Neil Finn - Home Concerts 1, Los Angeles, CA, 3-18-2020 to 3-26-2020

Boy, has Neil Finn gone all in with the coronavirus home concert trend! If you don't know who he is already, Finn has been the main singer and songwriter for Split Enz and Crowded House, and has done a lot as a solo artist as well. Recently (as I write this in late 2020), he's joined Fleetwood Mac. Some artists have played a few songs or done a home concert or two since the worldwide virus lockdown began. But not Finn. Starting on March 18, 2020, he's played a home concert nearly every single day! As I write this, he's done 35 home concerts since then, with no sign of stopping or slowing down. So this is the first of many home concert albums I'll be posting from him, because it's very good stuff.

I should mention that I haven't really been that big of a Split Enz or Crowded House fan. I like a lot of their songs, but I'd put them in more of a "greatest hits" category. One big issue I had was with the production. It's not bad on any given song, but they tend to all sound too similar to each other. But I have to say that since I've been listening to Finn's home concerts, I've reassessed his career. Maybe it's just that he's been playing his songs in solo acoustic format for the home concerts. I love that format, and it removes the production issues I had. But hearing him this way made me realize what a very talented singer and songwriter he is. I hope you'll check this out even if you're like me and not a really big fan to begin with.

Since the virus outbreak began, Finn has been holed up in Los Angeles with his family. And I mention the family part because his sons Liam and Elroy are professional musicians and sometimes join in his home concerts. His wife Sharon occasionally joins in on background vocals as well, and she's definitely a capable singer. Most days, Finn has done the home concerts in solo acoustic format, with the occasional guest appearance by one of his sons or his wife. Some days, he and his sons make up a rock trio. I haven't included any of those recordings, because the full band sound (with a full drum kit) is very different from the acoustic recordings. If you want to hear those too, I recommend you check out his webpage of recordings:

https://www.neilfinn.com/fangradio

Since he's begun, on a typical day, Finn records shows that are roughly an hour long. But a good chunk of that - maybe half - is him talking between songs. It's often interesting, but I haven't included any of the talking because I don't think it stands up to repeat listening. If you want to hear all that, check out the link above. He also often acts kind of like a DJ, ending the show with a selection of his favorite recordings by others. I haven't included any of that either.

Also, if he plays the same song twice on different days, I'm only including one version. He does that every now and then, especially for his best known songs like "Don't Dream It's Over" or "Something So Strong." Furthermore, given that he's recording so much music every day, a good portion of it is off the cuff. He tries out a song, and sometimes it works, but other times it falls flat. Occasionally, he might even give up on a song before it ends. In cases where I judge the song didn't work well, I'm not including it. Happily though, whenever he flubs a song, he usually comes back to it on a later date and gets it right.

If one boils his daily broadcasts down to just the unique, quality solo acoustic performances, one gets maybe 15 to 20 minutes of music per day, though that can vary a lot. So rather than post a bunch of mini-concerts, I'm packaging the daily concerts together until I have enough for an album that's between 45 minutes and an hour in length. This is the first one, but I already have five more ready to go, and he keeps coming out with more nearly every single damn day! What he's doing really is remarkable. I haven't heard of any other musicians being nearly this prolific with their home concerts. (If you know of someone, please let me know.)

Getting to the music. he typically performs a mix of his older Split Enz and Crowded House songs, his later solo career songs, and some cover versions. This particular album has fewer covers than usual. He does "Catch the Wind" by Donovan, "Moon River" by Henry Mancini, and "Julia" by the Beatles.

The sound quality of his home recordings is generally excellent. However, there is a partial exception with this album. Since it includes his first 2020 home concerts, I think he was still working out the kinks in terms of how to best record the music. For some of the songs, he went way into the red on the loudest sections, resulting in a very bad sound for those parts. Luckily, most of the songs here weren't afflicted with this problem at all. For most of them that were, he happened to play them again later, so I've included those versions on future albums in this series instead.

The only ones that really got hit with this problem were "Distant Sun" and "When You Come." So I've included those two as bonus tracks only. Given how he occasionally plays his most famous songs more than once, I'm hopeful he'll do those again, especially "Distant Sun," which is one of his best known songs. If he does, I'll remove these bonus tracks.

In conclusion, if you're already a fan of Finn's music, you should really enjoy this. But if you only know and like the big Split Enz and Crowded House hits, I still recommend you check this out. Hopefully, like me, you'll be seriously impressed with his talent.

01 Don't Dream It's Over (Neil Finn)
02 Better Be Home Soon (Neil Finn)
03 Rest of the Day Off (Neil Finn)
04 Catch the Wind (Neil Finn)
05 Moon River (Neil Finn)
06 Not the Girl You Think You Are (Neil Finn)
07 Missing Person (Neil Finn)
08 I Can’t Give You Anything but Love (Neil Finn)
09 Love This Life (Neil Finn)
10 Lost Island (Neil Finn)
11 Julia (Neil Finn)
12 Catherine Wheels (Neil Finn)
13 Either Side of the World [Edit] (Neil Finn)
14 Dizzy Heights (Neil Finn)
15 Try Whistling This (Neil Finn)
16 Italian Plastic (Neil Finn)
17 Anytime (Neil Finn)

Distant Sun (Neil Finn)
When You Come (Neil Finn)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15284567/NeilF_2020_HomeConcrts01LsAngelesCA__3-18-2020_to_3-26-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo seems to be Finn's favorite photo for his home concerts. He has it at the top of his webpage (which I linked to above), and on his Facebook account, and so forth. I don't know when or where it was taken, but I figure it makes sense to use it to start this series. The only problem I had was that it was black and white, and I generally dislike those. So I colorized it.