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

Raine Channing

By this time the songs are losing their novelty value for me a bit. The lyrics are unusual, but we've had a number of songs like this.

The accompaniment sounds a bit like an acoustic guitar sound played on a keyboard to me.

The melody is OK, but isn't a standout.

Tim sings a bit more musically than some of the other songs.

3.1/5

 

"Raine Channing" fits in well with the other songs, but it doesn't make as strong an impression as the previous songs. While they sounded to me like a lot of thought had gone into them, in terms of arrangement and how Tim was going to do his vocals, this sounds to me like a first draft. I think it could develop into something as special as the previous tracks, but as it is it sounds a bit half-hearted to me.
3/5

 

I agree that "Raine Channing" doesn't work quite as well as the preceding songs. Some of it, I think, is the incongruity between the quest for artificial eternal youth that the lyrics describe and Tim's weathered, ancient-sounding voice. The melody also isn't quite as good here.

3/5

 

Raine Channing - Well, those lyrics are real spooky. I mean, that's some real gothic style stuff there. I like the almost harpsichord sound which fits nicely with the idea behind the lyrics. There's a touch of "Sunset Boulevard" (the movie) here in the atmosphere. I don't think the song is ultimately all that compelling, again, in the context of a musical play there was probably going to be some staging that would have brought this to life. In fact out of all of the songs so far, this is the one that I can most see in a stage setting.

3/5 because the melody isn't all that compelling but I get the idea of what the play would have been like.

 

Ahh, just received the FinnManz CD (at work, I'd forgotten that I put that address for delivery!)

 

I received it today too!

 

I thought for sure you would get it ahead of me - surely there is less distance...but then again it had to get out of the UK and I think that's the bottleneck...

 

Much less distance, it was probably here last week. Probably got slowed down in customs. Labor shortage here so they take longer than they should.

 

FWIW, I had my copy on Saturday. Of course, I'm in the UK. Not bragging, just offering up for comparison.

Regarding this Tim album I'd never heard of, Lance's incessant praise of it has me intrigued enough to check it out at some point but now isn't the time. So I'll stay lurking until we start talking about songs I've actually heard before

 

I'm not sure whether I am reassured or horrified that we can live 1000s of kilometres away from each other and yet still all receive our copies within days of each other...

 

My copy of FinnManz was shipped a week ago, so who knows when I’ll get it. But I’ve been listening to it on Spotify and am looking forward to discussing it.

I listened to the Vermilion Sands tracks once and could not bear it. Sorry.

 

I think this one might be the most interesting of the bunch so far. The vocals seem a little more pleasant to listen to and the story being told is something that makes sense to me. Outside of that, though, there's still a lot of same-ness among all these pieces, which makes it a bit of a challenge. No way could I get through this whole thing in one sitting.

3/5

 

My location isn't as exotic as your locales, but I did get my copy today, too. Now, back to lurker mode, I've been enjoying your discussion of Vermillion Sands.

 

This is decent, but it’s a little too old fashioned or something for my taste. The melodies are still nice and the various keyboard sounds themselves are good, but I guess there's just something overly rustic about it that doesn't engage me as much as the first couple songs we've covered.

3.2/5

 

It's a very lonely place I live in. When I have to write the words down for a song I listen to the song over and over again very attentively and end up and it ends up sinking in and making me a part of its world -- and I end up liking it more than I did at first listen. I'm sure if I had written Elroy's lyrics down I would have liked the songs better but I found them so incredibly boring that I couldn't torture myself that way.

Our votes for "Raine Channing"
1-0
2-0
3-6
4-1
5-0
Average: 3.2429

 

Today's song is "Aurora Day", written and produced by Tim Finn.
Aurora Day

My beautiful neighbour wouldn't answer her bell
I wanted her to stop sending poems pell mell
Across the sands and into my home
On coloured tape the wind had blown
To hang like bourgainvillia
Fragments of verse all too familiar
Shakespeare and Wordworth, Elliot and Keats
Her VT set must be stuck on model repeat

Aurora Day believed in poetry
Written by humans
Aurora Day, that diamond night time child
Of Vermilion Sands

One night I watched her stroll among the dunes
Behind pale green clouds under bright full moon
With her long whtie gown and loose blue hair
She was lost in a reverie, apparently unaware
Of three purple rays that circled overhead
And me in my dressing gown, staring like I'm dead.

Aurora Day believed in poetry
Written by humans
Aurora Day, that diamond night time child
Of Vermilion Sands

We so-called poets have lost all sense of shame
Relying on machines, transliteration's the game
But Aurora remembered Melander and Corodant
The muse and th poet who died so art could live on

Aurora Day believed in poetry
Written by humans
Aurora Day, that diamond night time child
Of Vermilion Sands

Aurora with her giant sand rays
Killed a poet, then ran away
Aurora Day has gone away
Aurora Day

 

Another weird, sketched out song with weird lyrics that give me this beautiful sense of lonely, strange melancholy. The lyrics here are a little obsure, heavily dependent on the story which I haven't read, but they seem somehow relevant to the post-modern hell-hole we live in, even if they are about aliens or robots on a distant planet or something.

3.9/5

 

Aurora Day

This is another odd little song, as most of these are. Both with the lyrics and music, I'm not sure that this song works as well as the others. This needs a better arrangement to work, I think. The slightly weird (in a good way) backing vocals help a lot. But, there needs to be more of that.

3.1/5

 

I agree,that bit could be fleshed out. That would be a good place for Elliot to sing something.

 

Raine Channing: So great! 4/5
Aurora Day: wow creepy background singing so dark and scary. And it’s about poetry! Oh Tim 2.75/5

 

I would describe Nottingham as many things (the home of soccer, for example) but "exotic"? Hmm. No.

 

It's gotta be more exotic than Token Creek.

 

Ha! That picture does make Nottingham look exotic in comparison! Home of such cosmopolitan activities as football....

 

Aurora Day - Starts of with what seems like a pretty melody, but doesn't really take full advantage of developing it. I agree with any others that there could have been a lot more backing vocals (yes, Elliot should have sung on this). The lyrics obviously document a big part of one of the stories in Vermillion Sands. I am a bit intrigued as to this idea of robots being neighbors...odd and unsettling.

I don't think this song is as successful as the previous few. Also at this point I'm a little creeped out by the stories. Maybe the staging would have made this an excellent musical play but it's certainly eerie and unsettling.

2.9/5

 

At this point, the project should have been titled "Vermillion Sands: Songs from a Haunted Tree."

2.8/5