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

Yes I can’t seem to stop listening to AT also .
What a truly awesome album and a lovely gift from Tim and Andy to us all.

Have a long drive ahead of mr today so I will listen to Forenzics today which I also love .

But have got to disagree re “the adult contemporary pop” on Tim Finn and Before and After as both of those albums are nothing but pure Tim genius .
I get that some of the production especially on Tim Finn might not have aged as well but hey the songs are soo good and Tim’s voice is still in his prime so both of those albums hold a very special place for me in my heart .

I find Before and After fascinating as for awhile it looked like that was it for Tim as I didn’t think a new album was ever happening but little did we know an even better golden era was coming .

 

I'm with you on these albums. I think Tim sounds fantastic on them and I've personally never been all that bothered by the different production styles/teams on Before and After. For a long time it was my favorite Tim album just to listen to - it just makes me feel better listening to it and quite often I'll reach for that album over a lot of others.

The only Tim period to me that is mysterious - because I haven't listened to it very much - is the indie middle section (Feeding the Gods etc.). But I think that's just me not having spent any time with them.
(Full disclosure: I just bought 3 Tim albums and The Living Enz last night, none of the Tim albums were the middle era albums, but that's only because I thought I better show some restraint...)

 

Before and After is a mixed album for me. I dont like Hit The Ground Running and Protected, but I love Many's The Time and In Your Sway. Maybe these former two could have worked better with a different production. I do hear potential.

Good thing I am in the minority, because the album was somewhat of a commercial success for Tim.

Since we are also talking Forenzics. I wonder if the new Forenzics will be as different from each other as Caught By The Heart and Ghost of Santiago. I suspect similar sounding songs may have been grouped together on the first album and we may be in for a surprise.

 

I've never heard of Deadstar until this thread, so I thought I'd give it a shot on Spotify a few days ago. Only listened to three or four tracks, but was definitely pleasantly surprised. I love this lady Caroline's voice. It reminds me of a rockier version of Harriet Wheeler of the English dream pop band The Sundays, and Angie Hart of Australian pop band Frente, both of which are amongst my favorite female vocalists of all time (Harriet is actually my all time favorite). Caroline is a phenomenal vocalist, that's for sure. And the songs themselves seem like they're quite good so far.

Dont It Get You Down
Great guitars on this track. Almost shoegaze/dream pop, but still stays firmly on the alt-rock side of things. Very good.

4.2/5

I've Got Something to Tell You
This I haven't heard yet, so it's blowing me away in real time right now. This is utterly fantastic. Like, wow. Everything just rocks here. In another universe, this is a top 10 song on the rock charts. It didn't even chart in AUS. Curse the world.

5/5

Please
Starting to get Veruca Salt vibes from this band now, which is a high compliment. I love the dirty, grungy female vocal style that ended up fronting bands like the aforementioned Veruca Salt, as well as bands like L7, The Breeders, and 4 Non Blondes. So this is right up my alley. Probably could use a better chorus, but everything else here is great, especially the verses.

4.3/5

Fifteen
Another great one. Man, this band is really good. With this track I'm getting early Weezer vibes, but this is it's own thing in a lot of places as well. This is really quality music.

5/5

Ooh My Love
This is one I listened to a few days ago. What a fantastic effect in that intro & throughout. Great vocals (that's every track, though), and guitars are top notch again, too.

4.3/5

Ru4 (love)
Some dance-rock going on in the verses; doesn't sound dissimilar to what 90's rock bands are doing today (such as the Foo Fighters), which makes this quite ahead of its time. It really sounds like a song from a few years ago, minus a few production choices. I like the verses more than the chorus, but I'd say this is another winner overall. Really heavy middle 8 that stands out as a highlight.

3.8/5

Henry and Godiva at the Bar
There guys are super talented. Such a shame that sometimes bands just fall under the radar. This is not at all of significantly lesser quality than peer bands like Veruca Salt, who were pretty big for a few years in the 90's. Really, this album deserved more. I mean, it doesn't even have an entry at allmusic.com. Pshh. They cover all music, for God's sake. Anyway, this is awesome, yet again. Slow burning crunch that sounds awesome, with one of the best vocal takes on the album.

4.4/5

My Goods
This is probably the "grower" of the bunch, being less accessible than the other tracks. It's still a good song with a nice bit of melancholy to it. I'd like to note the different sub-styles this album has going on. It's really impressive.

3.5/5

Beauty Queen
Quite a kaleidoscope of musical bits here. It's all pretty cool, and works surprisingly well. Great chorus.

4/5

Sex Sell
This is a good, rocking closer to the album, with some great energy. It really has a "closing track" feel, despite it being high-energy. Great way to end a great album.

