Other Finch Members Release Statement About Band • Page 4

Another record I highly disagree about. That's the only record I still listen to aside from Say Yes and some of Southern Air.

 

Ugh don't get me started. I LOVE Black Earth Tiger and hated how poorly the record was received. People wanted another "Make Tonight" unfortunately. I love both records personally.

 

These set of demos are very different from what Nate posted. I'd say they are much closer to WITTB than any material since.

 

Maybe Tales Don't Tell Themselves by Funeral for a Friend. That album did very well initially, at least in the UK, but partway through the cycle the wheels seemed to come off, and not much more than a year after its release they were independently releasing an album where they started to stray away from that style again.

 

Yea I remember liking that when it first came out, but it didn't have much staying power. It certainly didn't seem like it received as much love as the first two albums.

If I recall it was a concept album? Concept albums often are very hit or miss among fan bases.

 

Yeah, their first two albums are far and away the most loved, and it's another one where there was a backlash against it from some of their long-time fans when it was released. I think it's a decent album and they didn't suffer from it too much, but for better or worse that was the point where they went back from being on the verge of huge mainstream success to basically being a big underground band.

 

Fun fact: I've never really listened to a lot of TAI but I've actually met William Beckett haha. But sounds like I should check it out.

 

Fair enough, different folks, different strokes. My reasoning- I just felt it just lacked something the first two records had. The friction between Benjamin Perri and the rest of the band was highly evident on the album. His lack of songwriting and vocals appearing less on the album squashed a lot of that awesome back-and-forth dynamic earlier FATA had, and the loss of Scott Gross's Iron Maiden-ish sounding guitar and writing was a change for the worse as well.

I did like Holding a Wolf By the Ears a lot more though. After the lineup turnovers, the band seemed to be more focused and re-energized with Fran fronting the band.

 

God I loved that album. I wish they had continued putting out music.

 

That was a great album, but it was definitely a more straightforward rock sound rather than the classic FFAF. I was always surprised that they didn't breakthrough here in he states like I felt they should have, but I feel like their focus was always very much in the U.K. They rarely toured here, unfortunately.

Definitely a concept album, and a relatively cool one - shipwrecked fisherman trying to get back to his family. Some concept albums are a little too abstract to understand or don't always stay on course, which ruins the concept for me. Tales stays on track well and is easy to follow the story.

 

That's cool, I'm sure a lot of people like it. But it was a huge disappointment and flop after Ocean Avenue. I also rank that as their worst album. It's difficult to compete with their other records truly.

 

I love How Lights and Sounds is either their best or worst album with virtually no in between lol (best for me) I can't really get through either of their last two albums. I've come to like Southern Air a lot though.

 

People saying SHTS was a flop are absolutely right. That album came out and I loved it so much. Went to see them just after the album came out (July 2005). Was so excited for the gig and when I got there... damn, I was stood right at the front and could probably break dance in the space around me if I wanted to. Of the people that were there none of them cheered, nobody moved or danced. Everyone in the audience stood there with their arms crossed looking bored and moody. Not a single person cheered for an encore, and everyone just left in silence. Any band would seriously consider splitting up after an experience like that. They put on a great show too. I've never known a single new album to instantly kill a fanbase like SHTS did. I have no idea how it happened too. You'd think people would at least be excited for the old material regardless of what the new album sounds like. Plendy of bands have sophomore slumps but people usually overlook it and carry on being a fan. Not in this instance.

 

Has anybody compiled all these demos anywhere in decent quality? Would love to have them in case they get taken down later.

 

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