TIGERBOMBS - LOVES YOU

1) Planet; 2) High Way; 3) Oh, My Darning; 4) The Diamond; 5) Honey Junkie; 6) Heart Grenades; 7) Cheap Thrills; 8) Hanging Around Gives Me Kicks; 9) High Skyline; 10) Over n Out; 11) 1000 Sparks; 12) Late Nite Kick; 13) Manifest

Buckets of energy and cheer fuel these charmingly scruffy power pop songs. Turn up the volume and let the wind breeze through your hair.

If you were paying attention to the Finnish independent music scene around the mid-2000s (you're saying you weren't?), you might have come across a cute cartoony music video that was doing minor laps in the pre-social media facing internet. In the Flash-animated clip a plucky fox with a bright blue hoodie travels across the world from the polar caps to the plains of a slightly stereotypical Japan (more ninjas and sumos than anything dubious), teaching everyone he encounters a simple little dance until everyone across the world is dancing in unison - including the viewer, if you follow the on-screen choreography instructions. It's a simple but an incredibly charming video that stood out particularly in comparison to most other Finnish indie videos which usually were either backyard productions, art films or both. The song playing on top of the video was a spunky and bright power pop anthem with a precision-aimed earworm chorus hook and a delightfully enthusiastic vocal performance radiating energy through the Nordic-twanged accent - to be more precise, it was "1000 Sparks" by Tigerbombs who never had any real mainstream success, but who in my mind were a real hitmaker with the song.

Tigerbombs were the project of multi-instrumentalists Tommi Salminen and Jarkko Heiniö - AKA Pepe Trouble and Kido Retro as they're credited in the liner notes - who had been playing in the same bands and then decided to strike out on their own. As is clear from their chosen monikers the duo weren't in the game for serious art, though they were taking their art seriously of course. Their relentlessly upbeat disposition and sparkling energy has a sense of exciting naïveté to it, singing silly songs about infatuation punctuated by corny puns and cheesy punchlines ("then I wrote you a lullaby and realised I can't sing", etc). Even their album title is a little smile-raiser - "Tigerbombs Loves You", aww. It's a project of simple pleasures, perfectly equipped for the times when all you need and want is a bunch of cheery, charming choruses and a sunny disposition. The guitars are equal parts tight and ramshackle, the fuzzy vocal filter makes it sound like you're still listening to a 128kbps mp3, and the campily bright organs and other keyboard sounds give it that particularly mid-2000s iPod commercial sheen. Plus there's a whole lot of passion all over the place: you can absolutely hear that the duo are having the time of their lives putting these silly noisy pop songs on tape.

"1000 Sparks" is the absolute highlight of the album and the one time that Tigerbombs nail their ethos 100 percent perfectly, but the rest of Loves You is still a delight. You have roughly 42 minutes worth of excited pop songs hammering their hooks in your head and even if those melodies aren't quite as strong as on the album's big promo single, they're still mighty fine - "Oh, My Darning" (the album's closest match to "1000 Sparks" in pure bopness) and "Manifest" in particular have found themselved lodged in my head deeply enough that they will just start playing there without warning on a random given day. That it's 42 minutes of this stuff is almost true as well: Loves You is very one-minded in its aspirations and there are absolutely times when you wish there was some kind of more significant change of pace just for a bit of variety, but to its credit the album does do this a couple of times. "Honey Junkie" starts out as the token sweet ballad and it's basically more of what the album offers but slowed down and it's a nice bit of reprieve while retaining the catchiness - though halfway through the duo get bored of keeping the pace and kick the gear back into the power pop antics, which admittedly does work really well. "High Skyline" still retains a decently steady tempo but it's softer and daydreamier, staring at the sky and letting the clouds pass by in what is a rather pleasant little interval. "Hanging Around Gives Me Kicks" is the real surprise though - situated halfway through the album as a bit of an intermission, it's an atmospheric, almost ambient-esque instrumental that could have come from an entirely different band. It certainly makes an impression and with each playthrough has felt more like an essential part of the foundations, even if it's more interlude-esque in nature. You just need that bit of breathing space after all, and on top of it Tigerbombs are actually really dang good at building this kind of dreamy atmosphere, hinting at skills beyond what their debut album (deliberately) limits itself to.

But as I said, this is about those simple pleasures. Loves You is never going to be an album that's going to accompany you through tough times in that #relatable way or one to squeeze any major depth out of, but it's here to have a good time and it sure does that with aplomb - the foot's a-tapping, the imaginary instrument of your choice is air-playing frivolously, the volume is turned up louder while the summer breeze hits your face. There is something very freeing about its joie de vivre that gets coursing through your body and gets you moving. Life is just really nice for 42 minutes and really, that's an achievement in its own right. Loves You is a little too one-note and not quite as gripping for its whole length to prevent it from being a summertime party all-timer candidate, but no amount of time with it feels wasted. Not a forever friend or anything, but you won't forget how fun you had that one evening you hung out.

Tigerbombs continued for a good few years after their debut, with two more albums to their belt - I lost track and haven't listened to the others, as is sometimes the case with these random shooting stars that cross your sight for a fleeting moment. The duo never officially quit but as is often the case with Finndie acts, they started hanging out in other bands (together and separately) and those other projects became more important; given we've not heard anything since the end of the decade, I think we can be confident in saying that they're not going to come back any time soon. That's fine. Tigerbombs loved us for a fleeting moment, but they left us with a lasting memory of a cheery vulpine teaching everyone how to get their groove on.

Physically: A clear jewel case with a nicely thick booklet. No full lyrics - just snippets - but a whole load of photos and sketches, brief comments, elaborate credits and other entertainingly vivid design decisions. Nearly each page looks completely different to the previous and the whole booklet captures the essence of the band's music so well visually.

[Reviewed: 15/07/2026]

Go back!