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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Lance LaSalle, Jan 21, 2019.

  1. AudioEnz

    AudioEnz Senior Member

    Lovely to hear about Mike's book. My association with him is that, for a few months, he wrote record reviews for my magazine - although I doubt that would get a mention!
     
    JCo, HitAndRun, Jaffaman and 2 others like this.
  2. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Our votes for "In the Lowlands"

    1-0
    2-0
    3-3
    4-5
    5-2
    Average: 3.9958
     
    HitAndRun and StefanWq like this.
  3. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Today's song is "Better Be Home Soon", written by Neil Finn.

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4ZYCwq1EMPY5zZt195ARWg?si=aBl084dnTFqm5EjNag_q6w

    "Better Be Home Soon" was the lead-off single for Temple of Low Men.
    It charted in several countries, making it to #2 in Australia and New Zealand and #8 in Canada. It only reached a "disappointing" #42 in the USA and barely made a dent in the UK chart.

    It's become a massive staple of Crowded House shows, with the shows often ending with the song. The band did the song as early as the December 12th 1986 "New Year's" performance on ABC Australia special, just as "Don't Dream It's Over" was beginning its slow progress up the American charts.

    It's been released on compilations such as Recurring Dream and The Very Very Best of Crowded House, the Essential Crowded House and Gold. The studio version has also been a B-side to various singles.

    Live versions have been released:

    • the Live at the Town and Country promo album
    • as a B-side to Locked Out double EP in 1994
    • as a B-side to Not the Girl You Think You Are double EP in 1996
    • Farewell to the World in 2006
    • on the Temple of Low Men deluxe album
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2019
  4. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Here's the New Year's Eve special. The whole show is excellent.
     
    JCo, HitAndRun and StefanWq like this.
  5. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    From the June 1988 fan club newsletter, here are the band members' comments about "In The Lowlands":

    Nick - "Neil and I changed the bass and guitar in L.A. without Paul being there. He did decide to go home early."

    Paul - "This song we tried many different ways, we actually changed it in the studio before we started mixing. I put down the rhythm track and the verse had a totally different other verse to it. All they kept were the drums and we used the same chorus."

    Neil - "It's about that state of mind that you are in when you are heading off somewhere and you know what's waiting for you at the other end is not very pleasant."
     
  6. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Thanks, info like this is invaluable for those of us who weren't in the fan club in 1988! Or ever, in my case.
     
    JCo, D.B., HitAndRun and 2 others like this.
  7. Ryan Lux

    Ryan Lux Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, ON, CA
    Better Be Home Soon - 4.75/5

    It’s not my favourite CH song, maybe top 20, but there’s no denying it’s an instant classic. Almost a perfect song. Simple, economical yet totally unique. If I had to be extremely nit picky, some of the Finn obscure lyrics might hold it back a very slight amount. It would likely have been a bigger hit with a more direct lyric (though that didn’t hurt Don’t Dream It’s Over). But I’m always happy to hear it when it comes on. It’s so hard to write this simply and effectively.
     
    D.B., BeSteVenn, HitAndRun and 2 others like this.
  8. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    "Better Be Home Soon" is probably one of the most well-known Crowded House songs among the general public. It was a huge hit in several countries and, as I mentioned earlier, a bigger hit than #42 would indicate here in the US. It received a lot of airplay and even people who didn't know Crowded House music other than the two big hits from the debut seem to know this one also (far more so than any of the hits from the next two CH albums). As Lance stated, it was the first single from the album. Album cut "Kill Eye" was on the b-side just about everywhere, with the 12" and CD singles also adding the excellent February 1987 live version of "Don't Dream It's Over" from the Roxy in LA that had previously been issued on the US "World Where You Live" promo single and the UK 12" "Something So Strong" single. Although clearly the most commercial cut on the album, it was still a bit of a hard sell as a single. The melody is gorgeous, of course, but I've always found the lyrics a bit off-putting, and not the sort of thoughts I'd want to hear on repeat. The implied threat in the song's title and chorus is something I'm uncomfortable with, frankly. I am assuming that many others, at least in the US and UK, felt similarly back in 1988. It's still a great song, but I admit that I'd like it a little better if it had different lyrics. Some have said that the song failed to break through because it sounded "country". I have to laugh at that and wonder if those saying that have ever heard a country song. To them, probably, anything that leads with a solo acoustic guitar is "country".

