Seili (album)
Seili | ||||
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Length | 36:44[1] | |||
Language | Finnish | |||
Label | WEA, Warner Music Finland | |||
Producer | Jukka Immonen[4] | |||
Jenni Vartiainen chronology | ||||
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Singles from Seili | ||||
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Seili is the second studio album by Finnish
Critically acclaimed for its vocals and successful combination of ballads and pop, though criticized for lack of peculiarity and a somewhat inconsistent song selection, Seili spent 62 non-consecutive weeks on the
Background and composition
Thematically more polarized than its predecessor
The album introduces also more instruments than Ihmisten edessä; Vartiainen starts the album by playing piano in the dark introitus "Koti" (Home).[10][18] The second song "Seili" is also dark-themed—the song is about the namesake island located in the archipelago off the coast of Turku where leprotic and mentally ill patients were sent from 17th century onwards, along with boards they could build their own coffins with.[9] The third song and the lead single "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä"—in English, I Don't Wanna Die Tonight—goes on with the theme, though with an electronic dance beat that "emphasizes the will to live".[9] The fifth song and the third single "Missä muruseni on" (Where My Sweetheart Is) was written by Mariska who got the inspiration for the song while reading Indian erotic literature on her balcony on a hot summer's day.[16] The song is a ballad[19] where the singer talks about being far away from her loved one and asks the wind to blow to the place "where [one's] sweetheart is"[20]—by November 2010, the lyrics had even found their way to Finnish obituaries and gravestones.[21] The sixth, dance-influenced song and first promotional single "Duran Duran" is about discovering one's soulmate as the lyrics wonder whether "this is how it feels like when you find the right one" along with saying "Jenni can't escape this new feeling".[9] Vartiainen entered new musical territories also by playing piano and kantele[10] in the song "Kiittämätön" (Ungrateful), which is written by Vartiainen and Paula Vesala and deals with agony Vartiainen suffered from while growing up during high school.[18]
Critical reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Helsingin Sanomat | [22] |
Keskisuomalainen | [9] |
MTV3 | [23] |
Rumba | [4] |
Soundi | [24] |
Stara | [25] |
Seili has received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Most of the reviewers have been appreciative of the vocals and the successful combination of synthpop and darker ballads, but more or less critical with the notable contrast between the thumping pop song "Nettiin" and the rest of the album and Vartiainen's lack of peculiarity. Teemu Fiilin of the magazine Rumba gave Seili three out of five stars, saying that "Seili follows pretty much the schlager-ish pattern of a poet girl's inflated electro-pop". He complimented "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä" as "a brilliant pop song, suitable to be sung by a [then] 27-year-old Jenni Vartiainen who is enjoying her life". Due to the accompaniment of the more poetical, dramatical and mature songs written by Mariska, Fiilin considered "Nettiin" "a really epic fail" that "would be a lot of fun if performed by Tea Hiilloste on Kids Top 20". He thought "Duran Duran" is also brilliant, but considered Vartiainen to be more talented with faster songs, because she, when singing melancholic songs, "lags kilometers behind [singer] Chisu".[4] The pop rock magazine Stara said the album is not as good at first hearing as Vartiainen's debut Ihmisten edessä, but it gave the album four out five stars. The magazine complimented the aggregate of "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä" and the beauty and elegance of "Duran Duran". Stara was less harsh on reviewing the inclusion of "Nettiin", saying the Western-themed sounds seem a bit odd, but that the song is good in its entirety.[25]
Helsingin Sanomat gave the song three out of five stars, saying the album is suitable but that "Vartiainen does not stand out at all with the song selections and singing voice, as Chisu does".[22] MTV3 gave the song four and a half stars out of five, criticizing the inclusion of "Nettiin" for the sake of consistency and saying none of the songs are particularly catchy. However, MTV3 complimented "Kiittämätön", "Duran Duran" and "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?" for their massive sounds and considered Seili a brilliant summer album.[23] Writing for the rock magazine Soundi, Antti Luukkanen gave Seili three out of five stars, saying songwriters Teemu Brunila and Mariska and producer Jukka Immonen "gain credibility for putting the dark piano ballads and the thumping pop songs into balance, creating a coherent and compact entirety". The magazine said Vartiainen's singing voice "saves the album", though it regarded many of the songs as "hypocritical" or even "tasteless" (such as "Nettiin").[24] Keskisuomalainen deemed the album's rating as four stars out of five. The newspaper considered Seili "a splendid entirety that, however, lacks that one, ingenious song that stands out from the others", saying also that the record—the name of which comes from the island where leprotic patients and the mentally ill were sent from the 17th century onwards—is "elaborate pop that deals with the most fundamental questions". In conclusion, Keskisuomalainen said that the album is "a successful combination of introverted ethereality, light-hearted pop and dramatical thunder".[9]
