Antipodean songwriting veteran Tim Finn has a double dose of good news (triple if you count the fact it was his birthday on Saturday June 25; he turned 59). One: he has signed a new publishing deal with ABC Music Australia and two: he will release his ninth solo album on August 26, entitled The View Is Worth The Climb.
The album, which will be distributed by Universal Music Australia, was recorded in late 2010 at his brother Neil’s own Roundhead Studio in Auckland. The LP was produced by Jacquire King, the hot young American maestro who has previously worked with Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter and Norah Jones. Notable players on the album are Joey Waronker and Zac Rae, while Finn wrote the title track with none other than Australia’s award-winning chanteuse, Megan Washington.
The View Is Worth The Climb marks the first release from Finn the elder since 2009’s North, South, East, West… Anthology, a collection spanning his entire career and also featuring reworkings of some of his own classic tunes.
His last solo album proper was 2008’s thoroughly decent The Conversation, and before that came the even decenter Imaginary Kingdom. It seems there are currently no plans for another Finn Brothers album, which given the grim nature of 2004’s Everyone Is Here, is best for everyone.
Tour dates are expected to follow in support of The View Is Worth The Climb.
Here, in the mean time, is an example of one of the finest moments from Finn’s solo career, a song he penned with the great Richard Thompson:
