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

"Real Late" has some good potential. I enjoy the piano and some of the instrumental touches. It has a little something of a mid-1980s vibe. I think the only hindrance is that it doesn't have a very strong melody. However, it partly makes up for that with a chilly atmosphere.

3.4/5

 

I, too, received my (second dose) vaccination late Wednesday and spent Thursday curled up with a mild fever and full aches all over. That was also the day I read the comments here regarding my aversion to particular types of humor, especially in music. Needless to say, I didn't take them in good "humor" given the miserable way I was feeling.

With that behind me, and now that I'm vaccinated, I'm ready to party and attend the orgies.

I think that's just good thread management.

I don't necessarily agree that the music is more "challenging". I'm not really sure that I find any music more or less "challenging" than other music, or that "challenging" is necessarily a good thing in and of itself for music to be. I generally prize melody and lyrical meaning/poeticism above all other attributes, so any music that I find deficient in those areas isn't going to resonate as much with me. Again, very generally - many exceptions exist.

I also think that every recording artist has his or her strengths and weaknesses. When an artist plays to his or her strengths, the quality of the output is generally higher than when an artist ventures into areas that aren't strengths. I think this is largely what has happened with Neil's music post-2010. I certainly understand an artist wanting to try different things and to put them out there for public consumption. Sometimes they hit on new sounds and colors that work brilliantly. Often they don't (Sting's lute album comes to mind). I appreciate Neil's various musical ventures and that he has a restless desire to create and extend himself (I also appreciate this about Sting, don't get me wrong). However, that doesn't mean that I think everything he tries measures up to the work he has done when he focuses on his strengths.

 

"Real Late" is one of the highlights of the album. Great singing by Liam, including when he's doing his own backing vocals. There's a lot going on in the backing track, but I feel every instrument used justify its place and give the song a quirky and unique feel while also allowing the song to breathe. It's a song that is very fresh in sound and very appealing and it keeps growing each time I hear it.
4,5/5

 

2nd pfizer shot is kicking my butt! This is not fun!
Real Late - 4.8/5

 

Lance, belatedly - you do an amazing job in running this thread. You have written beautifully and , speaking personally, offered me new insights and perspectives, and brought attention to things i have missed too.


I totally get your feelings about some of the negatively expressed views. Somedays I too feel despair reading some views, but I've come to see it this way - all those people are saying is 'i don't like chocolate', and others say ‘I love chocolate’..or ‘I quite like chocolate’.


It doesn't actually change anything, or make one view more valid than another. Despite such fabulous music we enjoy (or not!), it’s also worth bearing in mind we are actually polling from a very small pool, that does not necessarily demonstrate wider views.


See we’re all different. Rain got ranked rated 33, and the Finn album (1995) 22, which I would put in my top 5-6 albums. Pajama Club – when you look at it – five people rated it highly with a 4-5. Another 5 people rated it poorly. Three people were average about it with a 3. That’s not too bad! I would listen to Lightsleeper and Pajama Club highlights over Woodface…. I don’t like Chocolate (cake)! I know that's not a view that is widespread.


Keep up the great work and thanks for all you have done in presenting such a great thread.

 

Good points. Although I think the voting pool is a little more representative of fans now than it was, say, a year ago.

Anyway, our votes for "Real Late"

1-0
2-0
3-4
4-4
5-4
Average: 3.95

 

Today's song is "The Struggle", written by Liam Finn; produced by Burke Reid and Liam Finn; recorded and mixed by Burke Reid.

Lyric.
Liam Finn: all instruments and vocals

This song was released as a promo single.

 

This song is interesting: back to blistering rock, but the main instrument I really hear is synth-- synth guitars and and synth guitars (and of course, pounding drums and bass.) This differentiates this from the brutal rocking songs from Betchadupa, which it somewhat resembles.

The pounding drums, along with the synths, again vaguely remind me of The Cure -- Pornography era; certainly there seems to be an 80s thing going on on this album, but the overall shape of the song also seems vaguely reminiscent of mid-nineties alterna-rock that is Liam's main inspiration....The bass line here is similar to "Better To Be", but the song sounds nothing like that song. I especially like the synth horns behind the spat-out chorus -- that's where the melody lies; and it's a funky one.

Lyrically, it's a bit of a Neil-like jumble: obviously Liam's pissed off, but at whom? A girl, a record company, fans, people on the Internet? The hoops he has to jump through for his career? My bet is on this last one, but your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, this song doesn't move me but it does interest me. A decent album track.

It makes me, once again, wish that he had just recorded the Betchadupa songs on his own, as it has that kind of energy but isn't nearly so oppressively loud and is ultimately more interesting for it.

