When I got a hold of CRAIG FINN’S debut solo album, ‘Clear Heart Full Eyes’ it would be an understatement to say I was just a little bit excited. After all, Finn is the lead singer of THE HOLD STEADY, a band that has been scientifically proven to be the last great rock n’ roll band. The album’s title, a reference to the rootsy American show “Friday Night Lights”, contains everything you’d expect from Finn. The songs themselves are honest character stories that reflect the dreary, down on your luck hardships of its characters, twinned with the eternal optimism and determination often found in small communities.
Finn, with his unmistakable half spoken/half sung vocals, projects a myriad of country spun stories. In ‘When No One’s Watching’ he opens with the lines “There’s something in how well you tell the story, in the way you overcame the odds that were stacked against you”. This set of lyrics defines the central message of the album, and Finn a competent storyteller explores this theme in earnest.
‘Clear Heart Full Eyes’ contains songs that just wouldn’t fit in with a HOLD STEADY album such as ‘Boys and Girls in America’. The instrumentation on ‘Clear Heart Full Eyes’ isn’t shot through a cannon as melodically colourful as HOLD STEADY songs – It’s a different vibe, a more measured tone.
This album however does have its faults. It’s an album that is very much preaching to the converted. Finn doesn’t venture out of his lyrical comfort zone as much as one would have expected from a solo album. This is not to say the songs are badly written, they’re not – it’s just that ‘Clear Heart Full Eyes’ is an album that doesn’t show off the full lyrical potential that Finn possesses. It’s not as experimental as it could have been and this is its major flaw. However Finn is an incredible songwriter who can weave a story that transports you into his world. Songs such as “Rented Room” are so heartbreaking that you forget how simple a song it is because it hits something so internal. The Charles Bukowski quote “An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way” is fitting for many moments on this album, and ultimately its flaws are greatly outweighed by its accomplishments.
CLARA CULLEN