Solo Archives - Various Small Flames

Craig Finn announces new solo album, We All Want The Same Things

Jon Doyle — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 20:12:44 +0000

There’s little doubting the quality and scope of Craig Finn’s songwriting. Fronting first Lifter Puller and then The Hold Steady, Finn has long been penning and delivering some of the most exciting and meaningful lyrics in the business. Depending on your view of such things, his energy and exuberance has long accentuated or masked a great depth at the heart of his writing, with many of his songs exploring the fundamental loss of belief in contemporary culture and our complicated, varied and sometimes druggy/ugly/bloody attempts at locating suitably persuasive alternatives.

Aside from his band work, Finn also has a burgeoning solo career, and March will see the release of We All Want The Same Things, his third record under his own name. Once again teaming up with producer Josh Kaufman (The National, Josh Ritter), the record appears to possess Finn’s most fleshed-out, developed sound to date as a solo artist, the degree of variety and melody suggesting something more far-reaching than his previous releases.

This is perhaps apt considering Finn’s thematic aims. The album looks to explore what love means in a contemporary setting. “Love seems like the biggest mystery in our modern days,” he told NPR. “No amount of science or advances in technology can help us fully understand the notion of love and the role it plays in our lives.” Through a series of character studies, Finn brings to life ordinary people moving through the world as best they can, trying to be better, or at least no worse, while figuring out with whom to share their time and energy.

First single ‘Preludes’ is what Finn calls the “closest to being autobiographical,” charting a mid-90s return from college pitched at the exact point where loneliness and freedom intersect. The relationship between this curious pair of emotional bedfellows has long haunted Finn’s worlds, and seems more pertinent than ever in current times. The fact title We All Want The Same Things seems both blackly ironic and fundamentally truthful right now says something of our current position, though we’re lucky to have people such as Craig Finn ready and able to explore them on a compassionate, human level.

We All Want The Same Things is out on the 24th March via Partisan Records and you can pre-order it now from the Craig Finn Pledge Music page, which includes some nice exclusive items.

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Rough River – S/T

Jon Doyle — Tue, 20 May 2014 16:17:12 +0000

Rough River is Kate Skinner, a solo artist from Melbourne, Australia. April saw the release of her self-titled debut album, an alluring blend of traditional and contemporary styles of folk. Skinner mixes acoustic guitars and mournful violin with the bass/drums of a band, leading to a progressive brand of country music that owes as much to Angel Olsen or Sharon van Etten as it does Emmylou Harris.

Lyrically, Rough River is again close to the classics, using landscapes and natural imagery to paint tales of love, life, loss and grief. The current favourite line I have stumbled across so far is from ‘Sometimes’, which reads:

’And sometimes I can’t care to find
what it is that makes me feel good about this life.
And I’ll float back to you
on a raft, steady and true,
and you say,
maybe it’s meant to be that way?’

You can buy the album via Bandcamp as a download or as a lovely limited-edition CD (designed by Sarah Hopfer).

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WTD’s Advent Calendar – 8 – Sam Moss

Liam Doyle — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:00:07 +0000

Today’s feature is on an album which was released over a year ago but which escaped my attention until now. It is also the first (and quite possibly the last) Christmas music to feature in our Advent Calendar. The record, entitled ‘Tree and Star: A Christmas Album For Solo Electrified Guitar’, is courtesy of Vermont’s Sam Moss (who I previously wrote about here). The title serves as a pretty accurate description of the album, it’s just Moss on his guitar playing sparse instrumental interpretations of everyone’s favourite Christmas songs. I’m not sure it’s going to kickstart a Christmas party but it’s simple and reserved and very good. If you hurry (as there’s only 3 remaining as I’m writing this) you can get a CD of the album for $10 (£6.25) or download it for just $4 (£2.50) over at Moss’ Bandcamp page.

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