Findlay Brown has been quite the eclectic artist since his folk tinged 2007 debut album Separated By The Sea. He followed his critically acclaimed first release with a completely different sound on 2010's Love Will Find You, a favorite of mine from that year. His sophomore release was steeped in the tradition of 50's and 60's rockers like Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, quite the departure from the folkie sounds of his debut. There were more explorations into different musical styles across his next two albums as well as Brown proved himself to be an artist always looking to expand the boundaries of what his music should entail.
Early 2021 sees Findlay Brown release his fifth album, the captivating, and wonderfully titled, Being Young Is Getting Old. As you can guess from the title, this is a reflective work for Brown. I'll let his words, posted on his website, speak to the inspiration behind the title and subject of much of the music. "Being a musician, you can kind of put off growing up a bit. It is a bit of a Peter Pan lifestyle, which can be good in some ways, it's good to stay young at heart, but I started thinking a lot about taking responsibility for myself, and for my family in general, when I was making this record. It's essentially a mirror of where I'm at."
There is a very 70's vibe across the eleven tracks on the new album. It's heavy on acoustic guitar, very much folk/rock, but many of the songs are accentuated by the gorgeous string arrangements of Davide Rossi. Rossi, best known for his work with heavyweights like Coldplay, Alicia Keys and Goldfrapp, was involved with one of my favorite albums of 2020, Lake Constance, a collaboration with Aqualung's Matt Hales they released under the name Søren Lorensen. He adds the same layers of beauty for Brown across album highlights "The Wild Man Iron John", "Our Town (Boys Town)" and the touching title track. Brown creates his own magic on several songs that do not feature Rossi as well, including the spell binding "Lift You Up To The Light" and the unabashed love song "Hope Your Restless Heart Can Last". A lovely voice as always, and a lovely album.
Favorite tracks: "The Wild Man Iron John", "Being Young Is Getting Old", "Lift You Up To The Light", "Hope Your Restless Heart Can Last"
Being Young Is Getting Old was released as a digital download January 15th, 2021 via Nettwerk Records. There is no physical release of the album at the time of this post.
Official Website of Findlay Brown
Follow Findlay Brown on Twitter
Purchase Being Young Is Getting Old from Amazon.com
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