Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy |
Back in 2009, Charlie Fink wrote a whole album (The First Days of Spring) of lovelorn breakup ballads about the end of his great love affair. In 2011, the world of Charlie Fink seems confidently reinvigorated. A new man – from the downtrodden to the positively positive.
For all it’s positivity, Last Night On Earth is positively boring and in spots, exceedingly trite. The first single ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N’ is exceptionally clean and crisp but mired in cheesy silliness. The chorus belongs in a glorious car commercial about an eco-friendly SUV that brings people together to fall in love and make a million babies: “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N / you’ve got more than money and sense my friend / you’ve got heart and you’re going your own way.”
This is not to say that a little positivity can’t go a long way – Michael Franti and Spearhead makes positive music so palatable and danceable that you feel it could get you into heaven. Taking this as the scale, Noah and the Whale would do well to sell Last Night On Earth to the Disney Channel for their next musical about picking yourself up after being a “loose” bartender to follow your rock and roll dreams while remembering where you came from while always keeping love in your heart.
It’s not all smiles and jazz hands, though. The production values are high and co-producers Charlie Fink and Jason Lader have done well to keep the sound clean and bright and showcase Fink’s skilled vocal ability. But in the end it all just tries too hard and instead of soaring it falls on its super duper positive and mostly forgettable face.
