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

I Know Different - I feel like I should like this song a lot. There's nice arrangement and composition, but at this point I'm a bit fatigued by all the slow piano ballads. That's unfair to this song - because intellectually I feel like it has lots to offer. Maybe I need to listen to the entire album in one shot and then reassess the songs...I don't know. I'm just a bit bored by it at this point.

3.5/5 (which I know is harsh)

 

"I Know Different" is yet another earnest song to close an album full of them, and like the previous song I do not understand why earnest has to equate to dreary, but the tempo is just too slow and unchanging (until around 2.40 when there is a welcome relief). Yes, Neil's voice sounds great but that is not enough on its own to redeem a dull song without much melody.

3/5

 

"I Know Different" continues a tradition of slow, beautiful closing songs that dates back to TOM (one of the all-time classics, of course). "I Know Different may not quite measure up to the very best of these, and I can certainly understand why some would simply find it more of the same after an album of slow piano-based songs with choir and orchestra. For me, though, it works as a kind of closing statement. It's not only a beautiful song on its own, but it somehow pulls together what has gone before.

I do witsh (as others have) that they'd used actual ocean sounds instead of obviously synthetic sounds.

4.5/5

 

I know different is another 5/5 for me. I guess I just like slow miserable songs....especially in 3/4

 

They were not missed.

The last song on a record that just really never connected with me (or I never connected with it - I don't want to put the burden solely on the record, ya know?). This is fine but it doesn't speak to me at all. Even without the Druid Deduction, it's not a song I'd ever hear and go "yup, this one slaps."(*)

2.6/5

(*) - Slower songs can slap EMOTIONALLY, so yes it works here.

 

The Law Is Always On Your Side

For a lyricist who is often obscure, I appreciate that Neil Finn wrote something so specific in this. Another song that I hope has another life and not left behind. It's a fantastic lyric.

Terrorise Me

My word, this one is real. It's the song from "Out of Silence" that I come back to most often. I was in London when this album came out, and I was actually in a taxi cab coming down the Old Kent Road when I heard this song for the first time. It was via YouTube on my phone as it was being played live during one of the Infinity Sessions webcasts.

I had been hiking through Spain (walking the Camino de Santiago) when the Manchester bombing happened and remember coming into a town somewhere and seeing the news report. I landed in London the week that the Grenfell Tower tragedy happened, and after bumming around London (and Stockholm) for a bit of the summer, had made the decision to stay in London for a bit and was on my way out to the storage locker near Bricklayers' Arms that my stuff was in to pick it up sometime in mid/late August.

2017 was a very very strange summer, and so my whole experience/association with "Out of Silence" is coloured by that somewhat.

 

Our votes for "I Know Different"

1-0
2-0
3-6
4-4
5-3
Average: 3.5692

By the way, @KangaMom and @BeSteVenn: I had a dream about you which is weird because I don't even know what you look like. But KangaMom was having a yard sale and BeStevenn came to it and was looking at Kanga Mom's stuff for sale and she got all angry and said "You are always looking at my things!"

 

Today, Out Of Silence.

 

Out of Silence

This was a very good idea, to record the album live on YouTube. It was fascinating seeing this happen and gave us (me, at least) a great insight into the recording process.

The songwriting is, of course, very good indeed. Perhaps there isn't a 'Fall At Your Feet' on this album, but there is a good range of excellent songs.

However, the arrangements being so samey lets the album down, and makes it quite a bit less than the sum of its parts. This has already been alluded to by many people during the discussion so far. The songs all sound too much the same. I find it hard to listen to the whole album and remain focussed.

It is for me an interesting experiment, but not one that really works.

3.7/5

 

In 2011, Tim, then 59 years old, released the soft rock, mostly ballad-heavy The View Is Worth the Climb recorded in a certain studio at Roundhead. In 2017, Neil, then 59 years old, released the soft rock mostly ballad-heavy Out Of Silence, recorded in the exact same room -- only wiht the windows covered up. It just strikes me sometimes, the parallels in their careers.

But Out of Silence is a great album that, like Tim's album above, is rather flawed by the saminess of its songs.

