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The Finn BrothersEveryone Is Here Parlophone/EMI After nine years since 'Finn', I was expecting big things from 'Everyone Is Here'. I wanted more of those powerful Neil and Tim Finn harmonies, more of the well crafted pop melodies I'd heard in songs like Weather With You, It's Only Natural, Suffer Never and Only Talking Sense, but a part of me expected disappointment. I needn't have been concerned: this is an album of unfolding beauty. After just a few spins all the songs are as familiar as their classics, but there's a warning here for all: don't go abandoning 'Everyone Is Here' if it doesn't meet your expectation on first listen. By the second play, you'll be hooked. Opener Won't Give In sets the album's theme, creating an air of nostalgia that's reinforced in the gentle Disembodied Voices ("talking to my brother when the lights went out / down the hallway forty years ago") and in the darker sides of songs like Edible Flowers. Although the songs all combine to create a picture of the Finn Brothers' past hurts, frustrations and triumphs, each song has enough emotion and imagery to stand alone, and like other classic Finn songs (Angels Heap, Four Seasons In One Day) the lyrics are loose enough to fit different contexts. There's a host of great players, fabulous instrumentation and superb production; more reasons why this album is a fully developed project rather than a mere collection of songs. Both 'Finn' and 'Woodface' (which started out as a Finn Brothers album before being adopted by Crowded House) had great songs, but 'Everyone Is Here' explores deeper territory, with evidence both Tim and Neil stared down a lot of past demons to get to some of these darker themes. They've not lost the ability to write great melodies, they've just balanced catchy pop hooks with a maturity and melancholy that makes for a stronger record with deeper resonance. There's a quiet grace about this album that will keep bringing me back for more.  |
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