Indica – Shine

Finnish band Indica released their first album in 2004.  Like the next three albums it was recorded in Finnish and while enjoying considerable success in Finland, the band had a far lower profile outside Finland.  In 2010 they released their first album sung in English – ‘A way away’.  It wasn’t new songs but instead was English versions of songs from their previous albums.  The album was produced by Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen, and Indica supported Nightwish on part of their tour, with the comnbination of the new album plus the tour boosting their profile significantly outside Finland.

Now for the band’s new album they’ve decided to up the difficulty, and are actually releasing two albums – ‘Shine’ and ‘Akvaario’.  In fact they are different versions of the same album – the same songs appear on both albums, but on ‘Shine’ the lyrics are all in English, but with ‘Akvaario’ they are in Finnish.

The new album doesn’t differ radically from their previous albums – it’s still that same pop-rock sound, and that’s going to keep a lot of fans happy as it’s clearly a very successful approach for them, and I have to say it’s a sound that I think works superbly well.  Beautiful female vocals, catchy tunes, and enough of a rock base to stop it straying too far into pop.  You can check out the lyric video for the song ‘A definite maybe’ at the bottom of this review and hear for yourself just how good it sounds.

Fans of the band’s previous albums are almost certainly going to enjoy this new album.  I think it’s a great album and already have the CD on order.

Rating: 4/5

‘Shine’ will be released on 24th January 2014

Track listing:

1. Mountain made of stone
2. Uncovered
3. A definite maybe
4. Goodbye to Berlin
5. Run run
6. Here and now
7. Missing
8. Hush now baby
9. Behind the walls
10. A kid in the playground
11. War child

12. Humming Bird (Bonus track on digipak version)
13. Lucid (Bonus track on iTunes album purchases)