With the album LIKE THE FIRST TIME just announced and on its way to global audiences next month, Finnish guitar pop supergroup THE BABLERS bring their fans a very special single – the sixth standalone track to preview the record, previously only available to Japanese and Finnish fans and long out-of-print. In a departure from the previous singles, the gorgeous and heartfelt “Where The Wind Blows Free” is a completely new arrangement and mix from the original track, out April 4 and up for pre-order and pre-save now:
All of the members of THE BABLERS – leader, singer-songwriter and guitarist Arto Tamminen, drummer Janne Haavisto, bassist Pekka Gröhn and guitarist Hannu Pikkarainen – have long been widely admired on the Finnish music scene, but recently it's been the noise that they've been making together as a band since the late '70s (when they came together as teenagers and took Finland's nascent power pop scene by storm) that's been grabbing attention worldwide. The rerelease of their long-awaited and remastered LIKE THE FIRST TIME album is coming closer by the day. Originally released only in Japan in 1998 by EMI, the album's first hit single “You Are The One For Me” received substantial airplay in Japan. Songs from the album were featured in national TV commercials for the insurance company Nippon Life, Ford Motor Company and the Foreign Ministry of Japan. The hit single “You Are The One For Me” ended up on karaoke records and is still used in Japanese karaoke bars in Tokyo and elsewhere today. The forthcoming rerelease of LIKE THE FIRST TIME is the “first time” the album will be available to a global audience... therefore it’s really the first release of the album to most of the indie pop, pop rock, power pop and classic rock fans in the world.
Since the 2021 release of critically acclaimed reunion album PSYCHADILLY CIRCUS, THE BABLERS have released five singles from the forthcoming LIKE THE FIRST TIME reissue, including the indie hits “You Are The One For Me” (chosen by Stevie Van Zandt as The Coolest Song in the World This Week on SiriusXM's Underground Garage), “Holding Me Tight Tonight”, “Mr. King”, “Thinking Of You” and most recently the English-language version of the Finnish Grammy award winner “Together Forever.” Between them, they've revealed the band's unique versatility, varying in style from muscular pure power pop to highly sophisticated, groovy and infectiously catchy pop. Their latest offering, the new single “Where The Wind Blows Free” is something totally different.
“Where The Wind Blows Free” is not a rerelease of the song as it appeared on the Japanese album. It’s a new version, arrangement and mix of the song lending a fresh perspective and further emphasizing its uniqueness and giving it new wings. “The song crystallizes the magical moment almost all of us have experienced,” says singer-songwriter ARTO TAMMINEN. “After pushing your physical and mental limits to extreme, one needs solitude and time to pause and reflect – to take a slow walk, where the wind blows free.” Musically, it’s a stunningly beautiful classic pop song with superb arrangement consisting of catchy melodies and a rich growing fabric of harmony between guitars, cello, strings, and mellotron.
The song enjoys a cult reputation in Finland, where two Finnish megastars, Samuli Edelmann and Vesa-Matti Loiri, have recorded versions under the title “Palava pää”. Newly reimagined, the single's fresh take on the track lets listeners take a peaceful mental journey to “Where The Wind Blows Free” as they patiently await the April 25 release of LIKE THE FIRST TIME on CD and Streaming worldwide from Big Stir Records.