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

Yes. It’s a problem. Needledrops are a bit better.

 

"Reckless" has great energy, a sense of urgency and a bit of restrained anger. Good singing by Liam and again the song is focused, with no unnecessary parts or weird sound effects just for the sake of it. It fits well on the album and works both as the song following "Little Words" and as a stand-alone song.
4/5

 

I’ve always enjoyed “Reckless” quite a bit. It kind of sounds like the type of song Betchadupa would be making if they stayed together. Really nice little poppy number.

4.1/5

 

Little Words - 4/5
Reckless - 4.5/5

 

Our votes for "Reckless"

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2-0
3-4
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5-2
Average: 3.7091

 

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


Liam Finn: all vocals and instruments except:

Jeremy Toy: bass
Elroy Finn: percussion

I've been
Chasing the seasons in a car,
My best friend
Wheel denial, it's hard (?)

If I get sucked into madness
Spend so much time in my head
I'm Stuck on the things that you did
In a matter of Minutes we'll be waking up

Desperate
To redefine logic of mine(?)
Restless,
I've got to get out of this funk

If I get sucked into madness
Recreate lines in my head
I'm stuck on the things that you said
in a matter of Minutes we'll be making love

It's madness to recreate lines in my head
I'm stuck on the things that you said
In a matter of minutes we'll be making love
Spend so much time in my head
I'm stuck on the things that you said,
in a matter of minutes we'll be making love

 

I love this song, which is that "stately rock" type song that he every so occasionally pulls out. I enjoy the guitar a lot and the general sound of the track, which is kind of shambolic -- which I like -- but holds together.

Really nice melody and I like his singing.

Only quibble is the slight haziness of the lyric, but I see the lyric as about Liam being sort of withdrawn instead of engaging with a lover and realizing that he wants to engage..

4.7/5

 

Chase the Seasons

Unfortunately I'm now getting diminishing returns from this album. This song is OK, but melodically it meanders with no real payoff. The arrangement is rather unexceptional, and Liam sings it ... OK but nothing special.

3/5

 

"Chase the Seasons" is a really good track, surprisingly conventional by Liam's standards but of high quality. I like the contrast between the rather dark lyrics and the summer breeze feel and flow of the music. To my ears the song has a Beach Boys-ish sound to it that is nice and Liam sings it really well. Good lyrics too, I can really hear how frustrated the narrator is about feeling stuck and not connecting the way he wishes with the "you" person. When I hear this song I can easily imagine how it would have sounded if it had been done by Betchadupa (noisier and with fuzzy electric guitars instead of acoustic ones and more unfocused). One thing that really strikes me with this album overall is how Liam has become so much better to rein himself in creatively, the songs are more focused and well-edited and all the better for it.
4/5

 

Yes. Exactly. It’s really focused and all his arty idiosyncrasies are subdued. It’s probably the album that is least likely to be called “self-indulgent.”

 

Chase the Seasons

2.5/5

 

I find Chase The Seasons to be a little bit of a mess. So far on FOMO Liam has managed to sound to my ears like a band playing together in the studio, and now when he has a bass player, they seem to have failed to lock in together. It could be the mix, but the drums are way too loud for my taste, and the interesting guitar parts are buried. Once again, I enjoy the vocals, even if I find the lyrics a bit of a mystery, it's a mystery that I'm not too concerned about solving.

A misfire for me, but not too far off the mark, and I like it overall.

3.5/5

 

The guitar solo is really nice on Chase the Seasons one. Liam once described it as a solo where each note is almost to late. He does it again on Snug as fug
4/5

 

Chase the Seasons - I find this song a little surprising. As others have noted, I can easily imagine what this song might have sounded like earlier in Liam's career. While I like this song I do feel like there is something missing. Maybe it's the lo fi sound that's distracting me because I feel like the song is good but it feels a little meandering even though it has that nice guitar solo.