    The officially released live versions are all quite similar, but I do quite like the one from Melbourne 3-92 that was first issued on a fanclub disc and then as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition TOLM reissue. It has a nice intro section that precedes the song proper, and Mark Hart's organ solo is lovely. The version from London, 11-93 issued as a b-side on the UK "Locked Out" single is a straighter reading of the song, but still good. The version from London's Town & Country Club, 11-91, was first commercially released as a b-side on the US "Weather With You" single in 1992 and then later also appeared as a b-side on the European "Four Seasons in One Day" single. It's also good. Then there's the small club version recorded in London for the BBC in June 1996 and released on the b-side of the UK "Not the Girl You Think You Are" and the AUS/NZ "Instinct" singles. I really like this one the best of the "straight" readings of the song, without the intro bit that features on the Melbourne '92 version. Mark plays an electric piano bit rather than the familiar organ on the instrumental break and it adds a touch of lightness to the somber mood (given that the band had just officially announced their breakup that same day, I believe).

    4.8/5
     
  9. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I forgot to mention and rate "Fire Will Keep Me Warm", the home demo included as a bonus track on the TOLM Deluxe Edition. This was later turned into "In The Lowlands" and it's just Neil on the piano. It's quite nice and lovely and brings out the richness of the melody. Its only flaw is that it's too short. 3.1/5
     
    D.B., HitAndRun, StefanWq and 2 others like this.
  10. Paul H

    Paul H The fool on the hill

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    Better Be Home Soon is an odd beast: "objectively" it's a terrific song, near perfect in writing and execution. But there's something about it that makes me less inclined to actually want to listen to it. Perhaps, it's nothing more than over-exposure. And yet, despite my urge to hit the skip button, as and when I do hear it I really enjoy it. It's such an easy song to sing along to and I find myself singing to myself very regularly (maybe that's why I have no interest in hearing it when it comes on!).

    I love the muttered interjection that's buried low in the mix during the solo, which Neil sings more loudly and clearly in concert. I have to give this song another 5/5. Can there be many albums that garner so many straight 5's? And yet isn't my favourite album?
     
  11. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    I don't get the country thing either. But I had a (British) friend who I was discussing music once and he considered nearly everything REM had done to be "country", and we argued (not angrily), with me saying that only "Rockville" was country, and the rest had elements of folk-rock; as does this song. Maybe some non-Americans just have a much broader definition of "country" than we do?

    The lyrical subject matter is kind of countryish, though.

    But this is a folk song, by which I mean, you can imagine it sung around campfires two hundred years in the future, like "Mull of Kintyre", and, yes, it's a classic.

    But honestly, I don't hear humongous hit single at all in this song. (I well believe it was a much bigger hit in certain markets in the US, but I don't believe that was universal. It was played on the radio when I was 17 --when I was still listening to the radio like it mattered -- for a couple of weeks and then disappeared as it fell down the charts.)

    When I think of what was playing in the second half of 1988 where I was, "Better Be Home Soon" seems a bit anachronistic. But I think it could have been bigger than it was, certainly; and I think the video, which is rather lacklustre and doesn't really capture the emotional heart of the song at all, didn't help matters much. And who knows? Capitol was in disarray and there may have been things going on behind the scenes; they could have pissed someone off at some point. But who cares about chart action anyway in 2019?

    Back to the music, this is a great little song and I particularly like the lines of the last verse:

    It would cause me pain
    If we were to end it
    But I could start again
    You can depend on it

    Those lines have stuck with me forever. A bit of a mantra whenever I've had problems; they've given me strength to walk away from relationships and they also remind me that it goes both ways and I need to do my best to cultivate my own marriage and keep it going.

    There's already been a lot of discussion about the loose narrative of the album and the themes of home vs career and so on in the last ten days and this song is the heart of that theme in a way: the story of a woman laying down the law to her missing, errant or busy husband: there is a threat in the song, as @robcar mentions. A relationship needs attention to continue to thrive and it's no surprise that a musician's life doesn't make it easy to cultivate long-term relationship.

    It's worth noting that the song definitely predates the achievement of fame Crowded House had in 1987 (though Neil would still have been away from home for the better part of a year).

    Now there's just something that keeps it from being the classic for me that some of Neil's great ballads are, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it seems almost a little too "Crowded House ballad by numbers"? It's well known that they all just assumed that it was not only going to be a hit, but a huge hit, a number one: they even took bets at how many weeks it would get there. I think they thought they had a formula for success: melodic guitar ballad+hint of melancholy+hammond organ+a few harmonies=smash hit. There is no formula.

    4.5/5
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  12. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    I was just trying to remember what other songs were on the radio here in mid-1988 and how Crowded House fitted into that. The first songs I could think of were Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", Tanita Tikaram's "Good Tradition" and "Twist In My Sobriety" and Fairground Attraction's "Perfect". Also Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians' "What I Am" though maybe that one was slightly later. All of these songs got lots of radio airplay and charted well in Europe at least and I'm thinking "Better Be Home Soon" could have achieved the same kind of success in Europe and the States. But the rest of "Temple of Low Men" doesn't really have that acoustic singer/songwriter feel so maybe the record company didn't know how to market them.

