Craig Finn – Always Been (2025) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Craig Finn – Always Been (2025)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:43 minutes | 601 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tamarac

Craig Finn returns with Always Been, his first solo album since 2022. The album was produced by Finn’s long time friend Adam Granduciel, the principal of The War on Drugs. Always Been is direct both in music and title. As Finn says, “I’ve always been Craig Finn.” From the opener “Bethany,” a moody piano-driven portrait with a distinctive Granduciel guitar solo, to the propulsion of the first single “People of Substance,” to the vivid storytelling and character development that has marked Finn’s career, this record feels at once familiar and fresh. Recorded throughout 2024 at One Cue Studio in Burbank, CA, Always Been features a host of musicians, including many of Granduciel’s bandmates in The War on Drugs. Kathleen Edwards and Sam Fender provide guest vocals. The musical result is distinctive, purposeful, and commanding. This is perhaps Finn’s most narrative record yet. It tells the story of a man who becomes a clergyman despite a lack of faith. The songs detail his rise, fall, and eventual redemption, while also shining a light to sharply reveal the other characters that populate the world he moves through. Always Been is Finn’s sixth solo record and stands alongside his nine albums with The Hold Steady. With his last solo release, A Legacy of Rentals, receiving year-end accolades from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Aquarium Drunkard and more, Always Been arrives as an exciting next step for this prolific storyteller and songwriter.Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) and Adam Granduciel (The War on Drugs) are storytellers expert at infusing grittiness into their authentic tales. Their reverence for Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen comes through in the emotional narratives they create with vivid characters informed by self-image. Matching Finn and Granduciel as artist and producer respectively makes so much sense it’s easy to wonder why it hasn’t happened before. While both are wisely ambiguous about using the ’80s term “heartland rock” to describe their music, if the earnestness fits, then wear it well.

In Always Been, Finn’s third solo album, the Springsteen echoes reverberate from the first lines of the opening track, “Bethany.” Finn sets the scene for a character straight out of Born To Run: “In the later afternoon it sort of softens on the avenue/ I’m wasting the remainder of the day.” Riding on the kind of lush modern rock style you’d expect when the balance of The War on Drugs are the backing band, the tuneful “People of Substance,” with guest vocals from Katheen Edwards, zeroes in on Finn doing his best talky Petty impression. “Dana, I don’t drink nearly as much/ One or two nights of the week at the most/ I know I used to be such a monster/ And this city’s still lousy with ghosts,” he sings.

The troubled-but-still thrashing-for-meaning protagonist continues to come upon minor epiphanies in “The Man I’ve Always Been” (“Honestly I’ve been a couple people/But no one that I’d want to be again”), and small, dark details blossom in the financially precarious relationship in “Postcards”: “Watching Home & Garden shows/ With Smirnoff 7-Up/ I’m the guy that empties all the ashtrays.” Granduciel’s guitar is a flavorful presence throughout, especially on the finely- nuanced acoustic mini epics. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:

1-1. Craig Finn – Bethany (05:49)
1-2. Craig Finn – People Of Substance (02:59)
1-3. Craig Finn – Crumbs (03:43)
1-4. Craig Finn – Luke & Leanna (03:30)
1-5. Craig Finn – The Man I’ve Always Been (04:07)
1-6. Craig Finn – Fletcher’s (05:39)
1-7. Craig Finn – A Man Needs A Vocation (04:49)
1-8. Craig Finn – I Walk With A Cane (04:36)
1-9. Craig Finn – Clayton (02:55)
1-10. Craig Finn – Postcards (06:05)
1-11. Craig Finn – Shamrock (05:26)

Download from filejoker.net: