tue 10/12/2024

Album: Fink, Bloom Innocent - Acoustic | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Fink, Bloom Innocent - Acoustic

Album: Fink, Bloom Innocent - Acoustic

From Fink Funk to folk fusion

A long and winding road

An all-acoustic album is perhaps a surprising arrival from a musician who started out in electronica and dance music, worked as a DJ, produced for Elbow, has co-written with artists as diverse as Professor Green, Amy Winehouse (“Half Times”) and Banks, and who has collaborated with the Royal Conce

rtgebouw Orchestra on concert arrangements of six of his songs.

Bloom Innocent – Acoustic is Fin Greenall’s 10th outing in 18 years and since Biscuits for Breakfast (2006) he’s been working with bassist Guy Whittaker and drummer Tim Thornton. Both Greenall himself and his band are known as Fink, and he’s acknowledged that his musical career has been “quite a journey” – so far. The new album is “a fresh sound”, a way to “put more music into my record”, about the songs in their “pure form”. Fink’s voice and guitar are way out front, surrounded by a huge echo, and surely the roots of Bloom Innocent – Acoustic can be traced back to his Cornish childhood and the only thing at home he wasn’t allowed to touch – his dad’s prized Martin guitar. He now has several of his own.

Produced by sonic mastermind Flood, whose own career is no less eclectic (Smashing Pumpkins, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and U2), Bloom Innocent – Acoustic is “an acoustic reimagining” of last year’s Bloom Innocent and it’s mesmeric. Sometimes it feels like movie music without a movie – the video for “We Watch the Stars”, the first song to be recorded and laid down in one take, suggests a wordless natural world documentary. It’s almost ethereal. So too the title track, which opens with an insistently strummed guitar – a hint of retro, perhaps even a hint of Richie Havens.

“Out Loud”, Fink’s carefully placed vocal over picked guitar and box drum, is another stand-out. “That’s How I See You Now” is built over a percussive guitar ostinato figure, the soulful vocal coming in short bursts – you can hear Fink’s electronica roots. “Rocking Chair”, a melange of sound built around an insistent drum motif, is bluesy and evocative.

In addition to voice and guitar, Fink also plays piano, keyboards and effects, plus percussion, with Thornton on acoustic guitar, piano and percussion, and Whitaker on fretless acoustic bass, percussion and effects, both also adding backing vocals. There are no overdubs, and the album occupies a hinterland where folk, blues and electronica meet, melting into one another as the temperature rises on a drive down Highway 61. Bloom Innocent – Acoustic is the sonic equivalent of a road movie.

Fink’s voice and guitar are way out front, surrounded by a huge echo

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters