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

Well...I don't know. All of them pretty high, they'd make the top Ten or Top Twenty here, as would all the Crowded House fan club records.

If you search this thread for "our votes for (particular album)", put my name in the "posted by" field, it will show up.

 

Being curious, I just did that regarding Phil's post-Split Enz works excluding the soundtracks. The ratings are as follows:

The Swingers - Practical Jokers: 4,333/5 (6 votes)

Schnell Fenster - The Sound of Trees: 4,2/5 (6 votes)
Schnell Fenster - OK Alright A Huh Oh Yeah: 3,86/5 (5 votes)

Phil Judd - Private Lives: 4,12/5 (5 votes)
Phil Judd - Mr. Phudd & His. Novelty Act: 4,5/5 (3 votes)
Phil Judd - Love Is A Mo*on: 3,8667/5 (3 votes)
Phil Judd - Play It Strange: 4,45/5 (2 votes)
Phil Judd - UniQue: 3,9/5 (2 votes) (NOTE: Not calculated by Lance but by me but as there were only two votes I feel confident that I got the rating correct)

UnTh!nkables - Untitled: 3,4/5 (4 votes)

Phil has two albums to be discussed soon here on the forum: Flightless Bird (2019) and Planet Sublime (2021). Both albums are excellent, in my opinion, so I'm looking forward to discussing them. Phil has a new album planned for release later this year, My Life As A Ghost. His most recent update on FB said he was hoping to have it released in June, but no exact release date has been announced yet.

 

sorry about that!

 

Vital piece of information for me Thanks Lance...

 

I received a very nice parcel today from a long-time friend and fellow Finn fan. She used to be a music journalist and was friends with someone at EMI, Crowded House's record company here back in the day. Apparently she received some interesting promo cassettes back then and now, doing a bit of spring cleaning, decided to off-load a few of them to me. The parcel I received today contained four cassettes:
-the U.S. A&M cassette edition of "Frenzy"
-an advance cassette of "Together Alone" (in a plain white sleeve with the Capitol logo and the titles of the track)
-an advance cassette of the "Recurring Dream" compilation, also in a plain white sleeve with the Capitol logo and the titles of the songs. Strangely, it also has a note saying the album title has been changed and will be "The Dance Album".

The fourth cassette in the parcel is the most intriguing one. Also in a plain white sleeve and with the Capitol logo and their Hollywood address, it says "Side One and Two: Crowded House - 'DIY Documentary Alternative Version'". I have no idea what this is. The copyright year is 1993 so something to do with "Together Alone" obviously.

By the way, the friend who sent me this parcel was mentioned by me in my post about Tim's track "Good Together" during the "Say It Is So" discussions. Apart from being a long-time friend and fellow Finn fan, she is also the person who introduced my wife and me to each other back in June 2003 so she is a very important person for us!

 

First up what an awesome friend (for a number of reasons!) and secondly, don't leave us in suspense on this fourth cassette! That's a pretty intriguing title...

 

Every time you post these rankings I marvel at how awesome this list is. I mean, 58 entries, and if I scan down the list it's not as if I only like 10 or 20 of the albums listed...pretty amazing stuff! We may quibble about rankings (and have!) but holy heck that list impresses me every single time!

 

Well. If we are quibbling anyway, with Stefan's late vote, AT will probably have entered the top 20 Well done Tim & Andy!

 

The DIY Documentary was an hour-long radio special made (and broadcast in the UK on Radio 1) to promote the release of Together Alone. I still have it somewhere...

 

Reading the latest postings on the FrenzForum it appears that Liam Finn has confirmed that both his solo album and the next Crowded House album are finished. So I am going to make some wild predictions (can't be less accurate than predictions on the weather):

Crowded House Winter 2023
Forenzics II Winter 2023
Liam Finn Solo Spring 2024
Andy/Tim (announcing they recorded way more then they've let on ATII Mid 2024
Finn Brothers III. Late 2024
Tim Finn Solo. Somewhere 2025

Well. One can only hope huh.

