Music Memoir #1 – My first album! The Rasmus - Dead Letters (2003)

  When I was a young kid I would sit with my older brothers and we’d watch the music channels. The rock channels got the most view time and I took a particular liking to The Rasmus’ ‘In the Shadows’ and then their later single ‘Guilty’.  

  

 

  I would have been 7 or 8 years old. I bought it from HMV, now long gone in Wrexham (cool to see Llandudno and Cardiff still have theirs, hang in their boys) .

  So, I put on the CD in the car with my dad. My dad’s reaction was shock. I don’t think the guy had any idea of any sort of interests I had beyond video games and here he is discovering what music I liked for the first real time. And it just so happens to be Finnish Goth Nu-metal. And with the first lyrics on the album being “Feel like I’m stoned, wanna be alone…” I do find it hilariously innocent that back then I had no way of understanding anything lyrical and that it was purely melodies and sounds that I was enjoying.   

  Looking back on the album now, I still have the same soft spot for what I originally enjoyed back in 2003. Of course, I’m now aware of the corniness of it all. But corny doesn’t have to be always bad. Meat Loaf is super corny but it’s part of the iconic identity and is enjoyable for me.  

  I can still unironically enjoy every moment of In the Shadows. From that alarm sounding beat at the beginning which feels like a metronome for the infectious riff that’s soon to follow. I still like frontman Lauri Ylönen’s vocals. How can I deny that at such a young age I didn’t want hair that looked like I come from a Final Fantasy game, took me till I was like 17 to overcome that!  

  This album would be the only real piece of The Rasmus’ discography that I would taste properly. I don’t remember a follow-up video until Living in a World Without You from 2008’s Black Roses and it left me unimpressed. For a kid who only knows of a bands existence through TV air time, I thought The Rasmus had left the planet, not even realising until right now as I type this that they had an album Hide From The Sun in 2005.  

  

  On a nostalgia trip a few years ago, Spotify being used to full advantage, I listened to some early Rasmus. The complete tonal shift from upbeat and fun punk to the dark brooding goth aesthetic is stark. I highly recommend checking out their Ghostbusters cover.  

  Because I bought the special edition the CD included F-F-Falling which is taken from their earlier release Intro, their new label debut on Playground Music Scandinavia, I was exposed to the band before the total switch up. Even back then as a dumb kid I could tell the song didn’t fit the theme or match the production of Dead Letters. Still a catchy song.  

  The artwork is still pretty dank to be fair.  

  Lol or maybe I’m blinded by nostalgia?  

  Overall what you’re getting is a solid sub 40-minute goth concept album which features some anthemic woah-woah’s, plenty of hooky melodies, along with the cheese. The great haunting production value is way more apparent on the singles In the Shadows and Guilty, whereas other tracks don’t quite live up to those.   

  If I’d feel the same about this album without the sentiment of it being my first album is something I’m not sure about.   

  How do you remember the first album you bought? Does it hold up or is it an embarrassing blunderyears moment you don’t dare share?