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

I am also in the midwest - what are you baking, and can I get directions?

 

I'm not sure you can draw a line between artist and entertainer (with respect to music artists). I'm afraid I do expect to be entertained - at least in terms of enjoyment. Of course, what appeals to me as entertainment might be quite different from say Paul H or anyone else on this thread...
Still, I think the bottom line is I want to feel like I've had a brief respite (or possibly some enhancement) from the nuts and bolts of daily life. If a musician can provide that escape hatch and transport me elsewhere then not only are they are a great artist but I'm definitely been served my entertainment quotient.

 

Coming up sometime this week, probably sausage rolls (which matters greatly to Australians and UK people). I also have some rhubarb in my fridge and was thinking about making a coffee cake of some sort...that was meant to happen this past weekend but I got busy with trying to put some basil plants out in my garden (last frost date just passed!).
I'm afraid @jimbutsu you're going to have to follow the scent of baking (or the pastry and cake crumbs) to find me!

Oh, and I bought (at great expense) this weekend some morel mushrooms because I don't have a location to go out and hunt them in upper flyover country...

I also have a birthday dinner coming up this week - so no cooking by me on that day!

 

Indeed I do hope it's temporary...the pandemic has been a b**ch for a lot of people. I'm glad the weather is finally improving and that I'll be fully vaccinated at the end of this week - finally be able to meet up with friends we haven't seen in a year except brief chats outside.

 

Better Than TV - good album track 4/5

 

Our votes for "Better Than TV"

1-0
2-4
3-5
4-11
5-1
Average: 3.3286

 

Today's song is "Pony Ride", written by Neil Finn, Sharon Finn, and Sean Donnelly; produced by Dave Fridmann and Neil Finn; engineered and mixed by Dave Fridmann.

LYRIC.

Neil Finn: vocals, guitar, piano
Liam Finn: guitars
Sharon Finn: bass
Elroy Finn: drums

Note: I find it quite weird that the Pajama Club is the writers and thus did "the initial jam", but that Sean Donnelly is not playing on the record. I Can only assume that the Liam and Elroy were NOT part of the initial jam.

 

I love "Pony Ride." Definitely my favorite song on the album. It feels like a "deluxe" Pajama Club track, with a wonderful backing track that grooves stronger than anything else on the album. I love the various intertwining guitars and electronics during the chorus that create a beautiful, swirling soundscape that adds to the already great melody. Reading the lyrical synopsis above from Neil, I like how simple but relatable the concept is. I wouldn't necessarily put it up there with "Spirit of the Stairs" in terms of lyrical concept, but it's a really good one.

The middle 8 is good, but my least favorite part of the song. It was always going to be hard to live up to the rest of it, though. Overall a phenomenal, psychedelic tinged track that I never turn down when it comes up, and one of Neil's best tracks of the last 15 years. It's one of those songs where 4 minutes and 45 seconds feels like a minute and a half.

4.8/5

 

Pony Ride - This is a fabulous psychedelic tinged song. Like the funky groove to it, really an irresistible beat to it that makes me want to dance to it. I guess I hadn't listened to the lyrics that hard. I kind of got the correct impression that it's a bit of a journey through life but again, I'm really just a person who likes the sound of words.

I agree with @drewrclv9 that the middle 8 is probably the weakest part of the song but it's not fatal. I wish the song were a little bit longer to be honest - because it's a very infectious piece of pop.

4.3/5

 

"Pony Ride"--I didn't remember how this one went, but it turns out it is definitely among my favorite tracks on the album. I'd never really been able to make out any lyrics, so they play no role in my appreciation of the track--it's just a great, almost compulsive melody and a strong voal performance from Neil. I sort of wish the production were less cluttered, but it's still an album highlight for me: 4.1/5

 

"Pony Ride" is one of my least favourite tracks on the album. Not enough twists and turns in the melody, vocal and production to interest me as much as some of the other songs. It might have worked better for me if it were on the Pajama Club album. The song was Neil's father's favourite from Dizzy Heights, I'm guessing because of the lyrics referring to Neil as a boy, riding on his Dad's back.

 

The verse sounds like a re-write of the verse from "Don't Stop Now", I've just noticed.

 

Pony Ride is a song which belongs on the Pajama Club album, and I cannot stand that album.

Same problems, different CD... A tuneless dirge (aka "it's based on a groove"), annoying noises all over the place and phoned in lyrics.

1/5

 

This is much better than the previous two tracks.

Love the urgency of the intro...almost feels like it's pushing the tempo along, and I like the overall bounce of the song. The "pause" at the end of the chorus is a moment of genius.

