Love Hurts

Finnish folk quartet ENKEL return with their third studio album, a mix of traditional and contemporary numbers. All four women sing, accompanying themselves on melodeon, viola and kantele (traditional Finnish lap-harp). The first thing that will strike the listener is the quality of the group's performance. ENKEL are superb singers and musicians, and together make for a remarkably intuitive and tight collective. Opener ‘Etkot Sussulla’ ripples with energy. Driven by propulsive melodeon, this uplifting number arrests the ear with its imaginative composition and beautiful use of voice. The band's working motto is ‘tradition forever!’ But ENKEL's youthful exuberance and sense of fun colour everything you will hear.

The title-track, a gentler affair, rolls and bobs on waves of subtle harmony, shifting tone and tempo with wonderful ease. Once again, the quartet utilise sparse vocal punctuation to great effect. Every song on Love Hurts flashes past in an instant, serving as self-contained statements that never outstay their welcome. ENKEL have perfected their craft here, infusing every second with both purpose and emotion. Album closer, ‘Stare’, sparkles like a lullaby, with the delicate strains of the kantele gradually swelling to involve all four players, before fading to an end.