3.5/5

 

"Chasing the Seasons" is a decent song, but something about it seems a bit off. The balance of the instrumental and vocal parts doesn't seem quite right. And I don't really care for the guitar solo (though so far I'm alone in this).

I don't mind it, but I don't see myself ever seeking it out.

3/5

 

I like this one a fair bit, never skip it, yadda yadda - but I don't like it *quite* as much as many of the other tracks on the album.

3.8/5

 

I absolutely love “Chase the Seasons.” Beautiful shimmery keyboard sounds in the verses, and perfect vocal layering. Both guitars are fantastic throughout the song as well. I think this is my favorite Liam song when it comes to instrumentation. Simply wonderful.

5/5

 

"Chase The Seasons" is my favorite song on FOMO. It has a gorgeous, sweeping melody and beautiful vocals. The only thing I don't much like is the rather dissonant guitar solo, which takes me out of the dreamy, gauzy mind state of the rest of the song. The ending also seems rather sudden.

Still, with respect to Liam's solo output, I rate this one pretty highly.

3.9/5

 

Most people seem to like this song a lot more than me. I'm going to give it another listen.

Hmmm... still meanders a bit too much for me to not enough effect. I'm not inclined to change my vote.

 

Chase The Seasons - Another top track on the album. Love it. 5/5

 

Our votes for "Chase the Seasons"
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2-0
3-4
4-6
5-3
Average: 3.7615

 

Today's song is "Jump Your Bones", written by Liam Finn and produced by Burke Reid; "pre-production" by Jeremy Toy and James Duncan. Recorded and mixed by Burke Reid.


Liam Finn: all vocals and instruments except:
Glenn Kotche: contact mic drums

Looks like you lost the words
Tongue-tied in jubilation
We'll lose the secrecy
I swear I had nothing else on me
Well-stuffed(?) if you're mad enough
WE call the hectic masters(?)
Walking out I found the breeze
That swept my baby off her feet
For your delight, it's hard to hide
The world, fell in my knees,
You see, I want to jump your bones

In the morning it's launch-time
And I wake amongst the light
These armies are my demon side
ON my knees, pulling tongues on my eulogy
I saw you like a mother
When you told me you live inside my consciousness
I reached out and scratched inside
Your thigh, your mind, yeah you cry on the pillow
Stretching out, there's something on the arching of the bakc
The back, the back, the back, the back
I want to jump your bones,

Stay there, stay there
Stretching out
There's something 'bout the arching of the back
The back, the back, the back, the back...
I want to jump your bones

 

Pros: good drumming, cool discordant electro-punk backing track.

Cons: melody that only barely makes it for me lyrics that don't really touch me on any level other than midly intellectual one (in the sense that it's a song about desire, like many of the songs on the album.)

I suppose it's a good enough song to end a fine album on, but it's definitely by far the weakest track for me; and musically Liam probably felt it's blending of noise, electronica and rock was something really fresh and new direction for him. But ultimately it just doesn't excite me and until I attempted to transcribe the lyrics above I have never been albe to pay attention to the song. I like the video more than I like the song and you know how much I love videos. Instrumentals are not popular on this forum in general, I've noticed (like humor!) I like them though -- Dionysian expression, as Nietsche would say, and I think I'd have prefered the instrumental track, abstract and nearly melody-free (though there's some interesting synths in there) to the song with vocals and a pretty weak melody.

2.5/5

** sometimes you just have to reference Nietsche's Birth Of Tragedy to show how smart you are.

 

Tomorrow I'll hold up FOMO as an album along with the one bonus track if anybody should want to talk about it* and the live songs from the bonus CD.

So on Saturday I'll start holding up songs from The View Is Worth the Climb (Tim Finn's eleventh solo album counting soundtracks). I have a big test I have to take on Saturday morning at a university about 100 kms away so I may post later than usual on Saturday.


*it is the very definition of a Liam Finn bonus track, it almost doesn't need to be discussed and I'm not giving it a separate day.

 

Here's a live-in-studio version with Liam, EJ and Elroy.