Customer Reviews

Tim Finn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the essential Tim Finn record. If you only buy one...this is it. Great songs from "How'm I Gonna Sleep" to "Parihaka" this is a very romantic, hopeful record, full of melody...He is in fine voice. With Neil providing some of the backup vocals, the brothers are in perfect harmony.

This is a real little gem of an album, a great little collection of melodic songs, that have the intimacy and sense of place that often hallmarks Kiwi acts, lots of little stories told in catchy melodies. I agree that this is easily the most even of Tims' outputs, and possibly even Neils' as well. You can see that Tim experimented with different sounds with Escapade and Big Canoe but this album is probably closest to the "Woodface" era Crowded House. I would really strongly recommend this album to fans of Crowded House.

This is a real gem. Tim joins the likes of bass player Tony Levin
and producer Michael Froom to record an album that is unlike anything I've heard. There are some moments of earth-shattering beauty within the ballads, some very NZ guitar/vocals and even a ballad which sounds like the best song Phil Collins never wrote.
Also nice to hear Neil Finn singing back-up vocals. Recommended.

To new Tim Finn fans, this cd is very hard to digest after hearing his 'Big Canoe' effort as it sounds nothing like it. Self Titled is much more polished + the use of keyboards is much more slim.

The standouts are his darkest to date; "Tears Inside", is a true depressing song & brilliantly written, sung & produced. While "Show A Little Mercy" offers some complex instrumentation & brings a new low to what down in the dumps really is.

The wannabe hits; "Not Even Close" & "How Am I Gonna Sleep" are both charming and can be heard at a supermarket near you. While the sleeper hit "Young Mountain"' is a perfect first song, with it's upbeat and unusually playing style. The rest just fill out the album, beware though it goes from happy to sad, real fast.

Tim Finn recorded this solo disc in the aftermath of Split Enz breakup, the success of brother Neil in Crowded House, and the death of a close friend. It made many of these songs intimate and deeply personal, but also left most of them without the chemistry Neil injected into their best work together. At his best, Tim's songs here sound like good Enz ("How'm I Gonna Sleep," "Been There Done That").

On the other hand, "Show A Little Mercy" ventures too close to Phil Collins' bland "socially concerned" songs and "Parihaka" doesn't stick. "Suicide On Downing Street," while obviously an emotionally resonant song for Tim, doesn't connect the same way, say, Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" or U2's "Walk On" did. I'll still dismiss any quibbles about this CD for the likes of "Not Even Close," "Crescendo" and the joy of "Birds Swim, Fish Fly." These are the three main songs that seem to point Tim in a direction other than his past glories with Split Enz, but it still isn't enough for me to describe this solo album as anything greater than strongly melodic, competent pop.