Fresh from a tour of Latin America with her band, The Rasmus, in May, Finnish guitarist/musician Emilia “Emppu” Suhonen dropped a music video for an entrancing song of her own called “Melissa”.

Speaking about the song in a social media post at the time of its release, Emppu said:

“Happy name day Melissa! In honor of the name day, a small anecdote about song lyrics, me since I like to write about real life matters.

I had a solo gig once in Turku, in the toilet of Puutori, in a gig place called Waterloo. This person, who later ended up writing the Melissa-song, also came all the way from the Helsinki area to see the gig. After the gig I was packing my guitar and sound equipment into a car I borrowed from my dad, when I noticed this familiar person jumping into another passenger car. We hugged, said goodbye and said that we’re now driving to the stadium one after another.

The song I wrote:

We drove to Turku and back again in different cars

Maybe someday we can go together.”

Now, the highly proficient Finnish musician has followed the remarkably mesmerising “Melissa” up with a full length record called Herätä Helsingin yö.

Talking about her new album in a new Instagram post, Emppu said, “Thank you all for the overwhelming amount of congratulations, love and acceptance. It has felt so sickly good. Even though those songs are my compositions and lyrics, Eräätä Helsinki yö album wasn’t born alone. Here are the highlights: @error_laitinen produced, recorded, arranged and played with me, @hyvaluoma_music played the drums and @dooomstick visited the violin for one song. @svanteforsback mastered it. Covers your photos on @tiikerimuro and graphics on @hologramimursula All of this was made possible by A&R @gabihakanen and @vallilamusichouse who believed in me. Thanks also to the Vallila Music House gang @ryyneli and the @noranorrlin for the promo work @tanjaasi.”

As for what the new compilation contains, Herätä Helsingin yö gets off to an extremely enthralling start with the aforementioned remarkably mesmerising “Melissa”, which showcases a superb synthesis of exceedingly exhilarating instrumentation and brilliantly expressive vocals before passing the baton to a splendidly stirring and terrifically harmonious offering named “Pariisi”, after which the baton is passed on to a delightfully lively composition called “Tää laulu on sun” that precedes another splendidly stirring and terrifically harmonious tune titled “Alppila”.

The tremendously moving “Rakkaus on kuin” steps into the spotlight next and makes a powerful impact ahead of the magnificently energetic “Uusia tatuointeja”, which remains irresistibly riveting and rousing as it escorts the record vigorously in the direction of the delightfully spirited “Pidän sulle seuraa”. This is succeeded by an exceptionally affecting and grippingly euphonious track by the name of “En osaa viheltää”, after which the baton is taken by the album’s immensely invigorating eponymous anthem, which prefaces two more splendidly stirring and terrifically harmonious songs called “Muutaman dollarin jumala” and “Ääretön”, respectively, the latter of which brings the record to an enormously impactful conclusion.

Emppu has delivered an endearingly passionate and consistently captivating compilation here that very adeptly blends the genres of rock, pop and folk to give rise to a wonderfully melodic sound that keeps Herätä Helsingin yö extraordinarily spellbinding from start to finish, and, while I unfortunately am not fluent in Finnish and therefore regrettably cannot comment on the lyrics too specifically, the whole thing feels fantastically deep and meaningful. Like its superlative lead single on its own before it, throughout Herätä Helsingin yö as a whole the mesmerizing melodic combination of Emppu’s magnificently mellifluous and marvellously energetic vocals and exceptionally skilful and terrifically stirring guitar work, and impressively adept and enormously thrilling instrumentation in general, embeds itself deep in the mind and takes up permanent residence therein, and I highly recommend taking the time to check it out.