Record Reviews - RecordDB

Artist	Title	Review
The Everly Brothers	20 Golden Hits
The Finn Brothers	Finn
The Finn Brothers	Everyone Is Here	<p>Nearly ten years after their first album as a duo, the Finn Brothers returned with <i>Everyone Is Here</i> in the late summer of 2004. There was a considerably larger gap of time separating <i>Everyone Is Here</i> and <i>Finn</i> than there was between that album and <i>Woodface</i>, the one Crowded House album to feature Tim and the first time the brothers worked together since the disbandment of Split Enz. Only four years separated <i>Finn</i> and <i>Woodface</i>, while it took nearly a decade for the Finns to deliver a second album, and quite a bit happened during that time. Each brother released two studio albums and one live album (Tim's was a collaborative live effort, but it could be argued that Neil's star-studded <i>7 Worlds Collide</i> was collaborative too) and, more importantly, their mother Mary passed away, and all of this feeds into the spirit, vibe, and sensibility of <i>Everyone Is Here</i>. At its heart, this is an album about family — specifically, about being brothers. </p><p>This is the first time the Finns have written as directly and abundantly about their kinship, and unlike other famous rock siblings, the Finns' relationship is not only cordial but loving, which doesn't mean that it's any less complex than such legendarily combative brothers from the Everlys through the Gallaghers. Tim and Neil mine their relationship throughout the album — the word "brother" seems to appear here more often than the entirety of their past work — and they've come up with a moving set of songs that may not add up to a concept album yet are surely unified by a set of themes. Similarly, despite three different sets of producers (primarily Mitchell Froom, but also Jon Brion and Tony Visconti for individual tracks) the album boasts a unified sound, particularly in comparison to the rather ragged, seemingly unfinished Neil effort <i>One Nil</i> (distilled and strengthened in its American incarnation, One All) or Tim's <i>Feeding the Gods</i>. It's a meditative, expertly crafted mature pop record, filled with subtle sonic textures — ranging from banjos to harmoniums, all adding colors to layers of primarily acoustic guitars — that give this low-key, reflective music a rich variety of color. While <i>Everyone Is Here</i> lacks the brightness of much of <i>Woodface</i>, it's the Finn Brothers' strongest collection of songs since that masterpiece, and arguably their most emotionally resonant album to date. With any luck, it won't be another decade's wait until the sequel. </p><p>— <strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p><hr/><p>Though the elegant return of pop-savant sibling duo Neil and Tim Finn arrived in August, Everyone Is Here isn't a summer record. Beneath super-slick production by Mitchell Froom (along with toast-of-Hollywood Jon Brion and Bowie/T. Rex knob-twiddler Tony Visconti) and the Down Under brothers' usual surging melodies, a barely disguised melancholy broods like an evil Finn twin chained up in the basement. The Finns' latest is glossy, emotional, and sure to satisfy longtime listeners—as well as any Stereophonics or Aqualung fans paying their respects.</p><p>Tim, the elder Finn, was the first to come to international prominence, fronting clownishly costumed new-wavers Split Enz. Little brother Neil joined up on guitar prior to 1977's Dizrhythmia, and in 1979 his composition "I Got You" became the band's breakthrough hit. After garnering MTV airtime with videos like "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", the group folded in the mid-1980s. Tim pursued a solo career, while Neil went on to lead Crowded House, whose "Don't Dream It's Over" remains as brilliant as it is inoffensive (I'm pretty sure I heard it at a dentist's office once while getting a tooth filled, but I still put it on mix CDs). The brothers reunited for Crowded House's 1991 Woodface, which still stands as their collaborative high watermark; their first album as The Finn Brothers, 1995's Finn, was an exotic, eclectic affair.</p><p>While not on par with that mid-90s LP, Everyone Is Here combines the skillfully crafted pop effervescence of Woodface and the moodiness of Finn. Opener and first single "Won't Give In" is a catchy bit of lite-rock, introducing the gorgeous brotherly harmonies that recur throughout the record. But it also includes lines like "We all have to die alone". The song, with its "Everyone I love is here" chorus, is both a celebration of life and a middle-age awareness of death's nearness. The Finns' mother died not long before the album's release, and a sense of mortality occasionally manages to leak through Froom's pristine production, lavish strings and all.