Is Kimi Karki trying to be the Finnish Leonard Cohen? Maybe. World weary poetry about love complete with political awareness and spiritual allusions sound a bit like Cohen, as does the use of female backup choruses. Karki's lyrics don't carry the weight or the originality of Cohen's, but his voice and the music underneath is captivating and the fact that he comes from Finland but sings in Scottish tinged English is interesting.

No discernible FCC's; favorite tracks: 1, 4, 8

*1-- Entangled in Pleasure – 4:30 – dreamy sound with flatpick guitar and female backup chorus underneath interesting English lyrics

2 – Augurs of Winter –4:58 – apocalyptic visions set to pretty guitar vamps with synthesizer bearing down

3 –Lustful, Wrathful, Sullen – 4:28-- ethereal sounds underneath fairly overwrought thoughts

*4 – Beyond Distance –4:00 – recollected love and exhortations – semi-drone accompaniment with chorus coming in at end

5 –Good Things in Life – 4:08 – the shimmer and unreliability of memory and the meaning of life; female chorus comes in at end

6 –The Load We Carry – 5:24-- starts with echoey voices before guitar comes in; lyrics are a bit circular; music is pretty though; female chorus at end with la'la's

7 – Spearhead – 4:19 – pretty guitar motif starts and modulates; lyrics are anti-war from a primitive past

*8—River of Shadows – 6:34-- ethereal synth intro adds voices and then rhythmic guitar; Karki comes in with ruminations on life and death and then the ethereal music takes over again until the voice comes back in with an insistent rock sound; interesting contrast

9—The Last Move –9:15-- starts with weird snoring or motorized sounds; pretty guitar comes in; apocalyptic visions laid out with well-articulated lyrics and female chorus; weird-sounding outro too