AS I said back then, the artist does what he does and I feel I should try to look at what it is, not what I think it should be: what is he trying to communicate, what is he going for? Well, I guess I think Neil was consciously back-tracking from the art-rock trilogy of Intriguer, The Pajama Club and Dizzy Heights, doing a lot on piano and tyring to make Serious, Understandable Statements on Important Issues.

And I think it largely succeeds: there are not no songs I dislike, and only one song I'm lukewarm on (I No Different.) At the same time there are only two songs I'm particularly enthusiastic about ("Chameleon Days" and "Terrorize Me"-- I would have written much more about all the songs had I not been abroad during our discussion of the individual songs.

As much as I strongly believe that we try to meet the artist on their own terms, though, there has not been a single time I've listened to this album and not thought, boy, I'd really like another upbeat tune on this...I don't mean, positive when I say upbeat...I just mean, like, a faster rhythm. I don't find it exactly monotonous, because as each song plays I thrill: this is a melody extravaganza, just great melodic idea after great melodic idea, packed in tight.

And, to Neil's great, great credit, the album is not too long at all, which makes this kind of saminess a little easier to bear. Had it been another 52 minute CD, I don't know if I would like it as much as I do.

But I do like it, and I think it demonstrates once again what a great singer/songwriter Neil Finn is. I prefer this to Dizzy Heights (which I like more than the average but has three songs I don't like on it) and, while I understand the criticisms from others, this album hits a certain spot for me that I don't need hit everyday, but when it does need hitting, I hit it-- with this.

Victoria Kelly, by the way, is a genius, in my opinion. Does she compose?

4.7/5

 

Out of Silence 5/5

I love this album. I know some have criticised it for being a bit samey and safe, but to me this is Neil operating outside of his comfort zone in a different direction, escewing the perverse need to hide his songs under dodgy production and away from the usually unwelcome influences of Liam/Connan Mockasin et al. It's easily the best thing he has done in years before or (including the woeful dreamers are waiting) since.

The songwriting and especially the lyrics (baring a few stinkers) are back up to the kind of standard you hope for, and it's a short enough album to not outstay it's welcome. If it had been a bit longer I think it would run the risk of being a bit one-note but as it is I think there is just enough variety within the running time for it to get away with it. There are a couple of songs on it which I don't think work quite as well but overall this head and shoulders above anything post TWT and a couple of standouts from One Nil.

 

Out Of Silence

I truly loved tuning into the four webcasts each week and found the entire process fascinating, Although it was probably very telling that at the time, I enjoyed the Finn Brothers set, and the rocking episode (Serious in Love blew me away), more than anything that was meant for Out Of Silence.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve never tried so hard to warm up to an album in my life, and it just didn’t work, If I was to make a playlist of songs from this album, it would have one track - Chameleon Days - which is one of the best tracks Neil has ever recorded. I think it deserves a better fate than this album, but who am I to judge?

Unfortunately, after the release of this album, Neil Finn releases are no longer automatic purchases for me. This was the 3rd out of 4 successive albums that I did not connect with. Out of Intriguer, Pajama Club, Dizzy Heights, and Out Of Silence, the only one I can truly say I love is Pajama Club, Although they all have at least a song or two that I like, I am now sadly convinced there may come a time when Neil puts out an album that contains nothing I like. That thought would have been totally incomprehensible to me 10 years ago.

So now I will listen, several times, before I buy a Neil Finn release. So far so good, as I adore Lightsleeper and at least like (I think) Dreamers Are Waiting. (Although I haven’t spent nearly enough time with Dreamers to truly develop an opinion about it. I need to get to work on that....)

Out Of Silence. 2/5

 

I gave this album another listen in full today and it still stands up pretty well to me. Particularly the opening 5 or 6 songs, though I do agree with those who say that it starts to get a bit samey after a while.

Second Nature does change things up a bit, but the final 3 songs on the album aren't my personal favourites.

I like the fact that Neil took a chance with those album and risked commercial failure.

3.5/5.

 

I love it. There's a couple of duffers but it's my favourite NF album. There's three songs that I consider to be in his overall top 10. And the orchestration is brilliant

5/5

 

Dear God, what on earth have you been eating/drinking on your vacation???
This is actually amusing to me, although I have to admit I was hoping to appear in a more exotic locale than a yard sale. I'm sorry to have interrupted your vacation! @BeSteVenn, I'm not sure I have anything you would want from a yard sale - much more likely I would go to your yard sale and see if there's anything I want!