</p><p>The sadness floats to the top on "Edible Flowers", a mawkish piano ballad that some will surely love. "Everybody wants the same thing," the brothers sing, "to see another birthday." Sure, that and an iPod. But the typically swooning chorus, while a touch easy-listening, is lush enough that it renders the sad-eyed lyrics superfluous. The bouncy, overproduced "Homesick" could be an anthem for disaffected progressives unable to secure Canadian residency ("Homesick for the country that I'm living in"), but it's really another example of the pathos lurking below the band's popcraft. Closer "Gentle Hum" provides four and a half minutes of calm, almost-meditative reflection apropos of the track's name.</p><p>Not everything here is as seamless as the brothers' interlocking voices. "All God's Children" starts off with a fit of garage-y guitar downstrokes (you know, like that one Strokes song) and then engages in a possibly tongue-in-cheek discussion of theogony worthy of Kevin Smith's self-importantly silly Dogma. The bright, earnest "Anything Can Happen" is hook-filled enough to be a single, but it and the subsequent love song "Luckiest Man Alive" rarely go past the cliches of their refrains (much like Mick Jagger's new "Old Habits Die Hard"). You'd think lifelong songwriters would be able to come up with titles that hadn't already been used by Air Supply, in Jagger's case, and World In Motion-era Jackson Browne, for the Finns.</p><p>The album is at its best when the brothers' knack for pop melodies meets subject matter that is poignant, not maudlin or even merely sufficient. "Disembodied Voices" fulfills this album's promise, reminiscing about brotherhood, childhood, and harmony. That's what Everyone Is Here is really about. Again, from the opener: "Everyone I love is here/ Play it once, then we disappear." Darkness might be gathering somewhere, but loved ones can always gather together and raise their voices above the din to achieve a brief, transitory, but undeniable peace. Even if that means sounding like late-period Wings.</p><p>— <strong>Marc Hogan, Pitchfork</strong></p>
The Gadflys	Out Of The Bag
The Groundhogs	Split
The Indelible Murtceps	Warts Up Your Nose	<p>This record is a typically unassuming artefact from the early 1970s Aussie rock scene that seems to want to hide its light under a bushel. It doesn't jump up and scream out “Look at me! Play me!”. On the surface, it seems to go about its business like a kindly old uncle sitting down to a nice cuppa tea but when you finally lift the lid on its contents you find that there's a sly and demented sense of humour going on. It's actually more like a naughty school boy enjoying a giggle at everyone else's expense than any kind of avuncular persona you first thought.</p><p>Of course the giveaway is when you take a closer look at the front cover line drawing – a seedy flasher in flat cap, half-sized overcoat and rancid sneakers with a big nose, wide arse and hairy legs – which suggests sheer entertainment and more to be had inside. And then what of the song titles on the back cover – 'Be My Honey', 'Pie in the Sky', 'Blue Movies Made Me Cry', 'We are Indelible', 'In the Bog', 'Esmeralda', 'Some Good Advice' – surely enough enticement to give it a decent listen. Frank Zappa asked the question “does humour belong in music?” and clearly guitarist / singer / song writer Mike Rudd and The Indelible Murtceps agreed.</p><p>Since 1969 Rudd had been steering his band Spectrum with a steely resolve, to a great deal of success on the local scene. The group had gone to #1 in early 1971 with the enduring 'I'll Be Gone' single but Rudd was still intent on presenting Spectrum as a “concert” attraction. In general the music was full-blown progressive rock with psychedelic and space-rock touches; audiences could sit cross-legged on the floor, soak up the vibes and let the expansive musical textures waft over them like great clouds of intoxicating marijuana smoke.</p><p>Not long after Spectrum's chart success, Ross Wilson's new band Daddy Cool went to #1 with 'Eagle Rock'. The two bands embarked on the joint national Aquarius tour, and Rudd noticed how Daddy Cool encouraged their audiences to dance around and join in the fun. Rudd decided to forego Spectrum's complex material for a much simpler, more danceable sound in order to work the lucrative discotheque / dance circuit.