FInniston are a Glasgow based band built around Steven Finnie and sister Jolene Crawford who specialise in easy listening pop. This is their debut album.
On first hearing, I misheard the lyric to the song 'Letting Go' as 'I feel like Rambo' instead of 'I feel like letting go" . Probably this was a subconscious longing for some injection of testosterone into these well crafted but passionless love songs.
Lines like "You really showed me how the birds sing the bees" (More Than Just A Friend) are embarrassingly fey and on a song about the frustrations of a platonic relationship simply don't ring true.
A recurring theme throughout the album is the difficulty of putting our true feelings into words and this seems to have also proved a barrier to writing from the heart.
The lovely melody carried by a piano and violin arrangement on Talk To Me is the only song that really shines out from the 12 tracks on this album. Perhaps because the lyrics ("We say we'll do better but we never do") are more pessimistic they sound more genuine.
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Otherwise the rough edges of relationships are presented with a glossy and sickly sweet coating. The up tempo 'Another Love Song' is particularly guilty in this respect and when Finnie sings "I tried to write a love song - all the words came out wrong", you can only concur.
Everyone to his/her own taste, I suppose - they are those who warm to the gentle and uncomplicated pop to the found here, personally I'd substitute the adjectives bland and simplistic.
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