SAMI YAFFA - ‘The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind’

The first single ‘The Last Time’ was released in June and provided us with a menacing, spacy and soaring modern punk-fuelled rock song. On the one hand it provided a great taste of what might follow, but it also posed a lot of questions – what would the rest of the album be like?, would it match the standard of ‘The Last Time’?, and why had he waited so long to release his debut solo album? As a musician, Sami Yaffa has more then established his reputation and credentials playing with some of the coolest and most iconic bands in rock/punk and there was a risk that releasing a solo album late in his career could detract from that. He didn’t need to do this, but he wanted to as he found that some of the songs he had been contributing for others didn’t fit their style and had more of their own sound. 

Well, the wait is over. ‘The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind’ contains 11 songs of an unexpectedly high quality and depth which will also take you on a breathless journey of musical diversity through rock, punk, reggae and blues – sometimes separately and sometimes in the same song - which will leave you desperate to know when his next solo album will be out.    

‘Armageddon Together’ opens the album and provides a modern swaggering and towering rock song similar in impact to ‘Kashmir’ or ‘Live and Let Die’. Changing the style immediately ‘Selling Me Sh*t’ is up next – an angry, fast and furious song starting with the repeated chorus “You’re selling me sh*t, You’re selling me sh*t, You’re selling me sh*t, But I ain’t buying it”. While heavily punk-based there’s enough of an 80’s Two-tone influence going on to have you high-stepping before you know it and then, without warning, around 1 min 42 seconds in the song switches to a slow reggae bass groove mid-section before returning to it’s angry start. Impressive and fun stuff.  

‘Fortunate One’ follows with a rumbling ‘New Orleans’- style bass line and provides a great slice of punk/glam complete with some very sexy saxophone which may sound familiar to fans given it is played by none other than Michael Monroe himself. Changing the style and pace, ‘Rotten Roots’ starts off as a laid-back reggae number, with chopping guitars, deep bass and drums sitting beneath powerful lyrics about where we are - “Who’s gonna save us from ourselves?, We’re walking in the footsteps of a crumbling cartel, Who’s gonna save us from our past?, Redacted lines of history, All the horrors we amassed, I came outside and saw the fires burning, The pages of our past and all the lies that we’ve been learning”. While providing a bleak social commentary of where we’re at and challenging our own comfort (“We’re all sedated in the comfort of our homes … Oppression’s boots built a house on rotten roots”), the song does offer some optimism suggesting the pages may be turning. Retaining a solid reggae lilt throughout, some scorching guitar work accentuates the tone of the song, adding to it’s atmosphere and power.  

As will already be clear, the album isn’t lacking in ambition. Sami has spoken about how bands he admired such as The Clash and the Stones mixed and played different musical styles with ease. While firmly rooting his own sound in punk and rock, the ambition of matching this is very much achieved on ‘The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind’, as one of the most striking things about the album is the mix of styles and how effortlessly the band fuse them together and play them. Mixing styles as diverse as rock, punk, reggae, Two-tone and blues was a bold move, was never going to be easy and could easily have misfired or sounded disjointed. Instead, the musical styles flow seamlessly presenting an incredibly diverse, rich and original sounding album.  

‘Germinator’ returns to the faster, punkier style of music which fans may be more familiar hearing Sami play throughout his career and within his current day job playing bass in the Michael Monroe Band. As a bonus it also contains some very tasty harmonica playing from Michael Monroe. Reaching the mid-point of the album, ‘Down at St. Joe’s’ starts with an acoustic guitar over a punchy bass line (what else?). Owing much in style to John Mellencamp or Tom Petty and finding Sami ‘s vocals sounding almost Dylan-esque, this is already one of my favourite songs on the album with some great visual lyrics and storytelling on display (“was it something I said, something I ate?, my legs don’t want to co-operate”), and the jangling chorus of which the opening line “Here I am again, walking sideways in the rain” has been bouncing around inside my brain since I first heard it. Some may be surprised at just how good this album is, but it really shouldn’t be surprising to any of us given that Sami has been writing songs over many years and also as a number of the songs here are also co-written by Rich Jones. As fans will be aware, the bulk of the songwriting behind the Michael Monroe Band has been produced by Steve Conte, Rich Jones and Sami Yaffa. 

Some beautifully distorted guitar leads into ‘I Can’t Stand It’ - a slow, grooving rock number. In ‘You Gimme Fever’ the reggae returns, but this time marrying it with the blues – not a combination I’ve heard before, but one, on the basis of this, which I’d love to hear more of.    

Approaching the final few songs on the album I found myself reflecting again on the quality of musicianship on show and the ease with which they play so many different styles of music. On this album Sami demonstrates that he is so much more than a bass player and is also a talented singer and multi-instrumentalist in his own right – providing vocals and playing bass, acoustic and electric guitar, electric baglama, melodica and glockenspiel. Joining Sami on the album are Christian Martucci (Stone Sour), Rane Raitsikka (Smack) and from Sami’s Hanoi Rocks’ days Timo Kaltio (Izzy Straddlin and Cheap and Nasty) all on guitars, and his childhood friend Janne Haavisto on drums. Rich Jones also contributes some backing vocals. 

‘The Last Time’ provides a reminder, if it was needed, that the album has lived up every bit to the expectation which it created as a single. ‘Look Ahead’ shakes things up again, with Sami singing in a half-spoken guttural growl against ska chops, which will have you skanking from the outset and also brings in some wonderful trumpet solos. Sami has also reliably informed me that the song is also influenced by Balkan gypsy music and has the typical horn soundings they use.  

Finally, we reach the last track on our journey, ‘Cancel the End of the World’, which starts with an atmospheric and searching guitar intro with deep bass and drums with Sami’s vocals floating above the rhythms and beats within, some great backing vocals from Nicole Willis and ending on a lyrically optimistic note “When morning comes and you realise Armageddon has gone and we came out the other side … light your candles, burn your anger, cancel the end of the world”. Similar in style to early Lenny Kravitz, the track provides a great ending to the album. 

Now at this point, I’m going to be really honest with you. This is an album which requires and rewards repeated listening. You’ll not get it all at one sitting or in two or even in three listens. There is so much in here that will make you want to keep listening again, and again, and again. So, sit down, sit back, relax and crank your speakers up or stick on your headphones and get lost in the sonic world created.  

As an album, this has many surprises and is easily one of the best albums of not just this year, but the last few. It might also just have you rocking, grooving, high-stepping, skanking, pogoing and chilling. How many albums can do that? Not many. And this is just one of the reasons why this is a very special release. 

‘The Innermost Journey to Your Outermost Mind’ will be released on 3 September on Livewire/Cargo Records. It will be available on the usual digital platforms, can be ordered from various music outlets in Finland and can be pre-ordered internationally from Cargo Records in the UK.