 

It'd be cool if we got a Crowded House and a Liam album, though the Liam album sounds like he might be going back into that noisy hardcore thing, which is not my favorite thing he does.

 

Since both albums seem to have finished at the same time. You think they would release Crowded House first? Then the Liam solo album can potentially pick up extra sales in the aftermath/buzz of the Crowded House album/tour? That would make some sense to me.

 

Well, wait. I've read that email and LIam specifically says the Crowded House album si finished but he says album his album is "almost finished" and he'll be live streaming his solo shows in order to finish. Aparently he basically jams with himself and then shapes those jams into songs later on.

So I think it's likely that Crowded House will be out first.

But also Liam says he'll be self-releasing his album on his own label, so it really doesn't matter. He's going to sell the same amount of music no matter when or how he releases it.

 

I'd also imagine that Crowded House if they are going to release an album are going to tour it. So purely from a logistic point of view, both Liam and CH would want to get the scheduling sorted. Touring is a massive $$ generator, so I'd imagine quite a bit of planning is already underway...

No doubt that new CH album would have been out already if it hadn't been for the very extended nature of this tour....

 

I agree. I can't believe they are still touring this! The album was finished three years ago, came out two years ago. I was supposed to see them in June 2020 and the album was going to come out about a week after that.

I was thinking after I posted that maybe they will release the album while on tour in the US -- and maybe also Liam will release his once he finishes it, as then they can sell physical copies of the album at shows there.

 

This week's album is Flightless Bird, by Phil Judd.

FLIGHTLESS BIRD ~ 2019 solo album, by PHIL JUDD

Flightless Bird was released on March 1st, 2019.

The tracklist was:

1. THAT is THEN & THAT was NOW (Philip Judd)
2. Surrounded (Judd)
3. Flightless Bird (Judd)
4. LilyDale Station (Judd)
5. Topsy-Turvy (Judd)
6. This Moment (Judd)
7. ONE of THOSE days (Judd)
8. Give It a Go (Judd)
9. Fairy Dust (Judd)
10. Talking To Myself (Judd)
11. MONO into STEREO (Judd)
12. the DAY before YESTERDAY (Judd)
13. new WAH-WAH (Judd)
14. 2KINDSofLONELY (Judd)

Coming uP

• Planet Sublime Phil Judd

• True Colours tribute album

• Another Life -- Another Life (Eddie Rayner band)

To be followed by the Deadstar albums.

I'm also working on getting a list of songs that I think will bear discussion from Neil's recent fangradio dump of over 250 previously unreleased tracks. I'm mainly going for outtakes, or alternate versions of songs that are different enough to examine.

Of course, as always, any Finn release that happens to come out in the future will be featured here song-by-song two weeks after its digital release.

 

For sure. This week i've been reacquainting myself with Dreamers (in preparation) but it does seem like eons ago when it was first released. While I'd love it if they would release the new album concurrently with this tour, it doesn't really make sense financially does it? (And I'm all for musicians capitalizing on their goods). Mind you, I wouldn't say no to a sneak peek of a few of the new tracks during the concert...

 

Ooh, Fang TV...
Neil Finn

 

If I look close at the Fang TV images it appears that they may also play some rare footage of Split Enz and Finn Brothers?? That would be worthwhile!!! I'm in if life and work allow me an hour here and there...

 

It is kind of cool! Just saw "Strait Ol' Line" from the Enz with a Bang Tour (Auckland).

 

Finally able to remote work for a couple of days again. Fang TV on screen #3. Loving all the clips. Good mix for sure. Anyone taping this stuff? Looks pretty high quality resolution to me on most clips.

 

The guardian has picked up a quality song from the AT album:

Tim Finn, Ninajirachi, and Kirin J Callinan: Australia’s best new music for May

So. Is "The Sea Holds The Memory" a new single? Any chance of a video accompanying it as well?

