Tim Finn: Say It Is So

Thanks to healthy sibling rivalry, Tim Finn has never quite received the credit he deserves as a songwriter. After all, he's the one who founded the underrated New Zealand new-wave act Split Enz, and the one who asked his younger brother Neil to join after he had established it as an international draw. How was he to know that Neil's virtually endless supply of ingenious, Beatles-esque riffs—consider the band's timeless hit "I Got You"—would one day make him a much bigger star than his brother While Neil was riding high in Crowded House, he returned the favor and asked his brother to join. The brief reunion didn't pan out, but Tim has since been regarded as a former member of Crowded House, as if all those years in Split Enz and as a solo artist had vanished. True, Neil's hooks have always been sharper, and his lyrics less oblique, but Tim Finn is a masterful writer all his own. For proof, try Say It Is So, Finn's first solo album in seven years. Recorded in Nashville, of all places, with some sympathetic session players (including Wilco drummer Ken Coomer and country singer Julie Miller) in tow, the disc is a notable career highlight. Producer and sideman Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin) keeps "Road Trip," "Need To Be Right," "Some Dumb Reason," and "Big Wave Rider" from getting as slick as Finn's albums have been in the past, making Say It Is So as a whole refreshingly simple and loose. By and large, Southern flavor aside, "Underwater Mountain," "Rest," "Good Together," and "Death Of A Popular Song" are just the kind of perfect pop tracks that those in the know expect from Finn, and that those in the dark will be glad to discover.