4.1/5


Man, that was unexpected. I didn't expect to like that album that much; hell, I wasn't even really going to listen to it. I just had some free time and figured I'd see what it sounded like. And here we are with a quality-as-all-hell collection of songs. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, considering individuals connected with both Crowded House and Hunters & Collectors are involved (and apparently we'll be adding Schnell Fenster and INXS to that list with the next album).

This LP really has everything you could ask for. Great axe-wielding & drumming, and an even better vocalist; catchy, punchy tracks mixed with more complex, elaborate ones. Not to mention the varied sounds that travel this album. "I've Got Something to Tell You" is a bonafide hit in a just world, dang it. At least on an alt-rock/mainstream rock chart. I will die on that hill.

Perhaps the means just weren't there to really promote/extend the reach of this album. It's perhaps a little late with its sound on certain tracks ('93 to '95 was probably the peak of this sound, though I must note that Veruca Salt's biggest hit, "Volcano Girls" was released in early 1997), but not by a whole lot. Real shame. But hey, just because the world didn't get to enjoy it, doesn't mean we can't.

4.3/5

 

Totally agree on the 5/5 rating for "I've Got Something To Tell You". Listened a couple of times to it using Lance's link here. Perfect melodic piece of indie guitar rock. You wonder what it takes to make a hit these days. I guess exposure and marketing (your brand) is 90%, the music itself 10%.

They do seem to have a particular signature indie sound and maybe (even though I like this type of music), I might eventually get a little bored of it.

 

At the time Deadstar were seen as a bit derivative of Garbage. I like all three albums, The Plums album and, Caroline's subsequent band The Tulips.

 

Tim’s “Astrud” from Phil Manzanera’s Southern Cross album. I love this song!

 

My wife and I have watched the first two seasons of Australian/NZ crime series recently. The main character, Alexa Crowe (played by Lucy Lawless), is a former police who has retired (but not due to age) and is now occasionally helping the police with cases.
In the first episode, Alexa Crowe was reluctant to take on a murder case, but agreed to do so after learning that the victim was a Crowded House fan. "I like Crowded House", she says.
In a later episode, The Swingers' "Counting The Beat" is played on the radio in the background and one or two episodes later the song reappeared, this time due to Alexa Crowe and her sidekick starting to sing it together after consuming a bit of beverage.
In the latest episode we watched, it started with Alexa Crowe receiving a parcel featuring Split Enz's single "I Got You", with the camera zooming in on the record to show what record it is. Later in the same episode she tells her brother, who sent the parcel, that she loves the song and played it all summer long when it was new (the song is then played during the credits at the end of the episode).

We look forward to hearing more good music in upcoming episodes!

 

What is the name of the series? It's very cool that it's using so much "native" music in the series.

I've taken a couple of listens to "Milk" by Deadstar. It's not really my style of music but I enjoyed listening to it. Every now and again a song would pop out at me (RU4 and Sex Sell in particular). I'm sure if I hadn't been so busy at work I might have got better acquainted with the album but as it is I just can't rate it as I haven't got a good handle on any of it really.

 

The TV series is called "My Life Is Murder".

 

Milk is a good album. I do get a bit of a Garbage vibe from a couple of song, but the attack is much more of a bright, classic power pop thing rather than the postmodern loops and gothic gloom of Garbage.

I agree that Caroline Kennedy is a very good singer (though I wouldn't quite put her up there with Harriet Wheeler) and I enjoy this kind of brash, loud power pop....Drew mentioned Veruca Salt, and I only remember one song by them, and I wrote them off as Juliana Hatfield wannabes (and this album is very much in that Juliana Hatfield vein, so it fits.)

It's a very enjoyable album, though few songs really stand out to me, it does rock and it does have a pleasing singer.

3.4/5

 

Our votes for Milk:

1-0
2-0
3-1
4-1
5-0
Average: 3.85

 

This week's album is Somewhere Over The Radio, by Deadstar.


Nick joined the band in 1996 and toured iwth them, but by the time this album was recorded and released, seems to have left.

The band had expanded, at least on record adding Schnell Finster alumnus Michael den Elzen (guitar) Peter McCracken (guitar), Kalju Taluma (guitar), Bruce Haymes (keyboards) and Peter Luscombe (percussion.) The core of the band remained Caroline Kennedy, Barry Palmer and Peter Jones, of course.

The album was released sometime in 1999 and charted at #66 in Australia. The tracklist was:

1. Run Baby Run (Caroline Kennedy, Barry Palmer)
2. Deeper Water (Kennedy, Palmer)
3. Lights Go Down (Kennedy, Michael den Elzen)
4. Drivin' (Kennedy, Palmer)
5. Highway (Kennedy, Palmer)
6. Satellite (Kennedy, Palmer)
7. Texas (Kennedy, Palmer)
8. Here You Come. (Kennedy, Palmer)
9. Over The Radio (Kennedy, Palmer)
10. Don't Leave (Kennedy, Palmer)
11. Salon Baby (Kennedy, Palmer)
12. Not For Money (Kennedy, Palmer)

 

Caller of the Night: Open home or Split ENZ concert?

