
Review By Darren McIntyre
Erja Lyytinen is a singer / Guitarist / songwriter from Kuopio, Finland who began her musical career aged 15 when she started playing guitar. Around that same time she started writing her own songs and began to listen to artists like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Koko Taylor & Bonnie Raitt. Erja spent a year in Sweden studying at Malmo Musikhogskolan as an exchange student, moving back to Finland Ereja studied at the Siberius Academy and became the first woman to study electric guitar at the institution. I consider Erja a friend and she continues to surprise me with her music and how she bends the rules when it comes to bringing something new to the table, speaking of that at the tail end of 2024 Erja was invited to appear on Finland’s Masked Singer and as expected made it through to the finals, she was sworn to secrecy and even her twin boys didn’t know. Fast forward to 2025 and Erja delivers a new album Smell The Roses due for release March 28th, from that comes the lead single Smell The Roses which I will be reviewing for you today.
Smell The Roses – From the off we get a fuzzy gritty guitar intro that is flowing alongside a pounding bass kick that let’s this track come to our attention. Erja let’s her melodic vocals lead the way as this crunching rock n roller bursts into life and really gets the juices flowing. The dark, brooding bassline is wrapping itself around this electrifying arrangement as the band really comes together and lets the musicality flow as we feel the energy oozing from this fantastic new offering, we fist pumping growler is just kicking in the doors and letting Erja do what she does best, rock out and bring us a real gutsy beast of a track. There is a real freshness to this composition but it still catches your attention with a cool melodic feel that is wrapped in electrifying guitar playing that just draws you in and spits you out, another blistering track from this charismatic musician who continues to push the boundaries.
Erja Lyytinen –
Erja Lyytinen – Vocals / Guitar
Track Listing –
Smell The Roses
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