Lauded Finnish artist Janita continues to showcase her creativity and atmospheric allure on her tenth LP Mad Equation
Janita is an artist who is experiencing a real high at the moment, earning hundreds of thousands of streams on her singles, with them becoming the most successful in ECR Music Group history. Now, the tenured artist has released her tenth album Mad Equation, the collection that the tracks were leading up to, and it truly feels like its release is another landmark moment for an artist who’s stock just continues to rise.
The album opens with ‘Real Deal’, an atmospheric track that we have lauded on this site already for its defiant and powerful nature as she celebrates rebellious figures carving out their own paths and doing things on their own terms. This is a subject matter that feels endlessly appropriate considering the artist’s own trajectory and distinctive appeal, and sets the tone for the album in engrossing fashion.
The atmospheric tension is amplified on the stirring ‘I Want You I Warn You’, a track that feels as much like a cautionary warning as much as it is a declaration of love, unfolding with an effortlessly cool sense of composure and charisma, both through the understated sound and the resonating tone of the vocals, creating a sophisticated overall package that feels almost Bond theme-adjacent.
The Finnish artist delves into more laid-back and swirling territory on the affable ‘Let’s Go’, a track that has an air of romance and alluring charm to it, still packaged in the artist’s distinctive style and tone. The more soaring and thoughtful aspects of the chorus make for a really nice contrast to the verses here, and add another dimension to a sound that has largely been built on these more brooding and intense moments.
Another big hitter from the artist’s catalogue is ‘Not a Child’, another that exudes the unique kind of coolness that Janita has made her own, unfurling in expansive fashion not dissimilar to ambitious PJ Harvey or Radiohead works, such is the underlying brooding tone and expansive feel of the instrumentation and vocals. There is something deeply thought-provoking and nuanced about the artist’s writing and the ways that this intensity creeps into the tracks in its own ways, and it makes each feel entirely new and different while maintaining Janita’s distinctive touch.
The thoughtful rhythms and off-kilter instrumentation of ‘Ghostly Tide’ create a haunting and immersive listening experience while the more urgent and passionate glow of ‘In Front Of Your Eyes’ sees the artist offsetting some of its murkier and darker moments with an emotive and energetic appeal that sparks things to life, as well as a vocal performance that showcases her range and dynamism in emphatic fashion.
There is an intimacy to ‘Wild and Open Wide’ that comes through both the vulnerable nature of her heart-on-sleeve lyrics and the more stripped-back and charming nature of the instrumentation, showcasing an openness and honesty from the artist that feels both resonating and absorbing in equal measure.
This emotion bleeds into the powerful ‘Please Say Yes’, a track that sees the artist continuing to lay her heart on the line in moving fashion, this time building up to these cathartic releases of her feelings and emotions in choruses that are packed full of heart and longing, laying out her hopes and dreams for the future and hoping to get the response that she is hoping for. It is another resonating and very human track that does a great job of showcasing this softer side to combat her usual stoic coolness.
Following the intimate ‘Not In Danger’, the album closes with ‘I’ve Come Around Here For You’, a powerful conclusion to the collection of tracks that explores themes like belonging and identity and the bonds that we form with people that anchor us to places and change our perspectives. It is a really fitting ending to an album that has broached themes like truth, hope and love, and puts a really captivating bow on what could end up being a defining album for the artist, even with nine others to contend with.
