Seili (album)
Encyclopedia
Seili is the second studio album by Finnish
pop
singer Jenni Vartiainen
. It was released by Warner Music Finland
digitally on March 31, 2010, with the official physical release following on April 14. From March 31 to the official physical release date, the album was sold at €19 in conjunction with Ilta-Sanomat
. The album was re-released on January 14, 2011, in a limited vinyl
edition as part of Levyale, a joint sales campaign by Finnish music retailers. The Finnish-language
album, incorporating elements of electro
and synthpop
elements along with melancholic piano ballads, is named after the island Seili
(Själö
in Swedish
), located off the south-west coast of Finland
. The album was produced and co-written by Jukka Immonen with Vartiainen writing also two of the songs. The main lyricists were Teemu Brunila and Mariska
who contributed to the thematical dualism of the album—Brunila wrote the happier songs about publicity and finding love while Mariska wrote the lyrics for the songs that deal with darker and more serious themes, such as death
. Another lyricist was Paula Vesala
(from the pop rock
duo PMMP
). Vartiainen participated more in the production than with her debut album Ihmisten edessä
, by playing for example piano
and kantele
.
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 Finnish Albums Chart since its release—with 15 weeks atop the chart—and sold over 95,000 copies in 2010, becoming the best-selling album of 2010 in Finland. Altogether, Seili has sold over 120,000 copies since its release and it is currently on the 32nd place in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland. The album received three Emma Awards
in February 2011: for Album of the Year, Pop/Rock Album of the Year and Best-Selling Album of the Year. The album included also two Emma-winning songs, the gold-selling singles "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä
" and "Missä muruseni on
", winning in the categories Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year, respectively. "Nettiin
" was released as the third single and the album spawned two promotional singles
, "Duran Duran
" and "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?". "Missä muruseni on" was the major chart hit, dominating the top-three spots of the Finnish Singles Chart from August 2010 to January 2011 and becoming the best-selling single of 2011 in Finland.
, Seili has been described as "going to the extremes of moods" as it deals with both darker and happier themes. Vartiainen has said the overall inspiration for the album came from the imagery of the movie Blade Runner
and songs from the 1980s she used in her programs during her figure skating
career. The name of the album symbolizes "a trip to an unknown island, an escape from normal life to the world of music" and the content of the album places "during the dramatical moments between 3 am and 5 am" when a day ends a new one begins and people are, as Vartiainen has put it, "sensitive to new ideas", due to either fatigue or intoxication. Vartiainen attributes the dualistic nature of the album to her professional relation with the lyricists Mariska and Teemu Brunila, who Vartiainen is also friends with, saying "Mariska knows well Vartiainen's darker, more philosophical side". In an interview with Dome.fi in March 2010, Vartiainen said that while Mariska represents the dark and serious themes such as death, Brunila with his lyrical products "goes towards the light" and that the point in the album is "to reflect on life and death". Along with the two thematical polarities, the album deals also with tricky relationships and hunger for fame, as showcased by the Western
-sounding "Nettiin
", which starts with a banjo
and a bass
and is literally about naked pictures, taken and publicized by an ex-boyfriend, and paratextually about the line between privacy and publicity.
The album introduces also more instruments than Ihmisten edessä; Vartiainen starts the album by playing piano in the dark introitus "Koti" (Home). 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. 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". 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. The song is a ballad 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"—by November 2010, the lyrics had even found their way to Finnish obituaries
and gravestones
. 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". Vartiainen entered new musical territories also by playing piano and kantele
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.
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
". 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.
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". 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 pass-time album for the summer. 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"). 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".
", was released on February 1, 2010. Peaking at number one the second week on the Finnish Singles Chart and charting for 21 weeks, the single sold gold with over 11,000 copies, won the Emma Award
for Song of the Year and was the most-played song on commercial Finnish radio stations in 2010 with over 5,200 plays. Vartiainen was less successful with the second single "Nettiin
", following suit on July 17 and peaking at number 12 in its 11 chart weeks. The third single "Missä muruseni on
", released on August 23, was the major chart hit from the album, spending 32 weeks on the chart until early 2011, including 11 weeks on the top. The single sold gold with over 14,000 copies and was the best-selling single in 2011 and its music video, depicting a woman looking to the sea and singing about her yearning for her loved one, won the 2011 Emma Award for the Music Video of the Year. In 2010, the song was also the second-most-played song on the radio stations of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, the fifth-most-played on commercial radio stations and it was chosen the Finnish schlager of 2010 in a contest held by the radio station Iskelmä. On December 13, the first promotional single "Duran Duran
" was released. Similar to "Nettiin" in its chart success, the song charted for 11 weeks, peaking at number 11 in February 2011. The song "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?" was released as the second promotional single in the spring of 2011 and its music video was released on June 14.
