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

Yeah, the Elton John influence is big in this one; hadn't really thought about that.

 

Our votes for "Evelyn":
1-0
2-1
3-1
4-2
5-0

 

Today's song is "Best Friend" written by Tim Finn and Neil Finn, and sung mainly by Tim Finn.

A version of this song was originally released on the Anniversary live album, recorded on a Split Enz reunion tour in 1993.

 

Here's the live version from 1977:

 

A song that works much better as a live track than it did as a demo. Not a work of genius, but 3/5.

 

I agree. To me, this is B-side material.

I slightly enjoy it, especially the driving beat and the interesting, light-fingered synth work by Eddie Rayner.

The lyrics are intelligent enough, but I am not sure what they are really saying and they end up sounding a bit pretentious, an ever-present danger in early Enz songs that I usually overlook due to their native humor or the power of the music that puts them across.

Like many Enz songs there's something slightly "off" about the track and the slightly queasy melody; and there's this familiar and vaguely menacing vibe that you find all over this particular album; but while I usually find that charmingly arty and ahead of its time, here, it just kind of grates on me. Best I can say is that the performance is tight from all concerned.

And it will garner my lowest vote to date: a harsh 2.3.

 

"Best Friend" is one that I'm not a fan of at all. Can't really say anything positive about it, unfortunately. 2.0/5

 

Evelyn is fun but grates after a while. Best Friend is pretty underwhelming. 2/5

 

I really like "Best Friend". It's an outlier, something I think of as a separate entity from any Split Enz album project. The melody is actually super infectious once the song worms its way into your brain, while still being quite complicated, off-beat and unlike anything anyone else was writing. The crazy distorted couple of bars about 2/3 of the way through are quite thrilling. This may be in the early 90s live version only, which is what I am more familiar with - I've only ever listened to the Rooting Tooting CD once or twice, both discs, which I need to rectify pronto!

 

I just bought Rootin' Tootin' recently (for an extortionate price that included my firstborn child) and this thread has been an excellent way of getting into it. I'm also really happy that someone likes "Best Friend", as obviously the band itself seemed to like it, performing it onstage in the 70s and 90s.

I know exactly the moment you mean from that early nineties live version, when everything gets wonkey and suddenly skids to a halt.

 

It's fine.

3/5.

 

I really enjoy Best Friend. I think it’s extremely catchy. It’s a shame it wasn’t re-recorded for Frenzy.

I like the live version better, but this version is still a 4/5 to me.

 

Our votes for "Best Friend":

1-0
2-3
3-2
4-1
5-0

 

Today's song is "Creature Comforts", written by Tim Finn and Nigel Griggs, sung by Tim Finn.

 

"Creature Comforts" is another previously unreleased track. It's very Beatlesque to me. It's pretty good, although Tim sings it in sort of an odd manner that makes it hard to decipher a lot of the lyrics. The instrumental bit features a strange sounding instrument - not sure if that's a synth or someone screeching the strings of an electric guitar - that add some intrigue to the track. Not one of my favorites on the RTLT release, but it's a good listen regardless. 3.4/5

 

Again, not a song I can enjoy particularly. I love the energy of the Luton tapes and, when the songs were good they were brilliant, but more often than not they were a triumph of energy and enthusiasm over content. Creature Comforts is another example of this. 2/5

 

2/5

Yeah, this seems to be a case of intentional non-singing on Tim's part. A song that really needed a lot more production work imo.

 

I like it. I don't hear the Beatles so much; what I hear is musical theatre. For some reason I get a picture of an amply-bosomed actress playing an impoverished mother in the Great Depression, advancing across the stage clutching a silk dress and a bouquet of flowers to her breast, singing this song, smudged face turned towarsds the audience, mascara-rich tears streaming down her cheeks....

But the songcraft, to me, is pretty undeniable: the melody is great, the bass-line (which I guess the verses are built around, thus the Griggs credit) and that synth or guitar or whatever is really, really awesome. Also, length-wise, this hits the sweet spot for me. A 2 minute 48 second song that makes it's point and bows gracefully nearly always pleases me.

Regarding the singing...sounds to me like the vocal was recorded at a lower speed and then sped up to get the right pitch -- something chipmunky about it.

I think what I like about this album is that the band is so post-punk (save for a few Neil songs) but the songs so traditionally pop in a way...but with an arty twist that makes them really unique. It's that old juxtoposition of pop with this sort of dissonant, edgy backdrop.

3.6/5

 

“Creature Comforts” wasn’t included in the original stereo mixes, presumably because the lyrics haven’t been written and the whole thing’s unfinished. It was a surprise discovery when Eddie Rayner came to remix the multitracks around 2006.

Speaking of which, Eddie had to send the 8 track multis to the US to have them digitised. They’d been recorded with a strange noise reduction system

 

Dolby?

 

Ha. Nah, not that Dubly stuff. I think it was a system Eddie hadn’t heard of before. He didn’t tell me what it was.

 

I saw these posts and immediately thought "Dubly." When I got to your post, it filled me with the kind of rare joy that can only be brought about by realizing someone else in a conversation is as ridiculous as you are.

As for the song, 3/5. It's fine.
I probably should have allowed for lower than a 3 for things I kinda sorta like earlier on; now I feel like I've trapped myself relative to ratings I gave other songs.

 

Well, yes, I know what you mean about ratings. The ratings are really just a way for us to focus our brains critically on a song, and I wouldn't take them too seriously. So I dont fuss too much about it. I think I overrated "Miss Haps", for example, but whatever.

Ratings are always an illusion; a conceit on a critics part that the reader buys into; there is no real objectivity.

 

Our Ratings for Creature Comforts:

1-0
2-2
3-2
4-1
5-0

 

Our next song is "Remember When", which was written and sung by Tim Finn.


The song was later re-recorded and released as the B-side of the "Next Exit" standalone single, from a compilation called No Hits and Myths! a compilation of songs from New Zealand artists. A version of which was also recorded during these sessions, which we will talk about in the "bonus tracks" discussion that will begin in a couple of days.