After a string of successful albums with Crowded House, Neil Finn teamed up with his older brother Tim and recorded a relaxed and low-key album in 1995. The brothers’ previous attempts to write together had been incorporated into the 1991 Crowded House album Woodface – songs like ‘Weather With You’ and ‘It’s Only Natural’ were originally intended for the Finn Brothers project.
Neil and Tim Finn played almost all of the instruments themselves – the only outside contribution is Dave Dobbyn contributing the bassline on ‘Kiss The Road in Raratonga’.
There are a bunch of strong songs on Finn – it’s an overlooked gem in their catalogue, much stronger than the more professional Everyone Is Here from 2004. But the low-key Neil Finn song ‘Last Day of June’ is my favourite from the album, and since it’s June 30th today, it’s a good day to listen to it.
I have no idea what the significance of the date is – it’s near the midwinter solstice and the Matariki festival in New Zealand. and as we know from Split Enz’s ‘Haul Away’, it’s five days after Tim Finn’s birthday. But it’s one of Neil Finn’s prettiest songs, and the simple arrangement with little more than piano and percussion works perfectly in service of it.
Happy Last Day of June everyone!
The firelight plays on me
The choir ignites behind me
The rising voice of discontent
All the guardian angels
You can bang the drum
Look what we’ve become
I hope there might be one of us
Who calls the tune
Last day of JuneThe so called third dimension
Hardly deserves a mention
The first and second stages
Have been confused for ages
Knowledge has been lost
How much does it cost
I hope there might be one of us
Who calls the tune
Last of June
Who breaks the news
Last day of June
The city draws its breath in
I can almost hear it thinking
There are people within my walls
See their wild disorder
Driving their machines
Swarming like a million bees
I hope there might be one of us
Who calls the tune
Last day of June
Who speaks the truth
Last day of June
Who breaks the news
Last day of June
10 Comments
Leave a Reply
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Subscribe
Subscribe to receive new posts from Aphoristic Album Reviews.
Haven’t heard this one before. Wasn’t aware of that album, actually. Not too surprising, right enough, as I don’t exactly follow the Finns closely, but I have enjoyed what I’ve heard over the years.
Yeah, Neil Finn’s done a lot of stuff. This is one of his stronger releases IMO though,
This feels like a song writing opportunity – there’s U2’s New Years Day, Corey Hart has a song named 3rd of June – but I can’t think of a lot of songs that reference specific dates. Now that June 30 is taken, there’s still 362 or so dates still available!
Early morning April 4, shot rings out in Memphis sky.
“It was the third of September, that day I’ll always remember…”
May Day, cut down to size again.
Can’t go wrong with the Finn brothers!
They lost me a bit in the early 2000s, but Neil’s last few have been good.
Saw them perform this album in St Kilda at the National Theatre. It was good, but I was still mourning Crowded House.
I’ve never seen Neil Finn live weirdly. I’ve seen Tim.