Craig Finn
Craig Finn has announced a return to Liverpool having just released his new record I Need A New War, as Getintothis’ Simon Kirk reports.
One of this century’s finest song-writers, Craig Finn (also of bar-rock stalwarts, The Hold Steady) has announced a UK tour which includes a Liverpool date at Jacaranda Phase One on Friday, October 18.
It’s another great coup for I Love Live Events who continue to break the boundaries in bringing the world’s best musical talent to the city.
With his fourth solo album, I Need A New War, being released via Partisan Records at the end of April, Finn will arrive on Merseyside as a songwriter at the height of his powers.
While 2017’s We All Want The Same Things contains some of the best material Finn has ever written, I Need A New War has more of a slow unfurling quality, which starts off with lead single, Blankets.
The track finds Finn focusing New York City, his home of the last eighteen years after he moved them from St. Paul, Minnesota – a place many of his other protagonists derive from.
“Blankets is a song about someone who has never gotten over a past love, and goes searching for her. But time is running out,” says Finn.
Whilst New York is a big part of I Need A New War, the album also sees Finn picking apart the complexities of modern day life – particularly for those in the Midwest of the United States.
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Once again, we find ourselves engaging with Finn‘s characters who are the ordinary working class people he has effectively made a career from writing about. As the best song-writers do, they project their character’s into something illuminating and even listening to We All Want The Same Things non-stop for the past two years, there’s always something new to pick up on.
We suspect the same results will follow with I Need A New War – an album that delves into people’s struggles with the day-to-day in a world that appears to be moving so much faster than themselves.
“Going in, I saw this record as the third part of a trilogy. Thematically, this was the third group of songs that I had written about smaller moments — people trying to stay afloat in modern times, attempting to find connection, achieving tiny triumphs and frustrating let downs in their day to day lives.
Perhaps forward motion is everything. The characters in the songs on this record, and the last two, are trying to keep up and keep their heads above water. They succeed or they don’t, but their stories are the tales of their attempts at pushing ahead. And so, with my own push forward, I feel lucky and excited to be sharing these songs and stories.” says Finn.
I Need A New War artwork:
Craig Finn – I Need A New War
Craig Finn tour dates:
- Friday October 11: Exchange, Bristol
- Saturday: October 12: Bodega, Nottingham
- Sunday October 13: King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
- Tuesday October 15: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
- Wednesday October 16: Deaf Institute, Manchester
- Thursday, October 17: Oslo, London
- Friday October 18: Jacaranda Phase One, Liverpool
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