Cole’s disc is an eclectic, beautifully recorded collection of pop tunes old and new and I wouldn’t be surprised if Blue Note (or someone here) releases it soon.  As for the Paul Weller disc, I can’t understand the reason for the delay.  Weller’s past accomplishments in The Jam and The Style Council and on his four previous solo discs (all of them still in print, along with a best-of from 1998) would seem to justify releasing Heliocentric. 

Blue Note may have thought that a best-of disc would introduce Holly Cole to more people and that the new disc could wait for the time being.  Universal’s decision is probably, unfortunately, financial: Weller doesn’t ship platinum.  Luckily, the web gives music lovers a few options.  You can buy these discs and others as imports from a US web-site or you can order them from an overseas music site.  Import discs are usually cheaper, even with shipping, if you buy them from a site located in the country of origin. Amazon.co.uk, for instance, has Heliocentric and a Canadian site should have Romantically Helpless (Cole’s web-site, hollycole.com has it for a very reasonable $14.50 plus shipping).  Of course, you can also try to get your local mega-store outlet to order an import disc--a suggestion I have a hard time making with a straight face.

Which brings me to Neil Finn’s new disc, One Nil, which was released in April in the UK by Parlophone/EMI.  There are no plans currently to release the disc in the US, although Finn indicated in a recent interview that he was looking into an agreement with an independent label.  I missed the chance to make PHF readers aware of the two discs above by assuming they would make their way here to the States. I didn’t want to make the same mistake with One Nil. .

Finn was a member of two great bands, Split Enz and Crowded House.  Split Enz made two very good records, True Colors and Waiata, and a number of interesting but uneven records.  Crowded House, on the other hand, made four of the most sublimely perfect pop discs ever recorded.  Those discs contained a seemingly endless flow of inventive, ear catching songs: “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” “Something So Strong,” “Fall At Your Feet,” “I Feel Possessed,” “Better Be Home Soon.”  The first two tunes were hits in the US and many other Crowded House tunes are still popular on college stations. 

Crowded House was a hugely popular at home in New Zealand and in Australia, as well as in the UK and Europe, but only their first album broke into the top 40 here (it peaked at number 12).  The band broke up in 1996 and Neil Finn released his first solo album, Try Whistling This, in 1998.  It got mixed reviews in the US, where Finn’s pop classicism seems to be especially unwelcome.  In fairness, it’s not a disc that grabs your right away.  Finn’s ability to write great melodies seems to come easily and creates the impression that he’s phoning it in.  It’s only after a few listens that you realize how subtle and memorable the melodies are.

One Nil is another banquet of beautiful songs that take unexpected turns.  As he did in Try Whistling This, Finn sometimes presents a contrast between the elegance of a melody and it’s aggressive or slightly hard-edged instrumental support.  “The Climber” and “Rest of the Day Off” both use distorted guitar lines to provide a counterpoint to their pleasant melodies.  On “Hole in the Ice” angry, clamorous verses lead into choruses that are pop confectionery.  An almost imperceptible chord change at the end of each verse prepares the ear for the transition from the tough verse to the softer chorus--the sort of subtle change that makes musicians smile in recognition at a songwriter’s skill.   One Nil is full of such surprises.

The recording on the disc is very full and everything feels slightly pushed forward.  The production on Try Whistling This also had a slight murkiness, which makes me wonder if Finn feels that the polished sound on Crowded House’s discs kept critics from taking them seriously.   While I felt at first that I might have preferred a cleaner production, each time I listened to the disc I was catching some small detail that’s in the mix.  Finn uses sound effects, voice-overs, and other tricks to create a very atmospheric sound that washes over you in a way that a more spacious recording wouldn’t. 

One prominent critic, reviewing a Crowded House disc, wrote that Elvis Costello probably wishes he had Neil Finn’s voice.  An unfair remark, surely.  Costello’s voice is strong and true and it serves him well.  But it is true that Finn is an exceptional singer.  He moves from the middle to upper register with ease and he sings rock and roll and pop songs with equal conviction and skill.  It’s that very ease, which he also exhibits in his songwriting, that I believe causes critics to underrate him.

The songs on One Nil seem to find Neil Finn groping for some spiritual hope in the aftermath of loss.  These feelings are not made explicit, but the CD booklet carries a dedication, “to mother Mary RIP,” that leads me to hear a spiritual yearning in lines like these:

As the musicians I admire move into middle age (and I along with them), rock and roll begins to seem more and more like a young person’s game.  Pete Townshend grappled with that realization as long ago as 1975, when the Who recorded By Numbers and Pete was all of 30.  At some point a good rock and roll songwriter is going to have to come to terms with the fact that it may have been bracing, even meaningful, to sing something like “Hope I die before I get old,” at age 19, but that it is a pose to sing it at age 40.  Songwriters like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Neil Finn are as frank as ever, but their tempers have softened and they appear to have come to a middle aged realization: Some things are worth preserving and even savoring.

A number of musicians make important contributions to One Nil.   Sheryl Crow sings harmony vocals on two tracks and she doesn’t do a star turn.  She and Finn sound great together.  Wendy Melvoin, formerly of the Revolution, plays on all twelve tracks and co-wrote four of the tunes.  Mitchell Froom, who produced three of Crowded House’s discs, plays various keyboards on nine tracks and his contributions bring focus and texture to the disc.  My guess is that Froom and Melvoin both made suggestions that determined the overall feel of the sessions.

This disc grows deeper--sonically, musically, and lyrically—with each listen.  That it is not available through a label in the US strikes me as a minor scandal.  Still, there’s hope.  Several great songwriters, among them Aimee Mann, Lloyd Cole, Marshall Crenshaw, and Graham Parker, have found support on small independent labels.  Mann has stated that she much prefers working in that environment.  According to the bio posted on her web-site, “Mann actually bought the album [Bachelor No. 2, her newest], back from her previous label, Interscope Records, rather than accede to their demands to scrap parts of it in favor of recording more hit-radio-friendly material.” 

 It might be naïve to hope that independent labels could revitalize pop music. But I have to wonder why the major labels are so eager to drop songwriters like those I named, who probably sell 250,000-500,000 discs.  And I wonder what musicians who stay with those labels have to give up. 

-- Joseph Taylor