    I am also wondering if it was a "problem" that "Better Be Home Soon" had been played at more or less every Crowded House concert in 1987, and that maybe it didn't feel like a "new" track when the single was released.
     
  13. HitAndRun

    HitAndRun Forum Resident

    This song rounds out the album perfectly. It has a better, more 'perfect' melody than some of the other songs on the album. It should have been a major hit worldwide, and of course it was a hit in many countries. So, why not the US? I don't know and I'd appreciate comment from others as to why.

    The lyrics are great and fit well in the context of Neil having found fame. That the song was written before fame shows the ease of interpreting lyrics as something that they weren't (or couldn't have been). In hindsight, it looks as if Neil was steeling himself in case CH failed, and he needed to start again. But, it may 'officially' mean something else again.

    The arrangement is simple and straightforward, which lets the beauty of the melody and song shine through. Neil sings it perfectly. What's wrong with it? Or how could it be improved? I don't know.

    So:

    5/5
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
  14. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Indeed, I wanted to say that in my thoughts but I didn’t.

    Capitol just dropped the ball I think. What other albums did they release in 1988?
     
    D.B., StefanWq and HitAndRun like this.
  15. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I don't even know what I can say about this one- before TOLM came out, this was a single and a video, and I remember MTV being on, and announcing that they'd be debuting a new Crowded House tune. I excitedly stuffed a tape in the vcr at the announced time and recorded it- watched it again and again. Come to think of it, my familiarity with the song is probably part of what made the rest of the album jarring to me when I first heard it. I loved it from the first listen, and although I can see how it might seem to be the prototypical CH ballad now, it didn't feel formulaic at the time (at least not to me).
    Loved it then, love it now, holds up after 30 years.

    Guess I had a fair bit to say after all. 6/5.
     
    Otis82, D.B., HitAndRun and 2 others like this.
  16. StefanWq

    StefanWq Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallentuna, Sweden
    After the intense ending of "In The Lowlands", the album shifts mood to the gentle, reflective "Better Be Home Soon". The quite sparse production lets the song shine and Neil's singing is brilliant. Kudos also to Mitchell Froom for his discreet but effective organ solo. They could so easily have gone wrong with this song, if they had added percussion, horns and synthesizer effects, but they kept it "simple". The lyrics, which Neil has said in many interviews are written from a significant other's point of view, portrays how relationships can falter if the persons start taking each other for granted and are absent from each other too much. I think this is quite an unusual perspective in a song and that makes the song very special. I can think of quite a few songs in which the narrator is a rock star type who apologises (for being away on the road) to the spouse back home, but right now I can't think of other songs that are written from the spouse's point of view.

    I actually think this was a great choice for the first single. This is a song that is perfect to play for persons who have never heard any Crowded House music before, it captures the listener immediately and it seems almost impossible to get tired of hearing this.

    By the way, it's a bit fascinating that the first single off "Temple of Low Men" is the last track on the album and that the last single off the album was its opening track. Are there any other albums where the first single is its last track?

    I remember watching the MTV Music Awards in September 1988 (I didn't have access to MTV back then so they must have shown the Awards on Swedish national television), when Crowded House performed this in their tuxedos, standing not on the stage but in their seats and Neil saying "I'd like to dedicate this song to my wife Sharon and son Liam who I love very much. I'm going home tonight!" In the midst of the glitz and glamour of that Awards show, this made a strong impression and as a fan I was very proud of Crowded House in that moment.

    5/5.
     
  17. PJayBe

    PJayBe Forum Resident

    Better Be Home Soon. Yet another Finn classic, just love it. A definite 5 for sure.
     
  18. BeSteVenn

    BeSteVenn FOMO Resident

    There is no ambivalence among us about Better Be Home Soon. I enjoy it more when I imagine it as a great "deep track" that I wish more casual listeners would discover. I can't help but think that if this hadn't been released as a single it would be even more highly rated among us.

    I do like Better Be Home Soon, but I also like it when Neil ends his shows with something other than Better Be Home Soon or Don't Dream It's Over.
    4.5/5

    I had previously rated Temple of Low Men as my least favorite Crowded House album. Thanks to everyone's excellent comments on the songs, I now appreciate this album more than any other time since I bought it back in 1988.
     
    robcar, Otis82, StefanWq and 5 others like this.
  19. Paul H

    Paul H The fool on the hill

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    Off the top of my (sad, geeky) head: Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison.
     
    BeSteVenn, robcar, StefanWq and 5 others like this.
  20. jcr64

    jcr64 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    This is Neil's masterpiece on TOLM. The music is simple, direct, and gorgeous. The lyric is straightforward but with enough Finn imagery ("back to nothingness like a week in the desert") to keep it interesting. The song gains resonance from its proximity to "Into Temptation"--it could easily be sung by the person betrayed in that song.
    This is one of three Crowded House songs in my repertoire for my very low-level live performances. For a singer, it's an absolute joy.

