Places Like This

Places Like This

Among the surge of indie-pop collectives in the mid-2000s, Architecture In Helsinki served up some of the most gleeful arrangements of them all. Where a band like Arcade Fire found grandeur in the greys of mourning, Architecture In Helsinki celebrated life in Technicolor. The Melbourne troupe approached their vast arsenal of instruments with childlike whimsy on the sticky-sweet revelries of 2003’s Fingers Crossed and 2005’s In Case We Die. By 2007’s Places Like This, the octet had slimmed down to six members, but their sound seemingly doubled in urgency. Fresh off a move to Brooklyn, frontman Cameron Bird set the band’s pace in overdrive, inspired by his bustling new surroundings in a prominently Puerto Rican neighborhood. Indeed, there’s an underlying Caribbean spirit in the steel-drum rhythms of sun-soaked rave-ups “Heart It Races” and “Lazy (Lazy)”. But much of the maximalist pop speaks more to the chaos of inner-city living, with a jumble of horns, guitars and Casios fighting for footpath space. Bird barrels through it all—breathlessly growling, warbling and wailing—as co-vocalist Kellie Sutherland shouts along, encouraging the frenzied sing-alongs of dance-punk doozies “Hold Music” and “Debbie”. To close their most playfully shambolic album, “Same Old Innocence'' aptly serves as an affirmation of Architecture In Helsinki’s burning need to colour way outside the lines.

Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada