Say It Is So

Say It Is So is the fifth solo album by New Zealand singer/songwriter Tim Finn.

Say It Is So
Studio album by
Tim Finn
Released1999
GenrePop
Length42:21
LabelSonny's Pop Records
ProducerJay Joyce
Tim Finn chronology
Steel City
(1998)		 Say It Is So
(1999)		 Together in Concert: Live
(2000)
Singles from Say It Is So
  1. "Twinkle"
    Released: 1999
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
EWB+[2]

After the release of Before & After Finn was left without a record company but with a lot of inspiration. He met producer Jay Joyce in Nashville, TN in 1998 with whom he worked. No record company was interested in the album so he released it independently. Websites credit this album as having a 2000 release, but the first run of albums released through the Frenz of the Enz fanclub have a 1999 stamp, making this the original year of release.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tim Finn, except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Underwater Mountain"3:56
2."Shiver" (Marie Azcona, Finn)4:21
3."Good Together" (Azcona, Finn)3:15
4."Roadtrip" (Azcona, Finn)3:25
5."Currents"3:50
6."Need to Be Right"4:32
7."Twinkle" (Azcona, Finn)3:30
8."Big Wave Rider"3:20
9."Death of a Popular Song"4:23
10."Some Dumb Reason"3:03
11."Rest" (Finn, George Upu, Traditional)4:39

In the track Some Dumb Reason there is the line "feeding the gods". This became the title of Finn's next album (and continues a long-standing continuity theme of Split Enz, Crowded House and Neil and Tim Finn albums using phrases from their other songs). In contrast, the Feeding the Gods album also contained a song entitled Say It Is So.

Personnel
  • Tim Finn - vocals, piano, acoustic guitar
  • Jay Joyce - guitars, keyboards, sounds
  • Chris Feinstein - bass
  • Ken Coomer - drums
  • Giles Reaves - drums on Underwater Mountain, Shiver, Twinkle, Rest

Additional personnel
  • Bruce Bouton - pedal steel
  • Matt Johnson - drums on Currents
  • Kalai Lam - ukulele, log drum, nose flute on Currents
  • Laurence Maddy - guitar on Shiver
  • Julie Miller - backing vocals
  • Jackie Orsazky - second bass guitar & string arrangement on Underwater Mountain

Music videos

Four music videos exist for the album songs:

  1. 'Twinkle', where a lone suited Finn unpacks his bags in a room and sings to the camera, interspersed with close up shots of a woman with a cigarette.
  2. 'Death of a Popular Song' is a macabre comedy video. Finn is fatally shot in a drive-by at the start of the film, and subsequently sings the song from a grave site in various states of decomposition.
  3. 'Underwater Mountain' is an animated video where a man in a dull office job dreams of the tropical sunset in his calendar and his female co-worker. He cracks and throws his computer out the window, but in the process is pulled out too, along with the female worker who tries to help him. They kiss as they fall under the city into a sea. The worker drags himself and the computer out of the sea to find the woman on a mountain of debris, and they watch the sunset sky together.
  4. 'Big Wave Rider' features Finn driving around Auckland trying to shake off an overenthusiastic window washer. He engages in a kung fu battle with the window washer on top of his car and wins, ties the window washer to the car bonnet and then kills him by driving through an automatic car wash.

The videos for 'Death of a Popular Song', 'Underwater Mountain', and 'Big Wave Rider' were made by Matt Heath and Chris Stapp of the New Zealand band Deja Voodo and comedy show Back of the Y.[3]

Critical reception

Reception was positive, with reviewers noting the more singer-songwriter sound of his work suiting his newly gravelly vocals.[1][2]

References
  1. https://www.allmusic.com/album/r459954
  2. Morgan, Laura (10 March 2000). "Say It Is So". Review. EW. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  3. Reid, Graham. "Tim Finn, A Timeline (2009): A solo, and sometimes solitary, man". Article. Elsewhere. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
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