Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

Skin Feeling. Hm, a very average tuneless verse which goes nowhere and offers very little but then suddenly, bam! "I'm looking old, I'm feeling young: it's the truth, my child!"

That is one of the most uplifting choruses I've ever heard. I'm a sucker for any melody that hinges on a high note, and that melody under "truth my child", with the emphasis on "truth" just hits me hard. Brilliant.

The chorus is a full on 5/5, the verse a poor 2/5. So how to score it? A miserly 3/5. If only Paul had had the nerve to ask Neil to write him a verse to go with that chorus...

And yes, Mark Hart's stream of consciousness rant at the end is also sublime.

 

The burst of energy is somewhat useful, I suppose, and full credit to the band for giving this one their all. But this really doesn't work for me. The chorus is okay, but for the most part the song grates. Sorry, Paolo. It's not fair that your songs had to be placed next to songs by one of the greatest living songwriters, but that's where they had to be on a Crowded House album. It's like the disappointment of coming across "Don't Pass Me By" on the White Album.

My playlist of Together Alone does not include "Skin Feeling."

2/5

 

I like the way this begins, I like the way it alerts me.
I like the drums, banging hard, I like the way they move me.
I like the bass when it begins, I like the way it grooves me.
I like the verse, it does no harm.
I like the way it charms me.

And when the chorus starts to run, it's a thrill my friends.
This is the start of something fun, let's enjoy the ride.



I have no problem with this song at all. It's fun and not too deep so it brings a bit of light relief amongst the fairly deep tracks around it. Fair play to the band for going with it.

4/5

 

You win the thread

 

Skin Feeling...probably Paul's best song....love it 4.5/5

 

Skin Feeling

This isn’t bad. Crowded House ventured into bluesy rock occasionally and never with a ton of success, to my ears. Skin Feeling has some cool elements for sure. I think Paul didn’t spend as much time as he could have on his lyrics. They have a randomness to them that doesn’t always flow that well. Neil was random too but his imagery was so poetic that it worked. Plus Neil’s lyrics always sang well. The other issue is the lead vocal, Paul just hadn’t developed an emotive lead voice. He was always joke singing or doing harmonies. Singing lead well is a different skill that comes from hours and hours of performing earnestly to an audience. Some are more natural than others. I suspect, with the right lead vocal, this song would be more popular. Maybe Neil should have done it? One last thing, the title is not strong. It sounds both vague, strange and un-relatable. I kinda know what he means but the song would’ve benefitted from a dynamite title/hook line that really grabs you, like the arrangement.

Still, it hits the right vibe for this point on the album. You Can Touch and I Am In Love are too much like other songs and deserve their B side status, IMHO.

3.5/5

 

I really like "Skin Feeling" a lot - I sort of see it as a companion piece to "Italian Plastic" - to me, they're both love songs about devotion to someone, but this one is more visceral vs. the sweetness of "Italian Plastic." Still, I really enjoy it a lot, though again I can't give it full marks because I know there's even more amazing stuff lurking around the corner.

4.5/5

 

Oh Paul. Dear, sweet Paul...

“Skin Feeling” is okay. I’m not going to say much more than the song is not a favorite.

2/5.

 

"Skin Feeling" is so obviously not a Finn song that it really does stand out a bit. But it doesn't jolt me out of my reverie the way "Locked Out" does. As to its meaning, I associate it with intimacy and find it quite touching... 3.5/5

 

Not a great favourite of mine, so only a 2 from me.

 

I missed Catherine Wheels, but that would have been a 5/5.

Skin Feeling is fairly good fun and the chorus is catchy. Not a work of genius, but I like it as part of the album. 3/5.

 

In terms of a flow of songs, 'Catherine Wheels' strikes me as a classic penultimate track, and 'Together Alone' as a perfect summation of the subtle themes of the record: intimacy between people can generate distance and separation as much as transcendent union. 'Skin Feeling' always seemed like someone trying to drag me back into a party that has naturally wound down. I'm walking down the steps to the driveway, ready for the stillness of the ride home in a dark, quiet car, perhaps with the first glimpse of the morning sun rising - "Together Alone" - but "Skin Feeling" thinks if it just plays "Eagle Rock" again, people will want to throw their coats back on the bed. No, Paul, it's time to go.

I first digitized my CD collection in 1999, and removed it from the tracklist. I've never once felt its absence since, or sought it again out due to curiousity. It's also not something I make a particular habit of doing - I can only think of one other record I've cared enough about to modify - so I obviously felt strongly about the issue.

 

Our votes for "Skin Feeling":

1-0
2-4
3-7
4-6
5-2
Average: 3.1939

 

Today's song is "Together Alone" written by Neil Finn, Mark Hart and Ngapo "Bub" Wehi.

Together Alone

"Together Alone" prominently features the Te Waka Huia Cultural Group Choir and was co-written with it's leader, Ngapo "Bub" Wehi.
It also features a brass band of Clyde Dixon, Stephen Bremner, Laura Astridge, David Bremner, Shaun Jarret. Mark Hart wrote the brass arrangement and thus gained a co-writing credit.
Finally, Joe, Tereo, Martie, Jamee, and Benjamin contributed log drums.

"Together Alone" was released as a single in New Zealand and reached #37.