Notes
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer Jenni Vartiainen
Jenni Vartiainen
Jenni Mari Vartiainen is a Finnish pop singer. Before her professional musical endeavours, she was a figure skater in her teen-age years and attended the Kuopio Senior High of Music and Dance...
. It was released by Warner Music Finland
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
digitally on March 31, 2010, with the official physical release following on April 14. From March 31 to the official physical release date, the album was sold at €19 in conjunction with Ilta-Sanomat
Ilta-Sanomat
Ilta-Sanomat is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening dailys and the second largest newspaper in the country...
. The album was re-released on January 14, 2011, in a limited vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
edition as part of Levyale, a joint sales campaign by Finnish music retailers. The Finnish-language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
album, incorporating elements of electro
Electro (music)
Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 drum machines, Moog keytar synthesizers and funk sampling...
and synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
elements along with melancholic piano ballads, is named after the island Seili
Själö
Själö or Nagu Själö or Seili is a small island , off the main islands of Nagu, in the Archipelago Sea, off the south west coast of Finland. Själö is part of the municipality of Väståboland...
(Själö
Själö
Själö or Nagu Själö or Seili is a small island , off the main islands of Nagu, in the Archipelago Sea, off the south west coast of Finland. Själö is part of the municipality of Väståboland...
in Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
), located off the south-west coast of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. The album was produced and co-written by Jukka Immonen with Vartiainen writing also two of the songs. The main lyricists were Teemu Brunila and Mariska
Mariska
Mariska is a Finnish rapper. She writes her songs by herself, and the lyrics often deal with relationships, male chauvinism and politics.-Biography:...
who contributed to the thematical dualism of the album—Brunila wrote the happier songs about publicity and finding love while Mariska wrote the lyrics for the songs that deal with darker and more serious themes, such as death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. Another lyricist was Paula Vesala
Paula Vesala
Paula Julia Vesala is a Finnish singer and the other singger in the pop rock duo PMMP, along with Mira Luoti...
(from the pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
duo PMMP
PMMP
PMMP is a Finnish band fronted by singers Paula Vesala and Mira Luoti and backed by musicians Mikko Virta, Juho Vehmanen and Heikki Kytölä. The name of the band is often said to be an abbreviation of the sentence "Paulan ja Miran Molemmat Puolet", which can be translated in English as "Both Sides...
). Vartiainen participated more in the production than with her debut album Ihmisten edessä
Ihmisten edessä
Ihmisten edessä is the debut studio album by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. The Finnish-language album was released digitally on September 5, 2007, with the physical release following on September 12. The album was produced by Jukka Immonen...
, by playing for example piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and kantele
Kantele
A kantele or kannel is a traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family native to Finland, Estonia, and Karelia. It is related to the Russian gusli, the Latvian kokle and the Lithuanian kanklės. Together these instruments make up the family known as Baltic psalteries...
.
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 Finnish Albums Chart since its release—with 15 weeks atop the chart—and sold over 95,000 copies in 2010, becoming the best-selling album of 2010 in Finland. Altogether, Seili has sold over 120,000 copies since its release and it is currently on the 32nd place in the list of best-selling albums of all time in Finland. The album received three Emma Awards
Emma-gaala
The Emma-gaala is a Finnish music gala arranged yearly by Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland, awarding the most distinguished artists and music professionals of the year. It has been arranged since 1983, except for the years 1988–1990....
in February 2011: for Album of the Year, Pop/Rock Album of the Year and Best-Selling Album of the Year. The album included also two Emma-winning songs, the gold-selling singles "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä
En haluu kuolla tänä yönä
"En haluu kuolla tänä yönä" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. It was released on February 1, 2010, by Warner Music Finland as the lead single from her second studio album Seili. The lyrics are written by Finnish rapper Mariska and composed by Vartiainen and Jukka...
" and "Missä muruseni on
Missä muruseni on
"Missä muruseni on" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. It was released in Finland as the third single from her second studio album Seili on August 23, 2010, by Warner Music Finland.-Chart performance:...
", winning in the categories Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year, respectively. "Nettiin
Nettiin
"Nettiin" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, released from her second studio album Seili by Warner Music on July 17, 2010. The song is written by Teemu Brunila...
" was released as the third single and the album spawned two promotional singles
Promotional recording
A promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...
, "Duran Duran
Duran Duran (song)
"Duran Duran" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, released as the first promotional single of her second studio album Seili on December 13, 2010, by Warner Music Finland. The song is written by Teemu Brunila. "Duran Duran" peaked at number 10 in the Finnish...
