Pajama Club - Pajama Club

The first and most important thing to say about Pajama Club is that they are not Crowded House. Nor should they be seen as simply another vehicle in which Neil Finn might practice his songwriting mastery. Rather, they are a band in their own right, Finn being joined by Auckland songwriter Sean Donnelly, drummer Alana Skyring (ex-The Grates) and his better half Sharon Finn, whose contributions here, both on bass and vocally, combine to ground the project (as they undoubtedly have her husband’s career) while lending it a dark, sultry edge.

Opener ‘Tell Me What You Want’ sets the score in this regard, Sharon singing “tell me what you want / show me how to do it / tell me what you need / I can do anything” in a breathy mantra over an oh-so-smooth bassline. Indeed, Pajama Club is a surprisingly bass-heavy listen; the punchy power-pop chorus of ‘Daylight’ is reached via a verse punctuated with deep and menacing eruptions, with a sense of earthing also true of the simmering ‘Dead Leg’ or ‘TNT For Two’.

Finn has obviously gotten a kick out of experimenting with his friends – everything is coloured with sampled sounds and electronic ornament. That said, it is the stripped-back acoustic ‘Golden Child’ that forms the record’s emotional core, dealing with touching eloquence on the pains of letting one’s offspring go. The album highlight, it is also the odd one out, being more reminiscent of Ghost Of A Saber-Tooth Tiger’s Acoustic Sessions, Sean Lennon’s serially underrated project with Charlotte Muhl, than the night-life flavours of the rest.

Pajama Club provides an equally invigorating and oddball answer to the question of what to do when one’s excessively hirsute offspring flies the coop.


First published in The Brag, Iss. 425, August 22nd 2011

Liam Finn - FOMO

Liam Finn’s been a busy chap since dropping his debut, I’ll Be Lightning, back in 2007. With multiple world tours with the likes of Wilco and Pearl Jam, and fingers in half a dozen musical pies (unfortunately the less said about BARB, last year’s collaboration with the wonderful Lawrence Arabia amongst others, the better), Finn The Younger generally takes full advantage of the opportunities offered by some fortuitous family connections.

Which is not to say that he hasn’t proven himself as a solid performer in his own right. His debut contained some lovely moments, imparting with manic energy a vital sense of the world opening up. Such points are few on angst-fuelled second album FOMO (= Fear Of Missing Out), the prevailing mood instead being one of subdued melancholy, occasionally riven by a barely contained agitation. A prime example is first single ‘The Struggle’, in which Finn is perhaps aiming towards the misanthropic excesses of uncle Tim’s darker moments but instead comes off, well, adolescent. It’s a problem that also besets ‘Little Words’: “desire / now it has gone / you’re pretty much dead to me”. Wow… Harsh. That said, he never lets you forget his talent: ‘Roll of the Eye’ is excellent, ‘Cold Feet’ is a surprisingly upbeat slice of power pop, and ‘Chase The Seasons’ possesses all the self-deprecating generosity so conspicuously absent elsewhere.

Given the length of the shadows he’s working under (Liam is not Neil, nor should he be expected to be), it’s unsurprising that Finn has a few insecurities to shake out. But by the time FOMO hits frenetic album closer ‘Jump Your Bones’ he’s managed to convince you that though he’s not quite there yet, it’s only a matter of time.


First published in The Brag, Iss. 417, June 20th 2011