Finn Brothers – Everyone Is Here
Few contemporary pop artists have the track record of Neil and Tim Finn. Their stints in Split Enz and Crowded House yielded few American hits, but both had more chops than your local carniceria. Everyone Is Here, equal parts meditation on mortality and love song to life, stands with the best work they have ever done.
“Won’t Give In” isn’t so much a middle-finger to mortality as it is a come-on. The upbeat “Luckiest Man Alive” is tailor-made for attracting NPR airplay, while “Disembodied Voices” and “Edible Flowers” (the latter of which may be the most beautiful song the pair have ever put to tape) use strings and thoughtful guest nods from the likes of Mitchell Froom and Jon Brion)to gorgeous effect.
Like Squeeze, the Finn Brothers made a nice living recording the music they enjoy — mature, literate, short on bells and whistles but long on whistleability — and letting the resultant marketability determine itself.