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

This is an utterly gorgeous piece of song-writing and arrangement.

Opening with delicate acoustic guitars you're immediately transported into a warm, mellow place of breezes and sunshine.

It's sunny and clean, wholesome and though the demo is excellent (imagine making a home demo that sounds like that!), I think that Mitchell Froom's subtle arrangement touches (the muted horns, the brief backward "psychedelic" bit at the very end, the overall atmosphere captured).

There's so much to love about it the song: the drums and percussion (Alex Acuna?) the Chamberlain countermelody, which was extant even in the demo the subtle lead guitars, Neil's sensitive singing....but especially Neil and Tim's lovely co-harmonies on the chorus. Amazing sound those two made together, and it really elevates the song: although I must say that Neil's double-tracked vocals on the demo are pretty good too!

It's clear that the song is meant to honor a loved one and help them out in their time of grief. In fact, it transcends even that: "appearing in the eyes of children, in the clear blue mountain view/they're coloring in the sky/and painting ladders to heaven" -- The song sounds like an idyllic picture of heaven, but it's more subtle than that: the dead do go on, through their children, sure, but even through the people whose lives they touch.

5/5

 

Such a gorgeous song. My favourite on the second side. 5.

 

A wee typo in the description above. The demo was called "Song for Loma".

 

Thanks for that, I just mis-read it in the early morning.

 

I agree - this is just perfect. The songwriting, the arrangement, the performance, the production.

5/5

 

She Goes On is, I agree, perfect. 5/5



(Try ignore the nasty remark made by his duet partner.)

 

It is worth mentioning that Belinda Carlisle recorded a cover of this song on her album A Woman and a Man released in 1996. In her version, it's called "He Goes On". She had previously recorded a cover of "Stuff and Nonsense" on her debut solo album Belinda released in 1986. I think it is to her credit that she has twice recorded covers of Finn songs and both times it has been non-singles. You can hear "He Goes On" here:

 

Belinda Carlisle calls Neil an amazing lyricist here: A Chat with Belinda Carlisle . She's clearly a fan.

 

A wry smile from Neil as he sings the wrong line in the first verse

 

He sings the original line from the demo.

 

Hm. She just drops his name out of nowhere! Yes, clearly a fan. She should join us here.

 

A truly great pop song, covered magnificently by the lovely Belinda! A genuine 5.

 

I mean the other line....after the long weekend.

 

A lovely song and one of the highlights of the album. 4.5/5.

 

Genuinely lovely and gently sad. After all these years, I still sometimes tear up when I hear it. I did just now.

5/5

 

I’ve always loved this song. I’ve always liked the sentiment of it; again the imagery that Neil paints with his lyrics work so well here.

I lost my mother to cancer in 2015. I made a playlist of music that was special to her, to be played at the wake. I put this one on for myself. It came on a couple of times and other members of my family asked me about it as they’d not heard it before. They actually asked me to play it again. So, this one has a special place in my heart and mind.

A beautiful song. 5/5

 

This is weird... I always thought this was more of a song honoring a lost love, but it's much more like "Some Fantastic Place" by Squeeze in that it's about someone who's left the party for good. Something about the delivery/lyricism/whatever about the line "Owe it all to Frank Sinatra" makes my hair stand up whenever I hear it.

Either way, it's an amazing song that gets highest marks from me. But I definitely will hear it differently from now on knowing what the intent behind it is. 5/5

 

This is a sweet song of reassurance, and a salve on the wound for anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one. And it's beautiful. On any other album, and by almost any other artist, this would be the clear album highlight. But credit the songwriting on Woodface, that here it is merely another great song of many. 4/5.

 

"She Goes On" is absolutely beautiful, another gem on an album full of them.
5/5

 

That's been known before on this forum - I was in a thread about Janis Ian when the woman herself joined in - brilliant fun.

 

I love "She Goes On" and never get tired of hearing it, as it never fails to evoke strong emotions, has great melodies and lyrics and is beautifully sung and played.

5/5

Maybe the sequencing is a bit odd, to put something so heartfelt and sentimental between Hessie's semi-joke song and Tim's Irish drinking song ?

 

Nice she recorded it, but she must not have understood what it was about if she thought it was necessary to change the gender? Or did she have someone in mind?

 

“She Goes On” is beautiful beyond words. Just listening to it now brings tears to my eyes, as I lost a dear loved one last week. The lyrics in the chorus are about as perfect as can be. And the Finn Brothers harmonies are heavenly.

5/5.

 

"She Goes On" is perfection. Nothing more to add.

The song is a nice contrast to Neil's apparent religious agnosticism elsewhere. The instrumental break has a nod to the music of the 1940s, which was probably relevant to the person the song was written about.

The home demo that was released on the Woodface DE is fine but lacks the elegance of the album recording.

5/5 for the album version; 4/5 for the demo.

 

In the interview, she says Neil himself suggested the change. She tells a good story of having partied with Split Enz in 1980 and calls Neil and Tim both geniuses.