    5/5
     
    Paul H, StefanWq, jimbutsu and 5 others like this.
  21. Ryan Lux

    Ryan Lux Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, ON, CA
    Good point. That never occurred to me, the ultimatum was likely not a commercial winner. Of course, it also makes the song stand out. It was a big hit here in Canada so perhaps Capital did just drop the ball? Supposedly, they used indie radio promotion on Don’t Dream It’s Over to great success but the company wasn’t allowing it in 1988. In retrospect, it would be a very different story if they had another hit on the level of DDIO. Possibly not for the better....
     
    StefanWq, robcar, HitAndRun and 2 others like this.
  22. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    I wrote something earlier in response to Stepan but deleted as I'm not sure if I'm getting my points across properly, as I am suffering from lack of sleep! I realize I sort of said that "Better Be Home Soon" is "formulaic" above, but I don't think that is the case!

    . My point was more about the band's conviction that it would be a smash hit #1 was because maybe they thought it hit all the right marks that had made DDIO a hit forgetting the fluke circumstances that brought about its success.

    Anyway, Stepan's reminder about Tracy Chapman and Edie Brickell did get me thinking.

    Regarding Tracy Chapman, Edie Brickell and Crowded House: I think they were all kind of precursors to a new music of the 90s. Their organic approach to music stood out in the electro-thump of the 80s. But there are differences.

    First of all, "Fast Car" is one of those really rare songs; it was at the right time and place, and hit a certain sweet spot. Tracy Chapman's unusual look and incredible voice make her a natural star.

    And something similar goes for Edie Brickell. She was a beautiful 23 year old woman It's very easy to market her as a star; she looks great on a magazine; and a lot of women I knew in 89-91 era really liked and admired her, and I think that sort of neo-hippie fashion that briefly caught on in 89-91 was partially inspired by her. No men in my world, by contrast, was dressing like matadors.

    Furthermore, "What I Am"'s charms are a lot more obvious and immediately catchy than "Better Be Home Soon": with the lyric, Edie Brickell's unique voice and that goofy wah-wah guitar solo, it just sounds like a hit. "Better Be Home Soon", like most Finn songs, takes a few listens in my opinion to really open up to the listener. That's not a disparagement, that's just how Neil songs work. You need to hear them a few times. REM is much the same, I think.

    I think Crowded House's image was a bit harder to sell, overall. They don't have an iconic look, they are normal guys: smart, funny. Ultimately, Their normalcy is the most striking thing about them. Again, this maybe would fly a little better in the 90s than it did in the 80s.

    In the era an era of larger than life stars like Bono or Axl Rose, (which is who they are competing with in 1988-1989) they are kind of refreshing, I suppose, but does it sell records?

    To bring it closer to home, they don't have the striking looks of a Peter Garrett or the glamorous air of Michael Hutchence. They are amazingly unglamorous, really.

    But something needs to make you stand out in the US market; it's just really crowded there. There are probably more great bands in NYC alone right now than there are in the entire (small) country I'm in, and they are just playing bars there. They may be a bit too subtle for the mass market of the USA.

    As for Edie Brickell...

    Edie Brickell didn't have more hits than Crowded House had and she's released less music in the decades since than Neil Finn has; yet, I'd be willing to bet more people know who she is than they know who he is in the States. (Which is what Capitol was getting at when they wanted to name the band "Neil Finn and the,..")

    In the end, I think the star of the Finn Brothers and their various projects is the music, not the Finn Brothers themselves.

    When you couple this harder to sell image with a dysfunctional record company (who was steadfastly refusing to play the neo-payola indie game), a rather ordinary video and a song that's not instantly catchy then I don't think it's a great mystery that the song didn't smash to the top in the way they thought it would.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
    D.B., therunner, Paul H and 5 others like this.
  23. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Same here.
     
  24. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus Thread Starter

    Hm. Interesting point.
     
    Ryan Lux and HitAndRun like this.
  25. HitAndRun

    HitAndRun Forum Resident

    I think what makes a hit is a complicated combination of the song itself and the context/circumstances around it. There are plenty of inexplicable hits, or inexplicable misses, if you just listen to the song.

    Having read up what I have read about the music industry, it appears that even music industry professionals don't understand what makes a hit. There are plenty of examples of record companies claiming that an album doesn't have any hits, and then it has plenty. And there are plenty of examples of record companies pushing songs that they expect to hit but which fall flat.

    Clearly 'the music market' is very complex, and there is no-one who fully understands it. Probably even less so now.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine