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

Are we taking bets on this????
What is more likely - Forenzics album or new Crowded House album???

 

I guess I need to find out the release dates of the last four Neil Finn related albums and plug those into my spreadsheet. I'm actually curious now...lol

 

Neil always seems to completely re-record his albums once he announces that they are finished. Either that or they are delayed by once in a century pandemics. My guess is spring 2024.

 

Our votes for Planet Sublime
1-0
2-0
3-1
4-2
5-0
Average: 3.6

 

This week's album is Another Life by Another Life.


Another Life is another Eddie Rayner project consisting of Eddie Rayner, Andrew MacLennan (vocals) and Pat Kuhtze (drums.). (Kuhtze is also in one of Eddie's many other bands, Double Life.)
MacLennan had previously worked as the lead singer during the final phase of The Swingers, when Phil Judd wanted to focus more on writing and playing guitar and is a veteran of some other bands: Pop Mechanix and Coconut Rough.

Apparently, at least some of the songs from Another Life sprang from the same Double Life jams that inspired half of the Forenzics album. Eddie sent them to several different songwriters including Tim and MacLennan.

Another Life was released..... I think it was in September, 2022?

Here's a great interview from Eddie Rayner to promote the album: I mean it's great, goes into his early career with Space Waltz and Split Enz, working with Paul McCartney, his stints in The Makers and Crowded House, Enzso, etc...I wish every member of Split Enz would do an interview this lengthy and informative and relaxed.

Eddie Rayner Q&A - Article | AudioCulture

Anyway, the tracklist is:

1. Cabin Fever
2. Some Days
3. I Know Where You Live
4. Day Fall
5. Show Me How
6. Laugh About It
7. Another Life
8. Never Again
9. Hiding In Public
10. Forever in a Daze

It's available here on Spotify:
Another Life

And This link should take you to a YouTube playlist of the entire album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m8qfU_awmO3JWp1I0Xi2KuvzW0ueAYybE

 

Here's the first song, "Cabin Fever"

 

Lance,

On a sidenote here. Was the Tim Finn live CD at the Venue, St. Kilda, 1983 discussed and rated here? Or did I miss that one? All the tracks are posted on Tim's YouTube account.

 

Sidenote as well, I've heard that Crowded House is debuting some new songs in the current North American tour. Anyone who've been coming to the NA shows and got to hear those songs, what do you guys think?

Hopefully it doesn't go the Intriguer way again. I think that besides Some Greater Plan, the new ones sounds kinda nice, very strong Dreamers vibe. (I've been listening to them through fan-recorded vids on Youtube).

P/s: It feels like The Cure a bit, because they are also playing in North America and playing new songs (well, not that new, they are already played in their European tour). Hopefully Rob Smith can just release the new album already.

 

Yes, it was. It was both a fan club (cassette only) album discussed somewhere and I believe it was released digitally to the world in 2021.

 

Yeah....one thing about the Finns is that (I think, anyway) they maintain a certain consistency that I don't think Robert Smith (or 99.9% of all performers) does...so I'm looking forward more to new Finn stuff than new Cure stuff, sadly.

 

Cabin Fever
Stating the obvious - it's not a Split Enz cover/remake. The first track is remarkably accessible, but also maybe a little bit one-dimensional. The vocals are a big step up from having previously listened to the Phil Judd album. Although in the chorus they seem to have been electronically "enhanced" somewhat, giving it a little warped unnatural tone to them. I'm also finding the drumming rhythn not really fitting the song - can't really put my finger on it why I picked that up and what it is exactly. Still - a good start to the album. Not bad at all.
3.5/5

 

And there I thought you wouldn't want to endure the pain of having to go through the Escapade songs another round...lol. I suppose things get harder to find when you reach 920 pages or so.

 

I, for one, rather have Crowded House revert back to the Intriguer sound. I'm not looking forward to a Dreamers II album.

I think it is time for Liam to step up and put his mark on a new Crowded House sound. Neil, at this point, is going to sound like Neil Finn. I think after Dreamers it is time for a healthy overhaul in sound. At least Intriguer changed things up a little.

Status Quo will not be good for the band.

 

Well, he had one song on Dreamers Are Waiting and it was actually the best one...plus I think he wrote the verses of "Start Of Something" (though it's the chorus that kills.)

 

FWIW, Robert Smith has written and released a lot of great stuff anyway, even though I'm more a fan of his poppier, upbeat Cure stuff. 13 albums and a ****load of B-sides anyway, so he should be excused about his schedule slip (looking at you, G.R.R.Martin). It's weird that he is just a year younger than Neil.

