Nordic November Week Three. Today: Finland.

Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about the Finnish music scene other than that their annual international Flow Festival routinely features Album Notes artists a year or two prior to their future review here. My knowledge of Lake Jons is equally low: two dudes from Helsinki, a pair of LPs under their belt, making one kick-ass sound.

With a name like The Coast, one could be forgiven for having images of beaches or surfing conjured. Take heed: there are no summer jams here. Instead, Lake Jons' sophomore album has a sparse, fall-approaching-winter vibe permeating throughout its difficult to define indietronica mix of pop and folk. While the English language may lack such a term, the Finns probably have a word that means "the sounds of contented acceptance once you've made peace with the fact that for three months of the year you might not see the sun on any given day." That's the sound of Lake Jons, and The Coast should be the official jam of saunas from Ostrobothnia to Uusimaa. It's easily one of my favorite albums of 2019, from start to Finnish.