 

Out of Silence - I love the challenge Neil posed for himself by streaming the recording process. The couple that I saw were great and gave a good insight into the recording process. I love this project for this alone. I can't think of many artists who would go that route and expose all those back room workings and to Neil's credit is shows just how assured he is in the process of creating music that he can do this.

For the album. It's nearly all first listens for me. I felt like there was a lot of sameness here - it's all uniformly good to great, so the quality is not lacking - but it does make for a bit of a fatiguing listen. I can think of other similar situations, for instance "The View is Worth the Climb" and even "The Conversation" have a similar feel/theme for the album. The difference on these albums (to my mind) is that there was some variation in tempo. If Neil had gone with even just one more uptempo song for the album it would have gone a long way to improving this album.

I'm not totally sure I would purchase this album on physical media, but I think I may download it in iTunes to try and circle back on it over time. Hopefully that's not damning with faint praise.

3.8/5

 

And why is @Lance LaSalle dreaming about us when he's just finishing up a week in beautiful Croatia and Slovenia? I spent my week's vacation in my basement getting stuff organized and thrown out. I won't be having a yard sale, and I'm sure you don't need old computer parts and jigsaw puzzles.

I think he was just homesick.

 

I'm also hoping that I was 15lbs lighter and supremely fit and glamorous, but this seems unlikely given the setting of a yard sale...and no, I don't need old computer parts, although if you have a motherboard for an old Asteroid arcade game...

No vacation so far for me this year - unless I count visiting 2 colleges with my youngest son in August (Minnesota and Iowa)...

 

Actually, I should have said my vinyl pressing of it is unlistenable due to what I'd call sibilance. Has anyone else got any similar issues

 

BTW @BeSteVenn - sorry for getting angry with you in @Lance LaSalle's dream. That's entirely inexecusable!

 

I wonder if Out of Silence could be an allusion to Neil not wanting to be silent anymore about then-current (and unfortunately still-current) issues? I admire Neil's decision to try a whole different process in recording an album and not laboring over the post-production for months or years.

I like the cohesive sound and arrangements of Out of Silence. The album requires deeper listening and paying attention to the melodies and chord changes to keep one's attention. I haven't checked what keys the songs are in, that can also make a difference in sustaining my interest over a whole 40 minute CD. I think the melodies are excellent, and I tend to listen to the whole thing start to finish, I never skip a song and I never skip to the end of a song. I don't know most of the song titles (sorry, @Paul H ) any more than I know most song titles from the past 10 years of new music. It's part of aging, I suppose.

I need to watch the broadcasts again now that I am familiar with the songs, but it's hard to find that much time.

4.6/5

PS. Victoria Kelly does compose, mostly film scores.
Victoria Kelly
Victoria Kelly - IMDb

 

I have a needle-drop, no real issues, though my ears are only moderately sensitive. It's better than the CD but it still sounds like a needledrop.

 

Out of Silence: 5/5

I tell anyone who will listen about this album. Neil’s Masterpiece. Pretty much whatever I’m listening to at the moment is my current favorite, but this is my For Real Favorite Neil Solo Project and it rivals most CH albums in my opinion.

The sameness of other albums definitely wears on me, including the last 3-4 (see? too samey for me to even know) songs on Dreamers Are Waiting.

But I found Out of Silence at the end of 2019 which was a very painful time for me. Aside from my dear husband and kids, and prayer, nothing else was able to soothe me. I didn’t even notice that it was an entire album of slow, reflective songs.

Then the bottom dropped out with COVID and there have been ups and down for me since. Just like everyone else on the planet.

I have at times felt very alone in my grief and loss. This album, along with many other Neil projects, including Fangradio, has been vital for my emotional well being. Everyone has had a f*cked year so I won’t get in to it other than to share that this is the album I listened to on repeat during the long solo drive to and from my dad’s funeral a month ago. It is just so comforting.

The fascinating YouTube sessions clearly show the kind, amazing genius we have in Neil Finn. In have seen many people comment in different social media platforms that Neil got them through 2020. I very strongly identify with that.

 

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. I lost my father 30 years ago next month, Neil's music got me through my very difficult time, too. (For me it was Woodface)

 

@Anne_G im so sorry to hear about your recent loss.