" and "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?". "Missä muruseni on" was the major chart hit, dominating the top-three spots of the Finnish Singles Chart from August 2010 to January 2011 and becoming the best-selling single of 2011 in Finland.
Background and composition
Thematically more polarized than its predecessor Ihmisten edessäIhmisten edessä
Ihmisten edessä is the debut studio album by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. The Finnish-language album was released digitally on September 5, 2007, with the physical release following on September 12. The album was produced by Jukka Immonen...
, Seili has been described as "going to the extremes of moods" as it deals with both darker and happier themes. Vartiainen has said the overall inspiration for the album came from the imagery of the movie Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
and songs from the 1980s she used in her programs during her figure skating
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
career. The name of the album symbolizes "a trip to an unknown island, an escape from normal life to the world of music" and the content of the album places "during the dramatical moments between 3 am and 5 am" when a day ends a new one begins and people are, as Vartiainen has put it, "sensitive to new ideas", due to either fatigue or intoxication. Vartiainen attributes the dualistic nature of the album to her professional relation with the lyricists Mariska and Teemu Brunila, who Vartiainen is also friends with, saying "Mariska knows well Vartiainen's darker, more philosophical side". In an interview with Dome.fi in March 2010, Vartiainen said that while Mariska represents the dark and serious themes such as death, Brunila with his lyrical products "goes towards the light" and that the point in the album is "to reflect on life and death". Along with the two thematical polarities, the album deals also with tricky relationships and hunger for fame, as showcased by the Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
-sounding "Nettiin
Nettiin
"Nettiin" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, released from her second studio album Seili by Warner Music on July 17, 2010. The song is written by Teemu Brunila...
", which starts with a banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
and a bass
Bass (instrument)
Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
and is literally about naked pictures, taken and publicized by an ex-boyfriend, and paratextually about the line between privacy and publicity.
The album introduces also more instruments than Ihmisten edessä; Vartiainen starts the album by playing piano in the dark introitus "Koti" (Home). The second song "Seili" is also dark-themed—the song is about the namesake island
Själö
Själö or Nagu Själö or Seili is a small island , off the main islands of Nagu, in the Archipelago Sea, off the south west coast of Finland. Själö is part of the municipality of Väståboland...
located in the archipelago
Archipelago Sea
Archipelago Sea is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters...
off the coast of Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
where leprotic and mentally ill patients were sent from 17th century onwards, along with boards they could build their own coffins with. The third song and the lead single "En haluu kuolla tänä yönä"—in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, I Don't Wanna Die Tonight—goes on with the theme, though with an electronic dance beat that "emphasizes the will to live". 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
Erotic literature
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...
on her balcony on a hot summer's day. The song is a ballad 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"—by November 2010, the lyrics had even found their way to Finnish obituaries
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
and gravestones
Headstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. In most cases they have the deceased's name, date of birth, and date of death inscribed on them, along with a personal message, or prayer.- Use :...
. 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". Vartiainen entered new musical territories also by playing piano and kantele
Kantele
A kantele or kannel is a traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family native to Finland, Estonia, and Karelia. It is related to the Russian gusli, the Latvian kokle and the Lithuanian kanklės. Together these instruments make up the family known as Baltic psalteries...
in the song "Kiittämätön" (Ungrateful), which is written by Vartiainen and Paula Vesala
Paula Vesala
Paula Julia Vesala is a Finnish singer and the other singger in the pop rock duo PMMP, along with Mira Luoti...
and deals with agony Vartiainen suffered from while growing up during high school.
Critical reception
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 HiillosteTea Hiilloste
Tea Hiilloste is a Finnish singer and television presenter. She was a member of girlgroup Jane. She has released five official singles and two albums as solo. Her 2007 single Tytöt tykkää was the #1 song in the country.-References:...
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
Chisu
Christel Martina Sundberg , known by her stage name Chisu, is a Finnish pop artist, songwriter, and producer. She wrote her first single, "Mun koti ei oo täällä", to the soundtrack of the movie Sooloilua...
". The pop rock magazine Stara said the album is not as good at first hearing as Vartiainen's debut Ihmisten edessä
Ihmisten edessä
Ihmisten edessä is the debut studio album by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. The Finnish-language album was released digitally on September 5, 2007, with the physical release following on September 12. The album was produced by Jukka Immonen...
, 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
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
-themed sounds seem a bit odd, but that the song is good in its entirety.
Helsingin Sanomat
Helsingin Sanomat
Helsingin Sanomat is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. In 2008, its daily circulation was 412,421 on weekdays and 468,505 on Sundays...
