Finn.
August 29, 2004
Guest post by Dave Danglis
Everyone Is Here, the new Finn Brothers release, has been out for nearly a week -- so it's time for a review.
Keep in mind that this reviewer is a heavy-duty Finn fan. His collection contains every Split Enz, Crowded House, Neil and Tim studio release, plus a number of rarities and live projects, and the highly-recommended Crowded House Dreaming: The Videos DVD. So you know this will be an impartial review.
Everyone Is Here will make my year-end "Best of" list. You should buy a copy.
Not much to add to that...
But I guess I should attempt to at least describe the album. Everyone Is Here is pretty much what one would expect from Tim and Neil -- beautiful melodies, perfect harmonizing on the vocals, loads of mood and emotion. There are few surprises -- put Tim's Feeding the Gods and Neil's One All in a blender, add Mitchell Froom on production, puree, and pour. (Mmm, that's good bass!)
The CD does depart somewhat in atmospherics. This album doesn't have the warm and gloomy sound of Neil's Try Whistling This, nor does it exhibit the spit-polish production of Woodface. Being fond of both of those recordings, I was a tad disappointed at first, but decided to accept Everyone Is Here for what it is, rather than reject it for what it is not. And what it is, most obviously, is an exhuberant, upbeat and positive collection of songs.
I've mentioned this before on this blog site, but here goes again: I'm amazed at the great things these two manage to say after being at it for so long. Sure, the Finns are huge, at least in certain parts of the world -- what would they have to complain about? Then again, Tim's star has fallen*, and Neil may have been forgotten by the mainstream after Crowded House was unable to capitalize on the success of their first album. I've read the books about these guys (oh yeah, in addition to all the CDs, I own about four books) and they've risen and fallen on the waves of rock fame. But they still have worthy things to tell us, and that's what they set out to do on Everyone Is Here. You won't find any traces of rock bitterness, sarcasm, or anger -- just what sounds like genuine love, commitment, care, gratitude and hope. Perhaps even virtue. And that's where this album ultimately succeeds. Oh, and it's catchy as hell.
Now if anyone can tell me what "All God's Children" is about, please post it here.
*On this topic, for a good laugh, check out Tim's video for "Death of a Popular Song" on Feeding the Gods.