Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Tim Finn's past has been very present in recent years: the 2021 album Caught by the Heart with Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera (who produced Split Enz' '76 album Second Thoughts); the '22 expanded double vinyl reissue of the 1995 Finn Brothers album (which reminded what a fine collection it was and important in both Neil and Tim's separate careers) and the Forenzics' Shades and Echoes with the Enz' keyboardist/arranger Eddie Rayner on an excellent if overlooked album which use some Enz ideas as starting points for inventive new material.
And now comes AT which is Finn back with Belfast-born Melbourne-resident singer-songwriter Andy White who – with Liam O Maonlai of Ireland's Hothouse Flowers – were ALT for the '95 album Altitude.
This album which came to life through song ideas passed back and forth during Covid isolation – O Maonlai deciding not to participate – has the kind of relaxed feel which has suited Finn best at all post-Enz periods of his career; as on Finn, The Conversation and The View is Worth the Climb.
Mixed by John Leckie with strings and other embellishments, the acoustic-framed songs on AT are very much about friendship, Ireland, family and memory.
The opener The Sea Holds the Memory – from a phrase by O Maonlai about the place in Ireland where the three met and banded – sets a tone of slightly melancholy reflection, regret about “the many ways I've let you down” but also gratitude because even as the sea holds the memories, “life is good”.
Finn and White have a natural ability in passing verses and ideas between themselves, often each bearing their own hallmarks in a kind of sad/happy celebration of life, notable on My Regeneration which shifts the literal to metaphorical with ease.
Bundle of Their Dreams is a chugging tribute full of telling, small details about a life-long love of a couple in Northern Ireland divided by religion who married and “did everything together”. As a tribute to parents it's heartfelt and joy-filled.
Save Me a Weekend at the midpoint is a haunting and mysterious ballad soaked in gentle echo as it floats towards its point “when the news is all bad and to die is a crime, only friendship and true love . . .” You know the rest but it's a truth-filled payoff.
They rock out (Warrior of Love, the slightlydelic Happiness Index) and Best Fun Time in Ages is jangle-pop which will get the crowd dancing and singing along.
Certainly there are lesser moments here (the ponderous Three Sheep Grazing elevated only by the '67 Beatlesque arrangement) and perhaps some forgivable sentimentality (It's Family).
But AT is a valid, sound collection of songs by two craftsmen which ends with a glammy dramatic Space Waltz/Bowie-like crack/craic on Rock'n'roll Star.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.
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