FINNEAS: For Cryin’ Out Loud! (Polydor)
Verdict: Sibling’s sun-soaked songs
As a producer and co-writer, Finneas O’Connell has already played his part in one of the best albums of 2024 — his sister Billie Eilish’s brilliant Hit Me Hard And Soft, which was released in May. That record saw Billie scale fresh heights with an elegant song-suite on which Finneas also played guitar, bass, drums and keyboards.
His new solo offering isn’t in the same bracket, but that’s no surprise. As one of pop’s leading backroom boys, one who has also written for Camila Cabello and Justin Bieber, 27-year-old Finneas lacks his sister’s star quality. But once you accept him as an understated performer rather than a showy one, For Cryin’ Out Loud! is very good.
It’s a step up from his 2021 solo debut, Optimist, which was made alone in lockdown and contained tracks such as A Concert Six Months From Now, which reflected the gloomy isolation of the pandemic.
He’s now abandoned the solitary approach in favour of recording ‘as live’ with a band of road-hardened L.A. rock musicians and co-writers.
Finneas O’Connell’s For Cryin’ Out Loud! is a step up from his 2021 solo debut, Optimist
Finneas has already played his part in one of the best albums of 2024 — his sister Billie Eilish’s brilliant Hit Me Hard And Soft, which was released in May
Once you accept him as an understated performer rather than a showy one, For Cryin’ Out Loud! is very good
Finneas and Billie Eilish performing at the LA28 Olympic Games Handover Celebration in August
The upshot is a sunnier affair all round. There are harmony-soaked throwbacks to Californian pop and finely crafted nods to a wide variety of British influences, including The Beatles, The Police and New Order. Singing of the ebbs and flows of modern dating, he comes across as a wry observer determined not to sound too downbeat.
As with his sister’s recent releases, electronics are on the back burner. Guitarists Aron Forbes (who has toured with One Direction) and Matt Fildey are prominent, but the sound is still light and breezy. 2001, a pop song about a long-distance love affair, would sit nicely on a Harry Styles album.
Despite him being in a relationship with YouTuber and actress Claudia Sulewski, O’Connell’s songs aren’t all hearts and flowers. ‘Maybe love is a way to kill time,’ he muses on Same Old Story. On Cleats, a guitar-driven pop track, he sings about his unrequited love for a female footballer.
There are parallels with Hit Me Hard And Soft. Like that record, For Cryin’ Out Loud! is best listened to in its entirety rather than in pick ‘n’ mix fashion, while several songs feature dramatic changes of tempo in the style of Billie’s album track L’Amour De Ma Vie. Same Old Story starts as a piano ballad and becomes a fuller, ensemble piece; Sweet Cherries opens as indie-pop before morphing into funky, Latin-tinged electronica.
There’s also, in Family Feud, a ballad on which Finneas, the protective older brother, heaps praise on his sister. ‘You’re only 22, and the world is watching you, judging everything you do,’ he sings. ‘I’ve made mistakes, you’ll make them too… a part of me is part of you.’
It’s a touching insight into a prolific partnership that dates back to Billie’s second single, Six Feet Under, written and produced by Finneas eight years ago. Eilish, of course, remains the main attraction, but these inventive ear-worms confirm that her big brother has his own musical identity.
LEON BRIDGES: Leon (Columbia)
Verdict: Nostalgic country-soul
Leon Bridges went from washing dishes in a Tex-Mex restaurant in Fort Worth to singing a Ray Charles blues classic for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House in the blink of an eye.
Leon Bridges finally gets the chance to take stock of his whirlwind rise on a new album, Leon, inspired by childhood memories
Bridges (seen at the Austin City Limits Music Festival last week) went from washing dishes in a Tex-Mex restaurant in Fort Worth to singing a Ray Charles blues classic for Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House in the blink of an eye
The Texan’s 2015 debut album, Coming Home, hit the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic and established him as a soul man in the tradition of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.
Bridges, 35, finally gets the chance to take stock of his whirlwind rise on a new album, Leon, inspired by childhood memories. Although he was born in Atlanta, he grew up in Fort Worth, and Leon is dotted with references to family, friends, ex-lovers and local landmarks. One song, Panther City, takes its title from his hometown’s nickname.
He opens by reasserting his R&B credentials on mid-tempo ballad When A Man Cries, which echoes Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. There’s a funkier feel to Peaceful Place, and That’s What I Love is a chronicle of past summers. ‘Springtime on the Trinity River, gold jewellery, all-black penny loafers,’ he recalls.
He stirs several influences into his ‘musical gumbo’. He recently duetted with country star Kacey Musgraves on the latter’s Deeper Into The Well, and Musgraves’s production team, Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, are his collaborators here, bringing a Nashville feel to the ballads Can’t Have It All and Ain’t Got Nothing On You.
His songs are unashamedly romantic. On Simplify, he laments a forgotten love affair, and Laredo contains suggestions of a whiskey-fuelled one-night-stand in the Texan border town. ‘Play me something downtempo, low-key and rock-steady,’ he sings. This record would fit the bill.
Both albums are out now. Finneas starts a UK tour on April 17, 2025, at Eventim Apollo, London (Live Nation UK).
Best of the new releases
JAKE BUGG: A Modern Day Distraction (RCA)
Fast-tracked to stardom when he topped the albums chart in 2012, Jake Bugg has since faltered. He’s tried branching out, making one album with Rick Rubin in California and another with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach in Nashville. Still only 30, he’s now gone back to basics, and his sixth LP is a guitar-heavy snapshot of Britain. Zombieland is powered by a fiery, Paperback Writer-style riff, and the Jam-inspired All Kinds Of People examines the contrasting fortunes of friends in his Nottingham hometown.
Jake Bugg has gone back to basics, and his sixth LP is a guitar-heavy snapshot of Britain
SAMARA JOY: Portrait (Verve)
Crowned best new artist at the 2023 Grammys, New Yorker Samara Joy is putting a fresh sheen on traditional jazz. The 24-year-old has been likened to legends such as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, and she pays homage to the past with sprightly covers of swing standard Autumn Nocturne and the Tom Jobim bossa nova No More Blues. Backed by a brassy, eight-piece band, she also stretches herself, hitting flighty high notes and rich lower ones on dramatic originals Peace Of Mind and Now And Then.
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