Hailing from Melbourne, Australia FINN (Mark & Luke Finn) has released various singles and albums over the last few years, including last year’s 4-track EP, entitled “Entanglement”. FINN hits the ground running with this Ep. Their brilliant songwriting ability as well as unique, lyrical guitar styles shows a profound sense of maturation. This sound’s almost like FINN’s finest hour- a concise collection of smooth, easygoing songs that create a renewed vision and provides further depth to the duo’s ability to tell great stories and rock out elegantly while doing so.
“Entanglement” has the kind of artistic and production style quality, you would expect from major label artists such as John Mayer or Mark Knopfler – FINN displays that very same, understated performance energy, brimming and burning with creative brilliance. The flawless production, the superb guitar playing, and the amazing songwriting all add up to something akin to a blooming flower. You know that it won’t last forever, but, damn, you just can’t help sitting and enjoying it while it’s there. It doesn’t seem to aim for dizzying heights on the outset…it just ends up there, by the time you reach the closing track.
“Entanglement” opens with “City Lights”, a gentle warm-up, with an upbeat rhythm, a crunchy guitar and a whispery vocal that gets the EP up and running. The soundscape unfolds into a gentle, electric piano and guitar lullaby, on “Little Melissa”, which steadily climbs to a harmonic vocal climax. By now you start to realize that maybe, just maybe, you’ve found a classic.
The playful guitar strum and acoustic-bass pluck, of “Squirrels on Limoncello”, presents a colorful and joyful sonic burst. But, for my money, the highlight is the EP’s slow-building, indescribable bare-boned acoustic finale. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more incredible, awe-inspiring album ender than “Summer Lullaby”. It remains gentle throughout, but between the intoxicating words and the quiet but nuanced vocal delivery, it sends chills down your spine.
You know that song at the end of an album that is so amazingly cool, you find yourself starting the album over in your excitement? Well, “Summer Lullaby” is that song. Funnily enough, it probably isn’t the song that most people would buy this EP for. But I think it is the one that will make them come back to FINN, again and again. With “Little Melissa” being a real close second, in my book. However be assured, the rest of this musical effort makes this a must have piece of music.
From breezy, jazzy journeys to bluesy pop escapades, this duo are genuine craftsmen. I may be biased, but if you sit down and just listen to the organic instrumentation, the lyrics, and the vocals, you’ll see that each song has something to say. The songs are easily accessible and melodically catchy. On top of that, FINN’s music has a crystalline clarity that music should always strive to equal. Not only are the songs on “Entanglement” wonderful but the order in which the FINN put them on the EP is also very well thought-out, to my mind.
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