Honorary monikers can be compliments for musicians. But they can just as easily be too limiting to properly describe what they are doing. Case in point: Erja Lyytinen. For a while now, she has been known as Finland’s blues queen. But if her new album ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ proves anything, it would be that she is so much more than just a blues musician. First and foremost, she is a fantastic songwriter. ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is a varied album full of excellent guitar-driven rock and pop songs, some of them barely even revealing Lyytinen’s blues roots.

Blues is never far away from what Lyytinen is doing and there is plenty of her renowned slide guitar work on ‘Waiting For The Daylight’. However, the album focuses more on her strengths as a songwriter rather than as a musician. There are definitely some bouts of great musicianship here – from Lyytinen herself as well as her excellent backing band – but all of it is in service of the songs. The amount of variation on the album is one of its biggest strengths. Lyytinen’s songs range from raw and rootsy to more polished productions, without ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ ever sounding like a disjointed mess.

While the album starts promising enough, the song that really sold me on ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is ‘Run Away’. It is an expertly arranged, atmospheric and somewhat dark guitar pop song with a brilliant chorus and Lyytinen’s best vocal performance on the album. There is a subdued anger to the vocals that never really explodes, which makes ‘Run Away’ an exciting listen every time. ‘Last Girl’ is another one where the melodic rock influences are at the forefront, while ‘Love Bites’ sounds like a particularly dramatic show jazz number reinterpreted brilliantly by a rock band.

On the more rootsy side of things, ‘Diamonds On The Road’ is a masterpiece with its groovy main riff and subtle guitar arrangement. ‘You Talk Dirty’ is the oldest composition on here and starts out feeling like a more traditional bluesrocker, but the way it works towards its awesome climax is fairly unique. The title track is about half stoner rock, half ballad and builds towards a fantastic classic rock guitar solo near the end. That ultimately is Lyytinen’s biggest quality as a songwriter and arranger: to always find a surprising twist on traditional forms. Opener ‘Bad Seed’ is probably closest to a standard bluesrocker, had it not been for its subdued pre-chorus and the distinct Indian-sounding scales in its guitar solo.

Don’t let the blues queen moniker scare you from listening to Erja Lyytinen if the genre isn’t your thing. ‘Waiting For The Daylight’ is so much more than twelve-bar progressions and improvised pentatonic licks. It is the work of a mature songwriter who knows how to employ all the tools in her arsenal. That includes rootsy riffs and melodically strong slide guitar solos, but also carefully crafted arrangements and highly memorable melodies. The album is simply full of excellent guitar music, regardless of genre. And if that is your instrument of choice, you would do yourself a great favor by listening to ‘Waiting For The Daylight’.

Recommended tracks: ‘Run Away’, ‘Diamonds On The Road’, ‘Waiting For The Daylight’