The 2016 remaster mistakenly features a slightly different edit, with the track extended a furhter ten seconds or so and including the applause of the audience watching the performance.

Together Alone was rarely played live but performances of it were done in 1994. And it's been released on the Fleadh Festival bootleg and the Home Brew fan club release.

 

Tomorrow we'll discuss Together Alone as a whole album and following that will go through the following bonus tracks:

• Tail of a Comet/93-94 officially released live tracks
• Blue Smoke
• I Am In Love
• You Can Touch
• Zen Roxy
• Newcastle Jam
• Convent Girls
• Private Universe [Zen Mix]
• Locked Out [Zen Mix]
• Dots on the Shell (Yothu Yindi & Neil Finn)
• Gifted (Dave Dobbyn)

On the 28th, then, we will key down and start the 13 song Altitude album.

 

A translation of the Maori Choir:

Here we are together / in a very close embrace / being together / just us alone
Rangi the sky-father is above / the earth mother is below / our love for one another / is everlasting

 

"Together Alone" is the more-than-perfect ending to a basically perfect album. I love everything about it, but I can say that for most of the songs on this album. However, there's something so stirring, so life-affirming and uplifting about this particular song that it never ever fails to release a burst of emotions from me. From the opening chords to the abrupt ending of the log drumming, the song is just amazing.

I love how the arrangement changes completely on the second verse, everything dropping out but the horns; and the final chorus, preceeded by the high-pitched chant, is like plunging off a cliff into an ocean of pure joy. And when that's not even the end of it: the log drumming that really gets going there sounds almost off at first but takes the song in such an unexpected yet somehow right direction; it takes my breath away. The birds themselves sing in rhythm with it. It's truly a magical track.
Is the lyric a bit undeveloped? Yeah, probably. But sometimes it just doesn't matter.

It's also amazing how strangely seamless and right it all sounds because the verse and the chorus could not be more different and more obviously the work of different writers and it's not like it's been arranged to de-emphasize that or anything. But maybe it sounds right because that's the point, isn't it? It's the sound of totally different styles and traditions coming together to make a new glorious whole

5/5
I think I prefer the cold stop rather than the applause at the end on the remastered version, but it the applause doesn't diminish my love for the song, in fact, it's quite a viable alternate edit that has it's own flavor: the humanity of the participants is emphasized over the grandeur of the music.

 

The alternative ending wasn’t included by mistake, I’m told. Universal knew it was different and Neil OK’ed it. A cool surprise for some and an annoyance for others.

 

Ah, ok. Someone wrote that it was done "accidentally" on Wikipedia.

 

I agree with everything you’ve said here and could not have said it better myself.

Together Alone is the perfect ending to the perfect album. Once again we’re back at that magical place we visited in Kare Kare and Private Universe.

Has Neil’s voice ever been more perfect than it is on this track? I don’t think so.

The lyrics are lovely, the melody is gorgeous, and when the chorus gets going, then later the log drums, I get chills down my spine every time.

I definitely prefer the cold stop. I think the applause breaks the magic and takes me out of the magic place the song has created.

5/5

 

I can respect them doing something different with the use of the choir, but I always felt that the song would have been pretty forgettable if it weren't for that. Not bad, but the songwriting in general is a fair way down on this album in comparison with Woodface.

3/5.

 

The applause: yeah, I like the song with and without. I also think the song is the perfect ending and also isn't. As I noted above, I find Walking on the Spot to be awkwardly placed after Private Universe. The transition just doesn't work for me. And yet placing it after Together Alone works beautifully.

But I'm digressing. Together Alone is wonderfully evocative and immensely poignant. It makes me nostalgic for an experience (the making of the album) I never actually had. It also makes me nostalgic for the album I've just listened to and the visit to Karekare I was lucky enough to have way back when.

It's also now going to make me nostalgic for the fortnight we've spent talking about my favourite album of all time. It can be nothing but downhill from here.

5/5.

 

Together Alone then.

Here we are at the final track of this, for me, immense album, and I have to say, I love it.

The song holds a lot of emotion and power for me. It's another funeral song and I broke down when I listened to it following my Mum's passing in 2015. I find it incredibly moving, and the Maori words are very spiritual.

I find that the quite simple lyric somehow manages to distill the connections between us, us being each other, and the planet; it feels like a celebration of life, and how we are all connected to this planet that we live on, and how, even when we pass on, we are still connected, still together, alone.

I have only just heard the applause version and it doesn't bother me. Again it feels like an outpouring of emotion over a song that must have meant so much, and if it was the final track recorded (I don't know) then it seems an apt response by everyone that was there. I think it's included in the making of programme that can be readily found on youtube.

I must say, as this album ends, I feel like I want to give it a round of applause! I've loved discussing and reading all the comments on this album. Thank you all

5/5

 

This song gets me every time. It's so simultaneously upbeat and devastating - the idea of this connection/love between people and the acceptance of the fact that, thanks to whatever circumstance, they're not to be in the presence of each other. Yet at the same time, that connection and that bond still exists. I never know if I should be heartbroken or uplifted by the song, which is what's so amazing about it.

6/5

 

I like the applause being included at the end on the remaster, maybe a knowing nod to the difference between looking at the record at the time it was released and looking back twenty-something years later on what the experience of making it had been. (If that makes sense)