My Review: Finlay Hatton - Where The Shadows Don't Fall

 Finlay Hatton - Where The Shadows Don't Fall

Finlay Hatton should receive an award for quality, generosity, persistence, passion: his is an extraordinary journey, more than songs   they are friends who come to visit us, bringing us gifts that turn out to be precious, useful and surprising.

How nice to know the old scribe struggling and at the same time happy to see what this contains, which, it should be pointed out, is not an album but a colossal work. For the number of songs (forty-five) and above all for what it presents: a warm embrace filled with atmospheres that vary and “only” gravitate around the beauty and sensuality of a morning that smells of enchantment. This is not a brave, crazy, or extreme operation: much more simply, it is an act of love and not a collection or sum of compositions. Do not look for conceptuality where there are impulses such as these: please pay attention, with open arms and smile, something like this does not happen very often and take advantage of it.

They are confidences, openings, deep glances both through words that shed light on our minds and by means of a welcoming sound language that, beyond the genres used, float softly because they are continuous shows of feeling.

There is no doubt in the writer's mind (he stays true to Gothic pessimism) that such a situation will not be received as it should: tastes and selfishness do not allow one to understand and love those who appear different and necessary, where the quality expressed is of the highest value given the content. Besides: who likes to listen to sunbeams? Here we have sweet and welcoming ones, but also generous ones as they donate endless affection, without scales, without separating strength and softness.

A stream of dreams comes together in the fluidity of a music that reveals a skilful Indie Rock, always in close contact with a measured and controlled Shoegaze, because, while it is true that there are roars, it is also true that Finlay uses the intention to frame his compositional petals with a Dreampop of many nuances.

It also contains interpretations (to call them covers would be limiting) that really do seem to be his songs kept in mothballs, giving a sense of continuity that is exciting, shocking in the quality of the choices because it reveals a truly remarkable knowledge, with a willingness to give prominence to those that are not very well known.

Given the size of the work, the setlist of the songs is impressive: it gives the impression of being on waves that know the way to make us enjoy ourselves, to reflect, always in the circle of quality that covers everything with wisdom. The more you listen to them, the clearer your skin feels: they absorb our fatigues, put an oil on our heads and bodies and give us a pass to a wonderful, abundant serenity.

The question is: do we deserve something like this, since the majority won’t obtain knowledge from it and, even if they did, would not recognise its importance and value? There it is, it is knocking again: Gothic pessimism looks at me confidently, because an album like this risks marginalisation. And anger throbs in the scribe's mind.

Yet it is precisely these gems that teach patience and not to ask for anything in return, they exist, they are available and now it is just up to us.

In conclusion: given the topics of the lyrics, the type of musical choices decided upon and used, everything leads to the assertion that if you have the ability to walk a path with your eyes open, what you will see thanks to this album will be an energetic tale of Jean-Michel Basquiat in sonic brushstrokes…

Alex Dematteis

Musicshockworld

Salford

14th January 2023

https://finlayhattonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-shadows-dont-fall-a-2022-compilation