In Case We Die

Architecture In Helsinki are an Australian band with illusions of grandeur and listening to their second album 'In Case We Die', it becomes perfectly clear just why: they've crafted a completely off-kilter, delicately beautiful, modern pop album.

After a year of touring Aus and the US in support of their debut 'Fingers Crossed', Melbourne's ramshackle eight-piece darlings AIH had become a hardened combo. They'd taken the fragile whimsy and naievete of their studio-oriented debut and fused it with an almost punk energy. The next album would propel their songs to new heights. And so they nestled in and began recording...

Armed with a veritable junkshop of instruments and perhaps too many ideas, they played and sang their hearts out, with some 40 odd people passing through and contributing in exchange for a cup of tea and slice of pizza. As such, there's a uniquely communal aura about the songs on 'In Case We Die', a handmade intricacy that is rare on modern pop albums.

One of the most striking traits of 'In Case We Die' is the ease in which it references many eras and incarnations of popular music while retaining that unmistakable 'Helsinki Sound'. There are tips of the hat to many disparate pop masterminds, as in the Rocky Horror-esque 'Wishbone', the Os Mutantes-styled schizophrenia of 'In Case We Die [Parts 1 - 4]', the Fleetwood Mac stomp of 'It's 5!' or the Morricone bombast of opening track 'Neverevereverdid'.

'In Case We Die' is not a concept album - though you could liken it to an expansive rock opera and it is indeed an epic voyage.