I like the middle 8, but it's feels like its from a different song...although the shouty bit to lead back into the chorus works well.

It needs a coda or a reprise that goes off on one rather than just dying

Overall very enjoyable 4.5/5

 

Pony Ride

I like this one a lot, although I don’t have much to say about it. It’s catchy and makes me want to dance. Neil’s voice sounds great on this one - this is one of his better vocal performances on this album, and sounds effortless.

3.5/5

 

Aw, I love Pony Ride. Its one of the few songs Neil has produced post-CH that has the natural energy of that band. So many of his other attempts at ramping up the adrenaline just seem really forced to me, but this song just rolls. I adore it. It's one of those songs that I can't sit still through. It always has me up and dancing. I love the chorus, particularly the change. The line "somedays I'd rather be mystified than understanding part of it and have you try to explain it" just makes me laugh (in a good way).

5/5

 

Personally, I love it when middle eights seem so obviously grafted on, I have noticed that I am alone in this, though.

This has a very cool sound, the rhythm section actually sounds awesome to me (Sharon and Elroy>Sharon and Neil), and there's a nice driving energy to it.

The song doesn't move me and it feels kind of like really excellent background music for a cafe or pub -- but a really hip one that probably existed twenty five years ago when things were still cool and songs could still break the laws of time and space. Definitely a place I would frequent.

Probably like it more for the sound and the driving rhythm than the actual lyrics/melody: I love the conceit of the lyric as mentioned in the interview above, but god knows without that I'd think it was nonsensical.

3.7/5

 

Pony Ride

I like this song a lot. There's not a lot I can point to that makes me like it so much, but I do. Like Don't Stop Now and Everything is Good for You, there's a loping feel and a subtle vocal melody that I really like.

The middle eight does sound like it's from a different song, but for me again this works well. EDIT: I am only just now reading the above posts and see that @Lance LaSalle appears to agree with me on this one.

This might end up being the song I vote highest for the whole album. (I haven't gone back and checked to see if that's already wrong ).

I haven't written much about this song. Nothing in the vocals or instrumentation or performance stands out. It all comes together to make, for me, a satisfying whole.

4.3/5

 

Pony ride
The first time I played this, I checked how long this song was going on for because I found it just dragged/prodded on.
The lyrics I cannot make much sense of but that's okay.
I'm not appreciating the tempo, the groove.
Compared to Better than TV, I'm just not digging this track.
3 out of 5. Not lower because there's nothing wrong with the song, it's just not my sort of music.

And the middle 8, how it sounded like a different song, that reminded me a bit of Same Language as Me, when the band goes to the Private Universe bit.

 

Pony Ride: Love it! Until today, I thought it was about doing animal tricks at a circus. “Can you see the circus jam?” Having read the lyrics, I like it even more now. Looking backwards and forwards and in to the abyss all in the same song. Not about the circus. Ha!

5/5

 

A good tune this and the production is also above average. From a purely musical point of view, I don't have any issue with it.

The lyrics are utter gibberish though and, while there had always been occasionally oblique words, by this point Neil seemed to be throwing them away...

A low 3/5.

 

I really like this one, but I can't tell if it's that it's so good or that it's so much better than the stuff surrounding it. Actually reminds me a bit of "See Ya Round" musically. Lack of real lyrical resonance for me keeps this one back from the top tier.

3.8/5

 

Pony Ride is the kind of straightforward major chord foot stomper I tend to embrace. However it doesn't quite float my boat for some reason. The chorus builds nicely, then just as I want it to soar it weakly peters out. As happens all too often on this record, a fairly simple tune gets buried under a wall of unsympathetic and distracting sonic effects.

I find the lyrics fairly unintelligible, with vocals again very low in the over busy mix. The only section I could make out was the jarring middle 8, where I always thought Neil was shouting "Camp as a vampire bat!". The actual lyrics are no less revealing, although they set a mood of sorts.

Pony Ride is frustratingly close to a very good song. For what it is, I still like it far more than anything on the PJC album.

3/5

 

I find it odd that, even though I really disliked the Pajama Club album, I do like "Pony Ride", so maybe from Lance's observation that Sean Donnelly doesn't play on this track. it's the absence of his synth sound that allows me to enjoy it. I can hear similarities here and there to "Don't Stop Now" which I think is a far superior song, but this one holds up well enough on a generally mediocre album - apart from the terrible middle-8 (normally a strength of Neil's) which is bad enough to lose it a whole point.

3/5