Finland's Finest Guitarist Turns Toward 70s Rock and Never Looks Back

Erja Lyytinen has been Finland's most reliable blues guitar export for two decades, and Waiting for the Daylight is the record where she stops being reliable in the safe sense and starts taking real chances. Self-produced at her own Hollywood House studio in Helsinki, it leans harder into 1970s European rock than anything in her catalogue before it, and I mean that as a genuine compliment.

The title track was filmed at Raasepori castle for the video, and there's something fitting about that — this is music that wants space and stone walls around it, not a club stage. Her slide playing is as precise as ever, but the songwriting has opened up, letting tracks like "Bad Seed" and "Last Girl" breathe in ways her more traditional records never quite allowed themselves.

I'll admit I went in expecting the Erja Lyytinen I already knew, and came out having to recalibrate — this is an artist genuinely moving her sound forward nine albums in, which is rarer than it should be in blues.

Mine favorittspor: the title track for the sheer scale of the production, and "Bad Seed" for how far it pushes away from anything resembling a blues shuffle.

Redaktørens dom: Not the record to start with if you want classic Erja Lyytinen blues guitar — but if you want to hear a genuinely accomplished player still restless enough to change lanes, this is essential.