JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology
Album Reviews with Ian Sinclair
IAN SINCLAIR reviews Craig Finn's I Need A New War, Son Volt's Union, and David Ian Roberts's Travelling Bright
MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones
JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system
MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star
MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
Craig Finn
I Need A New War
(Partisan Records)
★★★★
PRESENTED as the final part of a trilogy alongside Faith In The Future (2015) and We All Want The Same Things (2017), the fourth solo record from The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is another brilliant showcase of his inspired songwriting skills.
His most downbeat set yet, the songs are de facto short stories, full of vividly drawn characters “trying to stay afloat in modern times, attempting to find a connection, achieving tiny triumphs and frustrating let downs,” Finn notes.
People move to, and get lost in, the big city, bars are frequented, things get “druggy.” packages are collected — mundane tales suffused with an enticing emotional depth by the Midwestern master lyricist.
Similar stories
Reviews of More, Remembering Now, and New Vienna
New releases from Black Country, New Road, Anouar Brahem, and Jaywalkers
Reviews of Ella Fitzgerald, My Morning Jacket, and Toria Wooff
New releases from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart; The Weather Station; and Sam Amidon