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". MTV3
MTV3
MTV3 is a Finnish commercial television station owned by Bonnier. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Finnish Broadcasting Company’s YLE1 took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV , due to the channel getting its revenue from running commercials...
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 pass-time album for the summer. 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"). Keskisuomalainen
Keskisuomalainen
Keskisuomalainen is a daily Finnish newspaper published in Jyväskylä, serving central Finland . It was founded in 1871, and is the oldest Finnish-language newspaper, with the fifth-highest circulation of daily Finnish papers...
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".
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, continuing 23 weeks 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. 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. With sales surpassing 124,000 copies (95,000 in 2010), Seili was the best-selling album in Finland in 2010, receiving the multi-platinum certification. The limited vinyl edition of Seili, released in January 14, 2011, was sold out in five days.Singles
The lead single from Seili, "En haluu kuolla tänä yönäEn haluu kuolla tänä yönä
"En haluu kuolla tänä yönä" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. It was released on February 1, 2010, by Warner Music Finland as the lead single from her second studio album Seili. The lyrics are written by Finnish rapper Mariska and composed by Vartiainen and Jukka...
", was released on February 1, 2010. Peaking at number one the second week on the Finnish Singles Chart and charting for 21 weeks, the single sold gold with over 11,000 copies, won the Emma Award
Emma-gaala
The Emma-gaala is a Finnish music gala arranged yearly by Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland, awarding the most distinguished artists and music professionals of the year. It has been arranged since 1983, except for the years 1988–1990....
for Song of the Year and was the most-played song on commercial Finnish radio stations in 2010 with over 5,200 plays. Vartiainen was less successful with the second single "Nettiin
Nettiin
"Nettiin" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, released from her second studio album Seili by Warner Music on July 17, 2010. The song is written by Teemu Brunila...
", following suit on July 17 and peaking at number 12 in its 11 chart weeks. The third single "Missä muruseni on
Missä muruseni on
"Missä muruseni on" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish pop singer Jenni Vartiainen. It was released in Finland as the third single from her second studio album Seili on August 23, 2010, by Warner Music Finland.-Chart performance:...
", released on August 23, was the major chart hit from the album, spending 32 weeks on the chart until early 2011, including 11 weeks on the top. The single sold gold with over 14,000 copies and was the best-selling single in 2011 and its music video, depicting a woman looking to the sea and singing about her yearning for her loved one, won the 2011 Emma Award for the Music Video of the Year. In 2010, the song was also the second-most-played song on the radio stations of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, the fifth-most-played on commercial radio stations and it was chosen the Finnish schlager of 2010 in a contest held by the radio station Iskelmä. On December 13, the first promotional single "Duran Duran
Duran Duran (song)
"Duran Duran" is a Finnish-language song by Finnish singer Jenni Vartiainen, released as the first promotional single of her second studio album Seili on December 13, 2010, by Warner Music Finland. The song is written by Teemu Brunila. "Duran Duran" peaked at number 10 in the Finnish...
" was released. Similar to "Nettiin" in its chart success, the song charted for 11 weeks, peaking at number 11 in February 2011. The song "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?" was released as the second promotional single in the spring of 2011 and its music video was released on June 14.
Track listing
- Digital download
Notes
- A The song is instrumental, played with piano.
- B Fono.fi, a music database maintained by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, provides ambiguous credits; the lyrics are either by Immonen, Mariska, Vartiainen and Vesala or solely by Mariska.
Personnel
The credits for Seili are adapted from Allrovi.- Teemu Brunila – composer, lyricist
- Jukka Immonen – composer, synthesizers (Jupiter-8Roland Jupiter-8The Jupiter-8 is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in 1981.The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980's...
, Prophet 600, SolinaARP String EnsembleThe ARP String Ensemble, also known as the Solina String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral ARP Instruments, Inc. synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Solina from 1974 to 1981. The sounds it incorporates are violin, viola, trumpet, horn, cello and contrabass. The keyboard...
) - Asko Kallonen – A&R
- Hannu Korkeamäki – composer, banjo
- Pessi Levanto – piano
- Mariska – composer, lyricist
- Patric Sarin – composer
- Jenni Vartiainen – vocals, composer, lyricist, kantele, piano, synthesizers (Solina, Jupiter-8, SH-101Roland SH-101Roland SH-101 is a synthesizer from the early 1980s, manufactured by Roland. It is a small, 32 key, monophonic analog synthesizer. It features one oscillator with 3 simultaneous waveforms, an 'octave-divided' square sub-oscillator, triangle and square/pwm waveform. It has a low-pass filter/VCF...
, Prophet 600) - Paula Vesala – composer, lyricist
Charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Finnish Albums Chart | 1 |