 

Flightless Bird is a very solid Phil album with plenty of highlights. It's not up to par with his earlier solo stuff, but I would say it's a bit better than his previous release in terms of overall quality.

This is Then & That was Now
I had to check after typing that title to make sure I had it right. Definitely an 'opening song' feel to this. Great verses, pretty lousy chorus, with Phil's off-key thing really getting in the way. Still, mostly enjoyable.

3.5/5

Surrounded
Very good. Quite a captivating piece of music, with a dark mood really setting the tone. Definitely something different from Phil here, and it works really well.

4.2/5

Flightless Bird
Album highlight. Classic Phil songwriting and arrangement.

4.5/5

Lilydale Station
Very cool tale of a fictional (I assume) band in its early days. Songs like this really show how creative Phil is. Great lyrics, great melodies, just a really great song.

4.3/5

Topsy-Turvy
More high quality stuff here. Rivals the songs on Novelty Act. Particularly good chorus, though Phil's singing once again is a bit of a spoiler.

4.3/5

This Moment
This sounds like Phil could've written it in 1977 or 1978. Like it sounds like a song that Tim or Neil would've loved hearing (like Tim did with one of those tracks; I can't remember at the moment if it was "Incognito" or "So This is Love"). Great slow part that evolves into a rocking little ending.

4.2/5

One of Those Days
My favorite song on the album right here. This is amongst the best Phil has done in the last 20 years. Nothing to gripe about here, just a perfectly crafted track with an extremely strong set of lyrics.

5/5

Give it a Go
This is pretty good, with a standard rock sound to it. Great verses, and Phil has a strong vocal here. The chorus doesn't quite cut it (we'll revisit this sentiment very soon), though it has a cool sound to it at least. I like the song overall, but it's a bit aimless.

3.5/5

Fairy Dust
Remember like 15 seconds ago when I said we'd revisit the "weak-chorus-following-a-strong-verse" thing very soon? Well, here we are again! Marvelous verses & general sound on this track; maybe the best on the album. Then the off-key, train-crash, anti-melodic chorus comes in and wrecks the whole thing. Ah well, most of the song is nice anyway.

3.7/5

Talking to Myself
Great song. I know Phil has stated that this song originated in the Swingers days. It's a pretty impressive adaption then, because I don't hear the Swingers here at all. I do hear a strong song with lots of colorful melodies and great instrumentation.

4.4/5

Mono Into Stereo
Did I say "This Moment" was a song the Finn's would love? I meant this one. And "This Moment", too. I feel like Eddie would like this one, too. It's Phil crafting a song so meticulously that it literally sounds like a re-record of a top 10 hit he could've had in the 80's. Really, really beautiful, sentiment and all. This is a hit single in another universe. Not perfect, but damn close.

4.8/5

The Day Before Yesterday
A bit of filler, but it's still a solid track. Not very memorable, though the chorus comes close. Very cool vibe.

3.4/5

New Wah-Wah
Another one that's kind of filler-y, but it rocks at least. Really cool verses with the musical equipment lyrics. Phil saying "wah-wah" a bunch of times gets a bit grating in the chorus.

3.5/5

2KindsOfLonely
Here's the dud. Man is this a bad song. I can appreciate some "wall-of-noise" sounds (My Bloody Valentine's 1991 album Loveless is one of my favorite albums), but this is just totally aimless. There's some cool, dark vibes going on, but it just is such a jumbled mess of noise that it's pointless.

1.5/5


This is bit of a step up from Phil's last album, with only the final track really irking me. I know I'd previously said that each Phil album gets worse as we go on here, but this is the exception. It's better than Unique, and contains some of Phil's best solo tracks. A very good listen overall.

4.1/5

 

I'm too scared to put on FangTV while I work because it is very interesting to see the bits and pieces that go past. Before you know it a whole hour has gone past!! I'd never get any work done if it was on a third screen...

Nice review in the Guardian Australia for the AT album. I'm glad that the reviewer said that you need to hear the song in the context of the album.

 

Spoiler Alert: