TIM FINN
“Big Canoe”
One of the ways I can identify a most cherished album is when my friends complain that I play it too much. I remember being on a trip to Boston and seeing Tim Finn’s Big Canoe in a used record shop and, having loved his previous record, Escapade, I picked it up and, when I got home, popped it into my CD player and listened to it—for about three months. Anyone who visited would hear Big Canoe on “repeat all” and as the weeks rolled on, more and more folks said something along the lines of, “Oh, God, not that album again!” Still, a couple years later, friends were asking me to play Big Canoe. I’m not a mad scientist hoping to rule the world, but I know how it feels!
Everyone knows that Tim Finn was one of the founding members of New Zealand’s Split Enz. The Enz recorded almost a dozen albums in the ’70s and early ’80s, but as the learning curve and success plateaued, Finn recorded a solo album, the aforementioned Escapade. The album was highly acclaimed and more successful than most of the recent Enz product and Finn opted to leave the Enz in the hands of his brother Neil and to dedicate himself full-time to a solo career. He relocated to London and began work on Big Canoe, which both he and his record label hoped would be his big breakthrough. Most of the songs include lyrics written in collaboration with the British screenplay writer and playwright Jeremy Brock. The musicians included Finn and fellow Enz-alum Phil Judd, along with Geoff Dugmore on drums and Steve Greetham on bass.
The first thing that needs to be said about Big Canoe is that it features huge ’80s production: giant drum sounds, layers of synths and heavily processed guitars, along with plenty of reverb and delay—what my good friend and former bandmate Alan Shalby used to call the “big shit sound.” Some folks will be put off by the production, which is admittedly dated. But they do so at they own peril as the songs on Big Canoe are some of Finn’s most ambitious and fully realized. The album opens up with “Spiritual Hunger,” a moody grinder with some nice psychedelic touches in the fade-out. “Don’t Bury My Heart” is built around a descending arpeggio pattern and tense string arrangement that breaks into a simple and very catchy chorus. “So Deep” is so ’80s it could almost be a parody, but behind the affected vocals and pulsing synths is a terrific melody and another great chorus. “No Thunder, No Fire, No Rain” was written about the Bhopal gas leak. It is primarily a pop song, but also includes elements of the indigenous Maori music that sometimes informed Split Enz’ music. The lyrics feature some fairly complex chemical terminology that, although peculiar, scans right along with the melody. “Carve You in Marble” opens with some faux-classical piano and then breaks into a funky synthesizer groove that would fit right in on Oingo Boingo’s Dead Man’s Party. It’s one of the best tracks on the album with a dramatic solo that has to be heard to be appreciated. “Hyacinth” is the closest thing to pure pop here and is one of my all-time favorite Tim Finn tracks: a melody that is beautiful and incredibly hooky, a driving eighth-note rhythm, and a perfect set of lyrics that are poetic without being precious. The title track is a huge, ambitious, and quite grand affair. Here the lyrics do come off as a little pretentious, but the power of the melody and the arrangement overcome the lyrical obscurities. “Hole in My Heart,” in contrast, is a completely accessible pop song and another highlight.
No US singles were released from Big Canoe, through three singles were released in the UK and elsewhere (most commonly Australia and New Zealand). These were “No Thunder, No Fire, No Rain,” “Carve You in Marble” and “Spiritual Hunger.” Nothing really hit, with “Carve You in Marble” the only single that broke the top 100—and just barely. Finn, of course went on to join Crowded House and to record several more solo albums, including his terrific self-titled Capitol debut in 1989, produced by Mitchell Froom. His most recent project is 2010’s The View is Worth the Climb.
Big Canoe is currently out of print, though easily found used for very reasonable—even downright cheap—prices. The album is available in the legit digital domain. If you don’t have this one, do yourself a favor and have a listen!
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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON. Marston have a track on the latest “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation just out now and available at: www.PopGeekHeavenStore.com.
CHECK OUT SHPLANG out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
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LINKS:
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Finn
Wikipedia – Big Canoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Canoe
Home Page: http://timfinn.com/
AMG: http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-big-canoe-mw0000195357
VIDEOS:
“HYACINTH”
“SPIRITUAL HUNGER”
1986 Interview:
