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FINDLAY BROWN - SEPARATED BY THE SEA
I Will (Ghost Ship) / But You Love Me / Down Among The Deadmen / Separated By The Sea / Lonliness I Fear / Come Home / Losing The Will To Survive / Paperman / Tonight Wont Wait / Don't You Know I Love You / Twin Green Pram
PEACEFROG RECORDS
Taking the best bits from Elliott Smith, Willy Mason and Nick Drake and adding in a touch of nu-folk flavour, Findlay Brown makes music that washes over you with a gentle melancholy - beautiful, a little bit damaged and hopelessly romantic all at the same time. A gorgeously fingerpicked acoustic guitar weaves a spectral magic while Findlay Brown sings with a fragile beauty, a voice that whispers from your speakers with a willowy grace.
With his debut album SEPARATED BY THE SEA, Brown delivers a collection of songs dripping in sad eyed melancholy and minor key whimsy; the likes of I WILL (GHOST SHIP) and BUT YOU LOVE ME setting him up as some tender voiced Paul Simon character, gently strumming a lonely acoustic guitar and crooning his songs of love, loss and regret. There are also hints of The Beta Band or Badly Drawn boy here though, a more intriguing and compelling side bubbling just beneath the surface, perhaps none more so than on the seven minute plus DON'T YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU, a trance like psychedelic drawl that owes the odd debt to the krautrock likes of Neu! or Can. DOWN AMONG THE DEADMEN however is much more traditional in its folk roots, Brown adopting a well worn twang in his voice, the skiffle like rhythm adding to the authentic feel.
Its perhaps impossible to ignore the parallels with Jose Gonzalez when looking at Findlay Brown, two sensitive singer/songwriters who've arguably launched their mainstream careers through selling their music to television advertising. As the soundtrack to the new Mastercard advert, Brown's COME HOME is likely to be instantly familiar; a forlorn and wistful acoustic ballad that shows off Browns sensitive singer/songwriter credentials in spades. Imbued with that same magic thats held by Jose Gonzalez though, Findlay Brown is someone able to send shivers down the spine and a slight tear in the eye, COME HOME a beautiful and sublime slice of sad eyed pop capable of rising above any criticisms of cheap sell out. The McCartney-esque closing number TWIN GREEN PALM hints at much more to come too, Findlay Brown delivering tear stained emotion with every move; a surefire suggestion that this is an artist surely just at the very beginnings of great things.
A sadly beautiful and tender collection of heartbroken acoustic pop songs, SEPARATED BY THE SEA is undoubtedly just the start of an impressive year for Findlay Brown; an album that doesn't so much demand your attention, as quietly but insistently pleads you for it. Beautiful and beguiling, SEPARATED BY THE SEA is a slice of warm melancholy that finds Jose Gonzalez winning hearts with style.
BIOGRAPHY
A part-time bare-knuckle boxer in his Yorkshire youth, Findlay is no introspective wimp. Influenced by the likes of The Band, Love, Jackson C Frank and all things Krautrock, Findlay's music is emotionally-driven, psychedelic, spiked with wit, blessed with a cidery traditionalism and foiled with subtle, yet noticeably modern production from Simian's Simon Lord. Inspiration for the album came from a tempestuous relationship with his long-term Danish girlfriend Marie Nielsen. He started writing songs to finally win her back after becoming conscious of being "a total nob", and dispatched them to Denmark in CD cases packed with dried flowers.
In an age where vapid sentimental balladeers and robotic manufactured pop represent two overwhelmingly prevalent but distinctly unappealing extremes, Findlay Brown is a defiantly unorthodox presence. A part-time bare-knuckle boxer in his Yorkshire youth, Findlay is no introspective wimp; while his ambitious music can be intimate, bare, and sensitive, it's also courageous, triumphant, challenging and otherworldly. There has been a steadily building word of mouth buzz on Findlay this year. And that buzz looks likely to translate into commercial success in 2007. Findlay's forthcoming single COME HOME, is gracing a major new television advert for Mastercard on UK terrestrial TV. This will be followed in February by Findlay's debut album, SEPARATED BY THE SEA.
LINE UP
Findlay Brown>vocals/guitar
DISCOGRAPHY
COME HOME (Peacefrog>2007)
Come Home
Broken Every Rule
SEPARATED BY THE SEA (Peacefrog>2007)
I Will (Ghost Ship)
But You Love Me
Down Among The Deadmen
Separated By The Sea
Lonliness I Fear
Come Home
Losing The Will To Survive
Paperman
Tonight Wont Wait
Don't You Know I Love You
Twin Green Pram
LINKS
Findlay Brown>www.findlaybrown.com
FURTHER LISTENING
Damien Rice
Elliott Smith
Jose Gonzalez
Review date: February 2007 |
