Album review : SHIRAZ LANE – In Vertigo

Frontiers Music [Release date 24.10.25]

Finnish rock band Shiraz Lane have been a going concern for ten years now. In Vertigo is their 6th album, with a smattering of EPs released in between.

It’s described by the label as “an ambitious, modern, and emotionally charged rock album”.

Yeah, all of the above… except maybe there’s as much pop as rock at times. No bad thing.

It’s produced and co-written by Per Aldeheim, frequent writing partner of Max Martin, and sounds like it.

The band, Jani Laine and Miki Kalske on guitar, Hannes Kett on vocals, with rhythm section Joel Alex and Ana Vilkkumaa on bass and drums respectively, combine rock and pop concisely and excitingly, captured in real time by Aldeheim’s propulsive production, always carrying an urge to move on, to move up, to just keep moving.

That momentum carries them through ‘Ray Of Light’, ‘Live A Little More’ and ‘Bullshit’, and oh, those choruses … the hooks just keep on coming.

Each song is as lean as it needs to be. Every harmony is tightly knit.

There are echoes here and there of their contemporaries, Santa Cruz, Reckless Love and H.E.A.T.

‘Babylon’, ‘Stone Cold Lover’ and ‘Plastic Heart’ hit a bit harder. Punchy, catchy, they get their hooks into you very quickly, rejuvenating your lingering pop sensibilities with poise and panache.

In the stuttering punch of ‘Dangerous’… you can hear Per Aldeheim’s role in co-writing ‘Bimbo’ for Lambretta (with Max Martin and Alexander Kronlund). And in the lurching ‘Sayonara Love’ there’s a huge Japanese/European crossover hit in the making.

Yes, there are a lot of shiny surfaces on Invertigo, it’s maybe a little too slick and sweet for some palates.

But this kind of stuff is commercial enough and bold enough to reach across genres. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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