Chart performance
Upon its digital release in April 2010, Seili debuted at number one on the Finnish Albums Chart. The album went gradually down to number seven in early August, after which it vacillated between seven and four. Seili rose back to number one in October, holding the top spot for 12 consecutive weeks and charted in the top three until early March 2011. Altogether, the album spent 15 weeks atop the chart, 58 weeks in the top ten and it charted for a total of 62 non-consecutive weeks, over a year, becoming the 11th-longest-charting of all time.[26] Seili took a second jump in July 2011, as it leaped from number 17 to number two, after which it dropped out of the chart.[27] With sales surpassing 150,000 copies (from which 95,000 in 2010, 42,000 in 2011 and 14,000 in 2012),[28] Seili was the best-selling album in Finland in 2010[29] and the sixth-best-selling in 2011,[30] receiving the septuple-platinum certification.[31] The album was re-released by Finnish music retailers in a limited vinyl edition on 14 January 2011, as part of their joint Levyale campaign.[7][8] The edition was sold out in five days.[32]
Promotion
To promote her album, Vartiainen embarked on her concert tour titled Seili on April 2010.[6] The tour, which consisted of 170 shows and lasted all the way to August 2011,[33] included performances for example at the Provinssirock festival in the summer of 2010[34] and 2011.[35] Amid the tour in the spring of 2011, she denied some tabloid rumors that she would have canceled interviews due to stress and exhaustion.[36] In July 2011, Vartiainen and her band met with some misfortune as the tour bus broke down while on its way from Oulu to Vaasa.[37] The last concert of the tour took place on the Main Stage at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki on 28 August 2011, with the specialty that the concert was broadcast live at Finnkino film theaters in 11 other localities around Finland, for the first time in the history of the theater.[38] The tickets to the concert were sold out within a couple of hours.[39] At the National Theatre, Vartiainen sang the album's song "Halvalla" as a duet with Vesa-Matti Loiri, which she said was her long-time "dream come true".[40] Due to technical difficulties, the concert could not be broadcast in Lahti and Kuopio.[40] In August 2011, Vartiainen released a DVD of the Seili tour, as well as a photo-book, consisting of photographs from the tour, taken by Kalle Björklid.[33]
Singles
The lead single from Seili, "
Track listing
- Digital download[1]
No. | Title | Lyrics | Composer | Length |
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1. | "Koti" (Home) | [A] | Teemu Brunila[48] | 1:25 |
2. | "Seili" | Mariska[49] | Jukka Immonen, Jenni Vartiainen[49] | 4:47 |
3. | "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä" (I Don't Wanna Die Tonight) | Mariska[50] | Immonen, Vartiainen[50] | 3:45 |
4. | "Nettiin" (Onto the Internet) | Brunila[51] | Brunila[51] | 3:36 |
5. | "Missä muruseni on" (Where My Sweetheart Is) | Mariska[52] | Immonen, Vartiainen[52] | 3:42 |
6. | "Duran Duran" | Brunila[53] | Brunila[53] | 3:52 |
7. | "Minä ja hän" (Me and Him/Her) | Mariska[54] | Immonen, Hannu Korkeamäki, Vartiainen[54] | 4:28 |
8. | "Kiittämätön" (Ungrateful) | Immonen, Mariska, Vartiainen, Paula Vesala[55][B] | Immonen, Vartiainen[55] | 3:17 |
9. | "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?" (Can't Anyone Save Us?) | Vartiainen, Vesala[56] | Immonen, Vartiainen, Vesala[56] | 3:37 |
10. | "Halvalla" (At a Cheap Price) | Brunila[57] | Brunila[57] | 4:15 |
- Notes
Personnel
The credits for Seili are adapted from
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Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Certifications
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References
- ^ a b c d "Seili – Jenni Vartiainen" (in Finnish). MTV3 Store Download. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Jenni Vartiainen – Seili". Technodisco. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Nielsen, Lea (2010-03-12). "Seilissä ja Preerialla – kuuntelussa Jenni Vartiaisen ja Olavi Uusivirran uutuuslevyt". Rumba (in Finnish). Pop Media. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b c d Fiilin, Teemu (2010-04-07). "Jenni Vartiainen: Seili – Elektro-runotytön sooloura jatkuu". Rumba (in Finnish). Pop Media. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- The Voice. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Jenni Vartiainen tahkoo ennätyksiä - kiertue alkaa myös". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. 2011-03-30. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland, Finnish Music Information Centre, Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre. Archivedfrom the original on 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Vinyyli on taas POP!" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland, Finnish Music Information Centre, Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre. Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Pajunen, Mia (2010-04-01). "Jenni Vartiainen – Seili". Keskisuomalainen (in Finnish). Keskisuomalainen Oy. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b c d e Järvinen, Anssi (2011-03-31). "Haastattelu: Jenni Vartiainen lumoutuu laulamalla" (in Finnish). Otavamedia. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ The first list is the list of all-time best-selling domestic albums in Finland and the second is that of the all-time best-selling foreign albums:
