Beauty In Your Wake. Fink

With his new album, Beauty In Your Wake', Fink finds himself, once again, on these pages. His debut was not on the blog but in the erstwhile magazine when one of my former colleagues wrote on if I remember correctly his debut album. We are talking the 00s here. At the time I didn't hear anything in the album that she gave me copy of. Things change, times change, ears change. In this case my ears.

With Beauty In Your Wake Fink has landed back on earth. The album lends less on atmospheric sounds and more on musical instruments most artists use. So except prominent drums, a bass and keyboards, an acoustic guitar and even electrical guitars. The leading instrument is the acoustic one though. Above all Fin Greenall's voice of course and his dreamy way of singing.

In announcing the album Fink stated that for his new album he went back to basics, starting with recording it in his city of birth, Zennor. From the very beginning you can hear that the sound is organic and he wears his influences on his sleeve for all to see. Folk and singer-songwriters from around the 1970s are prominently audible in his songs. Add the dreamlike musical quality which I associate with Canadian musicians like Patrick Watson and Half Moon Run, to name two, and I arrived at the sound coming out of my speakers.

In other words, I'm totally in the right place with Beauty In Your Wake, which is a line in the second song, 'The Only Thing That Matters'. Fink manages to make nearly all songs exciting. Start small and slowly but surely build them up to bigger and more importantly grander proportions. From a folky, singer-songwriter intro to music somewhere between folkrock and dreampop. Fink manages to position himself quite expertly between folk and the better bands in the dreampop genre, like Goat Girl, Warpaint and La Luz.

The outcome is an album that makes me want to listen from beginning to end. Without being spectaculair Fink draws my attention to his music and voice with ease. It starts in the opening song, 'What Would You Call Yourself'. A great song and a clear declaration of intent for what to expect on Beauty In Your Wake. The intent is delivered on right until the end.

With Beauty In Your Wake Fin Greenall, who is Fink, shows a side of himself that was always there but was mostly hidden behind other approaches to his music. Without doubt in the future he will take on another musical expression but for now I am extremely content with this album.

Wout de Natris

You can buy Fink's music on his Bandcamp site:

https://finkmusic.bandcamp.com/