I'll Be Lightning - Liam Finn

Taking time out from Betchadupa - the band he formed as a 15 year old with his schoolmates - Liam Finn releases his first solo effort, putting some of those talented songwriting genes to good use. I'll Be Lightning is not only garnering more praise than his band's previous efforts but has also managed to pick up some better reviews than the latest from dad Neil's reformed Crowded House or Uncle Tim's most recent effort!
Finn shows that he is something of a jack-of-all-trades; writing, recording, producing and for the most part playing all of the instruments himself. His solo live show - which has recently been the warm-up act for Crowded House (of which he is also an auxilary live member) - sees Finn sampling and looping guitar riffs on the fly, adding basslines to the loops before climbing onto the drums and thrashing away. The results are often chaotic and clumsy and I'll Be Lightning has some of this same ramshackle-ness but as Finn himself quite rightly points out, "the accidents and the mistakes are often the things you fall in love with". Indeed, with these imperfections, there is a sense of an artist demoing the songs in his bedroom on a tape recorder only in this case the bedroom is his Father's state-of-the-art Roundhead Studios in Auckland and the tape recorder is some of the best audio equipment money can by. Tape is still the preferred medium here though - no computers used in the making of this album.
Finn's voice dominates proceedings and it's obvious he has the same penchant for Beatles-eque song and vocal harmony arrangements as his old man, but he uses them more inventively and with often spectacular results. Many of the album's songs seem to be centred around the breakup of Finn's relationship and as such often take a melancholy turn, such as 'Fire In Your Belly' 'Shadow Of Your Man' and the wonderful 'Lullaby' which is largely made up of layers of vocal harmonies. It's not all doom and gloom though, with plenty of upbeat moments to balance things out - some strummier numbers bringing to mind The Phoenix Foundation, while Connan Hosford (Connan & The Moccasins) pops up on the title track providing autoharp and his distinctive pixie-like vocals and wonky stylings.
An extremely impressive solo debut and for a guy that is only 23 years old, a promising sign of some great things to come! Also available for a limited time in spiffy coloured double vinyl.