BLOBBY'S BLOG

RECORD OF THE MONTH

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk - just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually the iPod is playing anywhere else).


I know Everyone Is Here is a few years old, but it’s good to get this out before the new Crowded House disk drops later this year. This CD got lost in my collection and I never really played it much – and never at an entire sitting. But for the last few weeks it has resided in my car and much of the time in the player.

Not surprising if you’ve read any of my other Record of the Month selections – most of the stuff here is not radio accessible. At least not the way radio is currently programmed. There are no hit singles. I’m not sure there were any singles – none in this country anyway.

Everyone Is Here is not a Crowded House disk. Nor is it a Split Enz record. Heck, it’s not even the same as their last disk together, Finn Brothers. For those unfamiliar, both Finns were in Split Enz and appeared together on one Crowded House disk.

Personally, I am a fan of Tim Finn’s, and he is clearly the winner in this outing. He gets to play off his more popular, more accomplished younger brother, Neil. Tim does not posses as keen a knack for the popular song and his voice is not as polished. So his songs, like "Luckiest Man Alive" get a good, probably better, recording than they would have on a solo outing.

Neil does good with his main song also. It's no surprise "Won't Give In" and "Nothing Wrong With You" lead off the disk. They are seemingly the strongest, but the more you listen to the rest of the disk, there is some really good stuff out there. It just takes a few listens.

I'm really liking "A Life Between Us". The lyric provides a river as a metaphor as a relationship. That has been done a lot in music, and usually it is about flow. But the words here take a new stab at it and succeed: 'we stare at each other/like the banks of a river/and we can't get any closer/but we form a life between us'. The melody helps.

And though the Finn boys are from New Zealand, the song “Homesick” is a perfect metaphor for America and the politics of the day – 3 years ago and even today. "First you made me hungry/then you feed me something I don't want/...then when I complain/I get thrown out of the restaurant" and "Homesick for the country that I'm living in". I can relate.

Technically they don't have the best harmony, but it seems to really work. And yeah, there are some clunkers, but I am really enjoying the disk and sorry it took me so long to find it, even though I had it the entire time.