- "Kaikkien aikojen myydyimmät kotimaiset albumit" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
- "Kaikkien aikojen myydyimmät ulkomaiset albumit" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
- ^ a b c d "2010" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Myydyimmät kotimaiset singlet vuonna 2011" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Myydyimmät ulkomaiset singlet vuonna 2011" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Saarinen, Jussi (2011-04-27). "Jenni Vartiaisen mysteeri: mikä ihme tekee Vartiaisesta häkellyttävään suosioon suljetun superpopparin?". Rumba (in Finnish). Pop Media. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ Finnish Broadcasting Company. 2011-02-28. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Sanoma Magazines. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b c Simola, Inka (2010-03-25). "Oksensin ison möykyn sisältäni". Metro (in Finnish). Sanoma News. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Idols: Kenen artistin biisi oli suosituin?". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. 2011-02-13. Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ ""Missä muruseni on" lyrics by Jenni Vartiainen". lyrics.com. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Laakkonen, Tapio (2010-11-18). "Mariskan laulut eivät jätä kylmäksi" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b Kinnunen, Aleksi (2010-04-16). "Vartiainen Jenni: Seili". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b van der San, Toni (2010-04-20). "Jenni Vartiainen: Seili" (in Finnish). MTV3. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b Luukkanen, Antti. "Jenni Vartiainen – Seili". Soundi (in Finnish). 2010 (4). A-lehdet. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Levyarvostelussa Jenni Vartiainen : Seili". Stara (in Finnish). Stara Media. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Top 100 of all Albums in the charts since 1995". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
- ^ Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
- ^ a b The first is the list of the best-selling domestic albums of 2012 in Finland, the second is that of the foreign albums:
- "Myydyimmät kotimaiset albumit vuonna 2012" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- "Myydyimmät ulkomaiset albumit vuonna 2012" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- ^ a b The first is the list of the best-selling domestic albums of 2010 in Finland, the second is that of the foreign albums:
- "Myydyimmät kotimaiset albumit vuonna 2010" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- "Myydyimmät ulkomaiset albumit vuonna 2010" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- ^ a b The first is the list of the best-selling domestic albums of 2011 in Finland, the second is that of the foreign albums:
- "Myydyimmät kotimaiset albumit vuonna 2011" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- "Myydyimmät ulkomaiset albumit vuonna 2011" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
- ^ Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2013-08-29.
- ^ Korhonen, Iida (2011-01-19). "Jenni Vartiaisen menestyslevyn vinyylipainos myytiin loppuun levyalessa" (in Finnish). The Voice. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Esiinnyn ja laulan yleisöä ja itseäni varten" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Räsänen, Mikko (2010-06-21). "Rammsteinin lämmittely jännitti Jenni Vartiaista". Iltasanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. Archived from the original on February 13, 2013. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Seppänen, Mika (2011-06-18). "Provinssirock - Jenni Vartiainen halusi fanien kanssa jatkoille". Iltasanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. Archived from the original on June 20, 2011. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen tuohtui lehtikirjoittelusta" (in Finnish). MTV3. 2011-04-19. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiaisen keikkabussi hajosi" (in Finnish). MTV3. 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiaisen viimeinen Seili -konsertti leffateattereihin" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. 2011-06-22. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen täytti Kansallisteatterin muutamassa tunnissa". Aamulehti (in Finnish). Alma Media. 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Maksaneet fanit jäivät paitsi Jennin päätöskonsertista!" (in Finnish). Metro Live. 2011-08-29. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen: En Haluu Kuolla Tänä Yönä" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Jenni Vartiaisen hitti soi radioissa viime vuonna yli 5 000 kertaa". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma News. 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen: Nettiin" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen: Missä Muruseni On" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ Ojala, Ari (2011-02-13). "Jenni Vartiaisen 'Missä muruseni on' on vuoden iskelmä" (in Finnish). Iskelmä. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen: Duran Duran" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Jenni Vartiainen laskee fanit lähelle" (in Finnish). MTV3. 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b c d "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- ^ a b "Kappaleen tiedot" (in Finnish). Finnish Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
- Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 2012-02-16. Note: Click "CREDITS".