</p><p>In October 1971, he created a new band called The Indelible Murtceps utilising the same musicians (bassist Bill Putt, drummer Ray Arnott and organist Lee Neale) but with a different outlook. This allowed Spectrum to continue as a creative unit while the alter-ego Murtceps simply played for fun and profit. In addition to the more energetic, danceable sound, the basic difference musically was Neale playing the electric piano instead of Hammond organ. Mike Rudd was also billing himself now as My Crudd. The band enjoyed a minor hit single with the jaunty 'Esmeralda' b/w 'We Are Indelible' (#36 in May 1972) and issued the entertaining Warts Up Your Nose album (#19 in December 1972).</p><p>Prior to that, as well as featuring some astonishingly imaginative material Spectrum's legendary double album Milesago (December 1971) also incorporated elements of Rudd's new approach to dance moves with the likes of 'Play a Song That I Know', 'But That's Alright' and 'Virgin's Tale' being suited to the Indelible Murtceps gambit. It was as if one entity had already started to assimilate the other.</p><p>When the band appeared at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival, held over the Australia Day weekend at the end of January 1972, they were able to appear as both Spectrum and The Indelible Murtceps, yet each set incorporated elements of the other. The subsequent Various Artists double live album Sunbury issued by EMI later in the year featured Spectrum doing 'Some Good Advice' and 'I'll Be Gone', while the Murtceps did 'We Are Indelible', 'Be My Honey' and 'But That's Alright'.</p><p>One of the great things about Warts Up Your Nose is that eight of the eleven tracks run for less than three minutes; only 'Esmeralda' and 'Excuse Me Just One Moment' go slightly over that mark while even the 12 minute 45 second 'Some Good Advice', which retains the Spectrum musical stamp, is deceptively simple in execution and outcome. The addition of a four-piece horn section on 'Excuse Me Just One Moment' and 'Stay Another Day' lends a jazzy swing to proceedings. All up, some of the quaintly bizarre notions expressed in 'Pie in the Sky', 'Blue Movies Made Me Cry', 'Hand Jive', 'Stay Another Day', 'Some Good Advice' and 'Esmeralda' retain a refreshing outlook to this day.</p><p>While Warts Up Your Nose is kinda rootsy in its own way, it's clearly not one of those “heavy monster psych” records that collectors of arcane 1970s pieces go nuts over. The sad things is that it has yet to be reissued on CD; Aztec had started the Spectrum CD reissues project some years ago, releasing Spectrum Part One and Milesago but various unforeseen circumstances conspired to prevent things from moving ahead. The Spectrum / Murtceps albums Testimonial and Terminal Buzz are likewise waiting in the wings for a second chance on CD.</p><p>I still believe that these are the kinds of records that people need to hear again in the advancing digital age. Mike Rudd is still (occasionally) hitting the stage with Spectrum, despite the death last year of his musical partner of 44 years Bill Putt, so it would suggest that fans still appreciate this guy's musical integrity. Let's hope Warts Up Your Nose appears on CD sometime in the near future.</p><p>—<strong>Ian McFarlane</strong</p>
The Kentucky Colonels	The Kentucky Colonels 1966
The Kinks	Anthology
The Kinks	You Really Got Me
The Kinks	Live Kinks
The Kinks	Golden Hour Vol. 2
The Kinks	Greatest Hits
The Kinks	The Kinks Vol. 2
The Kinks	Percy
The Kinks	Survivors
The Kinks	Golden Hour
The Kinks	Celluloid Heroes
The Larrikens	Songs Of The Miners
The Loved Ones	Magic Box	<p>13 studio tracks from 1966-67, including "The Loved One," "Sad Dark Eyes, " and "Everlovin' Man, " as well as three previously unreleased live cuts from the same era. The rest of the material is usually less fearsome and innovative, though much of it still carries an air of subdued menace.</p><p>—<strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>
The Loved Ones	Magic Box	<p>13 studio tracks from 1966-67, including "The Loved One," "Sad Dark Eyes, " and "Everlovin' Man, " as well as three previously unreleased live cuts from the same era. The rest of the material is usually less fearsome and innovative, though much of it still carries an air of subdued menace.</p><p>—<strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p>

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