dischord heavyweights mentioned above. Much of it would feel at home in the pantheon of songs by Embrace or Rites of Spring. But it is not merely a successor to those bands; the album also draws on other movements. The nervous guitar work recalls alternative rock in the style of Treepeople, the starkly serious quiet moments bring to mind the best of Metro Luminal, and some of the crescendos even suggest black metal.

The decision to use Estonian lyrics gives the album an even more immediate sincerity, which is crucial in this genre. The whole package does not grow stale, even after being played for what feels like the umpteenth time at home while rocking in front of a computer. One can only imagine the energy with which these songs are performed live.

The cold, anti-commercial production further reinforces the feeling that the listener is hearing something special. In any case, and this is meant as a complete compliment, if I were still 14, Kalli’s band could genuinely be my whole life.