Kritiken zu NEIL FINN: Try Whistling This - Album und Tour Review by Martin Bell, Rip It Up #250, June 1998 NEIL FINN: Try Whistling This Neil Finn has been in a band since brother Tim invited him to join Split Enz as a teenager in the late 70s. Some 20-odd years later, he has released his debut solo album, freed for the first time from the machinations and obligations of recording as part of a formal ensemble. The results are simply stunning.
Recorded mainly in Finn's home studio, Try Whistling This should come with an advisory sticker "Warning: Genius at Work". With telling contributions from Midnight Oil's guitarist Jim Moginie (who co-wrote four tracks), Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and the production and engineering skills of Marius de Vries (Nellee Hooper), Tchad Blake and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead), Try Whistling This is a
rich and complex work. As the album unfolds, a myriad of hues and textures are explored. However putting safety first, Finn has stacked the more overtly 'pop' moments up front. 'Last One Standing' is a classic Finn opening number, while the upbeat 'King Tide' is the most obvious reference point to the late Crowded House. Significantly, it sounds somewhat out of place here and likewise, the timeless, chiming pop of first single 'She Will have Her Way', which never really ignites after a
gripping opening, is perhaps too obviously in the Crowded House mould. The real riches of Try Whistling This lie in its atmospheric tracks, including a sublime middle section covering the songs 'Sinner', 'Twisty Bass' and 'Loose Tongue' and the closing track 'Addicted'. here, Finn is really set free to explore the outer reaches and nether regions of his songwriting genius. In so doing, the darker, more
introspective side that Crowded House hinted at on their final album, Together Alone, flowers into full bloom. Making extensive use of rhythms and loops and a rich sonic palette of percussive acoustic and electric instruments, Finn builds a moody yet symphonic feel into many songs. This makes the soaring choruses and major-chord middle eights all the more spine-tingling when they inevitably arrive. It's clear from
this masterful release that Neil Finn can't be pigeonholed as some sort of anachronistic, master pop craftsman, banging out crowd pleasing tunes with a heart. Which just goes to make the title of Try Whistling This all the more ironic.
"The Octopus"
(an alternative paper in Champaign/Urbana, USA):
Neil Finn -- Try Whistling This (Work) -- There's just no doubt about it. The fact that Neil Finn is not a major success in the country (as opposed to the
UK, Australia, New Zealand and just about every other English speaking country) is reason to doubt the way we get music across the US public's radar. Not that we mind hoarding Crowded House, Finn Brothers and, now, Neil Finn all to ourselves. In fact, that way he's less likely to be relentlessly pounded into our ears, one song at a time, by quality-hungry rock radio. But it's not terribly fair. And our mission is to find good music and tell you about it, so we have to share him. If you love
richly melodic, grown-up pop with smart lyrics, sung passionately, this is a record you must hear. Every song is a gem. Nothing's wrong with this album. Plain & simple as that. (five stars out of five -- the highest in this issue)
Finn in need of direction
By BERNARD ZUEL NEIL FINN, State Theatre, July 3 Not The Girl You Think You Are, one of the last songs recorded with Crowded House (and this time dedicated
to Pauline Hanson), can in retrospect be seen as a signpost for the direction of Neil Finn's solo album. On the surface it is a straight, late-period Beatles' track, but it confounds by not going into the wide-open chorus or snappy middle eight. The oddity is in its refusal to go the expected route. When it comes to songs from Try Whistling This, that refusal is almost their starting point. At the State Theatre, Truth used sampled rhythm and
string tracks and steadfastly refused to fall into the chorus, just hanging in the air. Astro rode the ridge looking down on its beauty - the organ suggesting a Crowded House song circa Temple Of Low Men - but it too stayed just a step away. And Try Whistling This, which has the smell of his album with big brother Tim, could easily have been turned into a classic Neil Finn ballad, but, live, it accentuated its difference with a menacing rumble under the lonely melody.
The value of this approach on the new album is twofold: the album reveals itself slowly, after repeated listening, as a compelling collection; and second, it offers intriguing signs of an experimental Finn, a man not ditching his past, but prepared to be something else. Live, however, it creates a new dynamic for Finn. He's always written about coldness/edginess, right from I Got You (a song about fear disguised as a love song)
which he resurrected this night. But the gorgeous melodies and the warmth of the bands have softened the blow. The inclusiveness of Crowded House songs, songs everyone could sing along with, is missing here. The audience has to work harder, has to deal with the deliberate left turns in the songs which invite critical appreciation, but not necessarily the full embrace from an audience. Which brings us to another intriguing question before
this show: how would Finn fare flying solo as the entertainer? In Split Enz, there had been brother Tim or Noel Crombie to chivvy the crowd. In Crowded House, Paul Hester was the jester, and Finn bounced off him, their jokes working because Finn didn't have to be the fool. And in the Finn brothers' duo, once again Neil had Tim to play off. This night he was working it hard, calling for
crowd participation three songs in, telling jokes; but he sorely needed a foil.
Further touring with this band may work out some on-stage interplay. It may also sort out the bigger problem with the band. While it hits harder than any with which Finn has played - there's a definite thump to songs such as Last One Standing and Loose Tongue - this is a band in search of a role. The backing vocals were often underplayed, the bass, though limber at the
start, soon settled into straight up and down and the drums were rudimentary. It was no coincidence that some of the best moments were when Finn played alone.
So, it was less than perfect, but even if Neil Finn hasn't nailed this new version of himself on stage yet, the songs are definitely there already. |