3.7/5

 

The Struggle

This has quite unusual lyrics, saying something unusual about medical procedures it seems. I don't know what it's about really, but they add up to an interesting effect. I wonder if there was some real-world event that inspired them - did Liam ever donate bone marrow?

I think the chorus does (again) have the payoff that was previously missing in many Liam songs. Perhaps I've just gotten more used to his style of song.

The heavier arrangement suits the song, and certainly the lyrics. I like the distortion effect on Liam's voice - assuming it's a distortion effect and not him just singing like that.

Again, the backing vocals really add something to this song. They sound like all Liam to me.

Another good song. FOMO is currently my favourite Liam album. Though, perhaps I need to hear more to be sure.

3.6/5

 

The Struggle

2.5/5

On a really looking ahead note, yesterday I listened to every Harper Finn track that’s on Spotify, including remixes. I already suspected, but am pretty convinced now, that Harper’s music is my favorite of all the second generation Finns. And what a great voice he has!

 

He recently released a 'piano version" of a couple of songs: "Dance Away These Days" (he's really milking that one) and "Howling At the Moon", which is my favorite of all his songs. He’s definitely the best singer of the three; I might say he is the best singer of all the Finns, maybe, just technically speaking.

 

Oops, I mean "Conversations at the Moon". It may be my favorite but that doesn't mean I've listened to it all that much.

 

I think I like Norway best, but there isn’t one clunker among the bunch. I like them all. A lot. His music contains all the things I love about contemporary pop music, and none of the things I hate. I hope he has a great career.

 

Oops I meant with not at.

 

The Struggle - I don't know that I love it on first listen. Although by the time I hit the end of the song the chorus was well and truly stuck in my head. Maybe first thing in the morning without coffee wasn't the best time to listen to this heavier track??

Still I kind of like it with the bass line and the slightly abrasive instrumentation does seem to suit the lyrics (even if I don't understand them all).

3.5/5

(@brownie61 - I'm with you. I really like Harper's output so far. I think he is going to have a great career. Not that teens are a good barometer of current commercial success but both my teens really liked Dance away these Days immediately).

 

I like "The Struggle" more than one might expect, given that I really don't like the sound of low-pitched, distorted instruments. Liam's vocal--a mix of shouting with just a tinge of singing (there's a discernible melody)--is pretty effective. As my first sentence suggests, I'm not a fan of the instrumentation, but I can tolerate it over the course of a short song.

3/5

 

I enjoy this one enough that I don't skip it when it's going, and I will occasionally want to hear it, but it's not the strongest of tracks on the album...

3.8/5

 

"The Struggle" is pretty good - I like the way Liam's voice has been distorted/treated here. The melody isn't the strongest, but the song has a definite manic sort of energy. I don't connect with it lyrically, but I think this is a fairly solid track.

3.3/5

 

I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy "The Struggle". Distorted vocals aren't usually something I enjoy that much and Liam rocking out is usually not that fun to listen to. This song, however, just works. It has a manic energy but also a strong melody at its core. And it doesn't overstay its welcome either by adding a long outro with weird sounds just for the sake of it, which I think is a bug with some other Liam songs. This song is exactly as long as it needs to be, neither too long nor too short, and that makes it very strong.
4/5

 

There is nothing about The Struggle that would lead me to think that I would like it, but I do like it. It stands up to repeated listening, and it provides even more variety for FOMO. The vocals don't sound to me at all like Liam, but they must be, so it shows that his voice has more versatility than he usually reveals. Most impressively it sounds like a band playing, not a one-man overdubbed band.

It's an added plus it doesn't outstay its welcome.

3.9/4

 

I think that many artists have a bell-curve shape to their work. They start out young and do promising work, then at some point they peak, and the quality of their output diminishes from there. Creativity is not a bottomless well; it does run out for many - I could quote numerous examples, and would probably be shot down by numerous fans. In the case of Neil Finn, I'm afraid we have entered the realm of diminishing returns.

 

The Struggle - This is one of those tracks that, even though I've listened to this album quite a few times, really struck me as being quite extraordinary when I heard it today. For me, a lot of Liam's songs sound good and maybe a little weird (which I like) at first, but seem to always get better with repeated listening.
5/5

 

“The Struggle” has great energy and I do like the vocal distortion. It always strikes me as a bit uninteresting with no strong melody, but it’s a pretty neat song carried by it’s interesting sounds.

3.2/5

 

Our votes for "The Struggle"

1-0
2-0
3-4
4-6
5-1
Average: 3.5909

 

Today's song is "Little Words", written by Liam Finn; produced by Burke Reid and LIam Finn; recorded and mixed by Burke Reid.

Lyrics.

Liam Finn: All vocals and instruments