I'll Be Lightning

The son of Crowded House frontman Neil Finn, Liam Finn isn’t afraid to work the very same fertile pop music ground as his dad. Blessed as another sparkling clean pop tenor, Finn gets right to work and matches one genetic gift with another, offering up strong pop tunes that showcase his talents in the most beneficial light. There’s an eerie psychedelic quality to the production, as the crunchy, distorted electric guitars of “This Place is Killing Me” underline the gently strummed acoustics and the harmonies seem to fall from the sky and swoon over the actual melody. This careful attention to detail provides a rich counterpoint to Finn’s natural hooks. The dreamlike trance and marshaled harmonies of the title track, the smooth pop veneer of “Wise Man,” and the quiet resonance of “Gather to the Chapel” are the sounds of a man clearly apprenticed in the finer tricks of the trade. Liam Finn lines up as another multi-talented studio rat who knows how to color within the lines with finesse.