Review Summary: Sparse and out of place, Neil Finn wanders around the ghosts of better songs for half an hour
If an album has overarching themes that coalesce to form a cohesive and enjoyable final product, we usually call it a concept album. If an album attempts this and isn't so successful, we're more inclined to call it "gimmicky".
Out of Silence is sadly the latter, with each song having been recorded in one take streamed live. There were no re-do's and whatever happened happened. Honestly an interesting way to record an album and one that I hope returns in a more successful way down the line. In the lead up to this recording Finn streamed several sessions with friends and fellow musicians, covering old favorites and showing off new songs alike. These livestreams were really exciting to me as a longtime fan, listening to new versions of some of my all time favorite songs with fresh life breathed into them, like a crisp spring breeze coming in through the kitchen window. I tuned in to the live recording of this album, glued to my chair attentively listening to the whole thing.
The final result? A painfully mediocre record that'll put you to sleep with its seemingly endless supply of piano ballads, opaque background vocals, and songwriting that, while it has its moments, simply doesn't stack up to the rest of Finn's catalog. The best moments of his career are those filled with energy. Tracks like "Driving Me Mad", "Loose Tongue", or anything off of the first Crowded House album all demonstrate that when Finn is on, he's one of the best singer-songwriters out there. But almost none of that comes through on this record. Out of the 10 tracks that make up the brief 36 minute runtime there's only one track that I wouldn't classify as a ballad, the vaguely uptempo "Second Nature", a brief and glorious moment where the overcast clouds part. Even then, the track's unconvincing message revolving around gender roles and love fall flat. I know the lyrics are about those things, but I couldn't tell you what he’s trying to say about them. And after that, we're right back to ballad-land.
That brings me back to what I touched on about what makes this record so disappointing. The instrumentation and arrangements really kill any momentum the record generates. This is a piano first album as every song revolves around the keys, and while Finn's performance on them is fine, it drags the record into some strange, empty corner of musicality. Listening to it feels a bit like sitting in a luxury apartment that isn't furnished. Everything that is there is nice, but all that consists of is beige carpet and gray walls. When a majority of your record's songs are indistinguishable from one another because they're all piano ballads with omnipresent angelic background vocalists, you've messed up. I didn't count how many tracks have drums, but it's definitely less than half. It didn't have to be this way, all of the sessions leading up had plenty of drums, electric guitars, electric bass, all the fixings. But these things were excluded from the album recording, undoubtedly for the worse.
The best track is actually "The Law Is Always on Your Side", a song that predates the Black Lives Matter movement but certainly is thematic of ideas that would later be mainstreamed during 2020. The thing that really makes this song stand out from the others is Neil's vocal delivery. He sounds like he cares about what he's singing about for the first and last time on the record. His vocal performance is inspired, almost preacher-like in moments. It's a shame that it's buried in the mire that is the rest of the album's performances. With more of the passion this track brings, the whole album could've been something special.
I've been a big fan of NF since listening to my dad's Crowded House CD's growing up and his three previous career studio albums, "Try Whistling This", "One Nil", and "Dizzy Heights". They are some of my personal favorite albums of all time which make this one even more disappointing in comparison. The most recent Crowded House album has some of that vim and vinegar that this release and Neil's collab album with his son Liam, "Lightsleeper", lacked, but overall still not up to his previous standards. Standing next to giants like Crowded House self-titled and Dizzy Heights, Out of Silence feels odd and out of place. Luckily it's pretty forgettable, so its shortcomings probably won't keep you up at night. Probably.
