Monday, September 28, 2009

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!


The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree when it comes to the Finn family. Liam is the son of Crowded House's Neil and nephew of Split Enz's Tim.

His debut album, I'll be Lightning, while venturing off a bit from his two more famous family members, doesn't stray too too far from his lineage. And what is it with the Finn men and their all to distinct, yet similar voices?

Liam has the same timbre as his father and uncle. I don't need to point out a specific song for this - as most of them fall into this category. I'm not complaining. I've been a huge fan of the two elder Finns since - oy - 1978.

The one thing Liam does on this disk is inject some Beatles influences. It's hard not to hear some Lennon on "Music Moves Your Feet" and "Shadow of Your Man". Influences only though - nothing that is an out and out rip-off.

Overall the disk is ok. It starts out strong ("Better to Be") and has some nice change-ups ("Lead Balloon"), but for a lot of the disk, it sounds a lot of more of the same. And Liam might lean on that aforementioned lineage a bit too much.

The guy clearly has potential and there are glimmers of it here. For a debut it is not bad, but I think he can do better.

But if you like Tim or Neil Finn (or any of the subsequent groups they were in), you'll like Liam Finn's disk.

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