Stumbled on this little radio fragment. This lady calling in with a story that when she and her husband were househunting back in the day ( must have been the early '70s), she went to a house in Herne Bay, Auckland where some teenagers where playing music in the basement and were told to shut up while they viewed the house. House was owned by the owner of Stebbing Studios in Auckland.

Might be interesting for the Enz fanatics amongst us. Fun story! Maybe someone else can put this into more historical and geographical context.

 

I found a nice article written about some Australian female artists telling their stories about what happened with them in the 90s.

Caroline Kennedy was the first subject of the article. Damn, I never thought that the 90s music industry could be that rough for some women.
And holy hell she was younger than most of Deadstar's members!

Women of Nineties Rock are Breaking Their Silence

Edit:

I think Michael den Elzen (lead guitar) and Peter McCracken (bass) were official members of the band. Many of the band's music videos and live videos that I found on Youtube showed them as official members.

Example:


Trivia: Peter McCracken was Caroline Kennedy's ex-bandmate (he worked with her in a different band before Deadstar) and later husband.

 

Thanks for posting the article! I think that many of the things she (and also others in that article) mention hasn't really changed all that much to be honest. A lot of women musicians are judged by how they look not by how they are as musicians. I'm glad that changes are being made but I suspect a lot of that stuff continues to go on.

 

Amazing to see the sprawling 928 pages so far of discussion here!

Please excuse me for butting in and referencing albums that were mentioned LONG ago in this thread - but I'm pleasantly surprised to see that they were discussed.

I quite like the BARB album, and noticed it upon release as I'm a fan of Connan Mockasin. He only has some occasional flourishes on the album though I think, though if you're familiar with his work it's very easy to see the influences present. In relevance to this thread I think it's probably the songs where Liam Finn holds the greatest sway that are the strongest, particularly 'Alcoholic Darling' and 'Counting Sheep'.
'2004' is a lovely song, but an outlier with EJ having a sole prime vocal spot.
Unfortunately the last track 'Looking Out Through Barb's Eyes' is a throwaway tune for mine.

I can understand the lacklustre scores and comments along the lines of meandering, directionless and soporific in regards to Elroy's album...but I like it.
What helped immensely with this is that I attended a live release show in 2019 where the songs truly became enthralling and magical to see and hear performed. EJ Barnes was part of the band.

Contrary to what was claimed in the link, there was not 'LP's of Elroy's album for sale at the show too'; rather there was CDs included with your (optional) entry fee. The performance was so compelling that I wanted the album on vinyl as a physical reminder of the evening (plus I also like the cover art). The vinyl release experienced many delays, however, and I think when it was finally pressed and ready for retail in 2021 some further promotion was done.

 

After another digging in the Youtube archives, I found a rare video of Crowded House's 2007 line up with Elroy.

I felt like he did his parts well but the sound of that vid is quite terrible (It's Youtube, I know). Does anyone knows why the band play some songs with Elroy and without him?



P/s: There are 2 songs cut from this video.

 

Elroy played on the album. Time On Earth.
But he was studying in the UK.

And so they toured with Liam in Australia and Europe but in the UK, where Elroy was living, they used Elroy.
Then when they went to the US and Liam played with the band again.

 

The venue in the video I posted was in New York, so there's no way they would have called Elroy if Liam was available.

I meant in the video, if you take a closer look at the wider stage shots, there are some song they played as a 4-piece. Where did Elroy go? I thought he would have stayed throughout the gig.

 

Oh, I have no idea. Maybe they just used him when they needed him, like Paul Guthrie and other side men over the years.

 

Yikes, I was at this show, and if I remember correctly, I am visible in this video. I haven’t seen it in years, and don't have 45 spare minutes right now to watch it. This was an awesome, awesome show! But it was so long ago that I don’t recall details. However I do recall that Elroy was definitely not a band member at that point. He was just a guest. Maybe he was in town that day. Hey, if my dad was playing a show in NY and I could stop by, I definitely would!

 

Tim Finn and Andy White Premiere ‘Three Sheep Grazing’ Video

I was thinking Best Fun Times In Ages would have been a better choice as a single with music video...still neat to see a cartoon version of Tim and Andy..

 

I love how, even in this snapshot, that they have managed to capture the magnificence of Tim's hair...

 

Continuing on with the Crowded House 2007 tour 'extra member', Davey Lane from Australian band "You Am I" also played acoustic guitar, keyboard and backing vocals on the Australia and UK part. Probably when Liam and Elroy were unavailable!