One of the similiarites between the Cure and Crowded House that I noticed is that, their sound changes with their lineup. Hopefully this lineup can insert something new to the Crowded House sound.

Suddenly I remembered this old quote of Lance and it hit me. Mark Hart is truly the Porl Thompson of Crowded House, arguably he's the best instrumentalist in the band. His mark can truly be seen throughout Intriguer, but for me, that album is bogged down by the song and arrangement choices. The Only Way To Go Is Forwards and the title track should have made the album. Either Side and Twice should have kept their original live arrangement.

What I meant was that, Crowded House were road testing the songs for too long and they chose the wrong songs for the album. I know that they have finished recording the album, I just hope that they have chosen good enough songs for release.

Well regarding the thing about asking Liam to step up and put his mark, do you think that his wild rock freak outs and eccentricity will pass through Mitchell's tight pop arrangements? I know Liam can write a good pop song here and there, but I think it's not something he would have liked to do. Liam's wild rock freak outs and eccentricity would have gone well in an album like Together Alone, but I don't know about Mitchell.

P/s: I loved Elroy's song in Dreamers. If I was there when it was discussed, I would have defended it to the death. It's a great upbeat pop song, very un-Elroyish (compared to his solo album).

I would have liked if Elroy embraced his pop sensibilities and made his mark to the band as well. He's a great multi-instrumentalist and if I form a band, I wouldn't mind if I have a guy like him in the band.

I read some of his old interviews and found out that he does write singer-songwriter music, but he just didn't want to release it. He is also a guy who is used to be in the background, rather than a raging frontman.

 

It's ten times better than anything on his solo album. That is literally my least favorite album discussed on here. I'd rather listen to Les Patterson...

Definitely. When I saw the show, he and Mitchell vacated the stage so quickly I didn't even see them leave! They were gone in a flash while Neil, Nick and Liam were taking bows.

Yeah...I like Intriguer a lot but it could have been better. Some great outtakes.

But we got it all anyway in the end. I really feel like Crowded House fans were blessed with the deluxe editions and further blessed by the Fangradio stuff.

I have a Cure song-by-song thread going by the way, still in early days, just doing "A Forest" today, if you want to join.

 

That is the million dollar question It could either create conflict or opportunity. I see potential in Liam's eccentricity being toned down (and therefore made more accessible to the general public) by Mitchell.

It'll all come down how well they are able to work together in the band. This won't happen if Liam continues to be "nice" to uncle Mitchell. He'll have to advocate for more input.

 

Somebody needs to be tracking all these predictions!

 

The one song that seems to be getting previewed as a new song is Life's Imitation. @Lance LaSalle posted a link to it a few pages back (with a spoiler alert).
I liked it - I thought it was very melodic and quite earworm-y. I don't know if any other new songs are getting a preview. But that was the one I heard in Minneapolis.

 

Hmmm, I have the impression that it's Neil who firmly has his hand on the rudder of Crowded House rather than Mitchell. I'd say if anything it appears that Liam is working to be complementary to Neil's vision of Crowded House...

But that's just an impression from being at the concert. There wasn't really a sense that Liam was being constrained, more that he understood the DNA of CH and was trying to enhance its onward journey.

I do think most of the songs on Dreamers come across way better live than they do recorded FWIW. I think they played 5 at the concert I was at and they all uniformly made me appreciate those songs much more.

 

Yeah. They played seven when I saw them. Audience reaction was muted for them but they were great.

 

Sorry, side tracking the thread but saw Intriguer mentioned , so just hopping in to compliment it too (like I often do ) and agree here Mark Hart probably shaped it a bit (obviously Neil Finn is the leader) with his contribution. It's these days my favourite Crowded House album (often surprising other Crowded House fans when I mention that ). I would also agree it could've been better if some of the deluxe songs were on it and the two Isolation (demo and final version) could have both gone on the album (just slightly change the lyrics for one of them)!

(Side note - discussions about how songs change from original live version to the final studio one - Peter Green put up on his YouTube channel Distant Sun in it's Pre-Together Alone format and that changed quite a bit. I actually like it a lot.)

(Don't know if it's okay with Lance I copy it in here. On the other hand there might be any fans here who also keep up to date with Peter Green's YouTube channel).

 

It's OK, this thread is basically just treading water for now.

 

Thanks Lance .
(Got to love the Woodface costumes, especially Nick's checkered pants).

 

Oh if only Neil still made music like this.

My CH show is this coming Friday. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but am approaching it with some trepidation.