ARTiST: Tim Finn
ALBUM: Rarities Demos Live Performances Vol. 1
BiTRATE: 167kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: n/a
GENRE: Pop
SiZE: 35.53 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 28min 11sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-11-17
STORE DATE: 2008-08-01
Track List:
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01. I See Red 2:48
02. Shark Attack 3:32
03. Pulled It All Down 2:26
04. Rock 'n' Roll Girl 3:06
05. White Cloud Black Shadow 2:43
06. Cruel Black Crow 4:02
07. Throw Your Arms Around Me 3:57
08. Salt to the Sea 5:37
Release Notes:
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Although he has just released his eighth solo album, Rarities/Demos/Live
Performances Vol. 1, Tim Finn is best known for his collaborations: as a founder
of Split Enz, member of Crowded House and one-half of the Finn Brothers. But
teamwork hasn't always been easy. When New Zealand's tragicomic clown-costumed
Split Enz reunited two years ago for a tour down under, co-founder Phil Judd was
conspicuously absent. It was the latest repercussion in a mercurial relationship
that had led to Judd's departure from the band in the late 1970s.
"Phil was the first guy I ever met who was confidently proclaiming himself to
the world as an artist," says Finn of his one-time mentor. "There weren't any
artists in our family as far back as we can trace, which is the 1600s. A few
smugglers was about as exciting as it got. But Phil could paint as well as write
songs, and I guess I looked up to him a lot and measured myself against him for
a long while."
In fact, early Split Enz songs sound as if the two were competing against each
other to see who could write the most depressing song.
"Not consciously," says Finn, "although we used to make each other pretty
miserable a lot of the time. We were kind of each other's muse in that sense."
Judd, it turns out, was the inspiration for Finn's "Charlie," a morbid
morning-after song that includes the refrain: "Sunlight halo, you look wonderful
/ Darling Charlie, pale and deathly still / For heaven's sake, wake up Charlie."
"I wrote that after Phil and I had a physical battle on our first American tour
in 1976," says Finn. "We had a fist-fight one night after a show, everything
melted down, I went back to England [where the group was living at the time] and
Phil left the band. It was kind of a mourning song for our relationship and for
the band, really, that dream, you know? So yeah, it's a death-of-friendship kind
of song."
Split Enz's fortunes subsequently rose when Tim's brother Neil stepped in to
replace Judd and went on to write the hits "One Step Ahead" and "I Got You."
Neil later returned the favor by inviting Tim to join Crowded House, and the
brothers have since recorded two albums as a duo.
"When it works, it's sublime, and when it doesn't work, we just back away from
it pretty fast," says Finn of the fraternal collaborations. "It never gets ugly
ù it's just either on or off."
On Tim's new Rarities record, which spans songs from throughout his career, Neil
can be heard singing background vocals on a cover of Hunters & Collectors'
"Throw Your Arms Around Me." There's also a revved-up version of Split Enz's "I
See Red" and a live rendition of "Salt to the Sea," an achingly beautiful ballad
from Finn's last solo album.
While Finn knows better than to rule out future collaborations, he feels his
last three albums comprise his best solo work to date.
"They coincide with a time in my life when I've started a family and just had a
better life in general," says the artist, who's matured since those early years
of garish makeup and pompadours. "There is something to be said for misery, but
there's also something to be said for having that bedrock, which has worked for
me."