Jeff Finlin - The Tao of Motor Oil (2015)

Tracklist

01. East By West
02. Hands Off The Wheel
03. My Maybeline
04. La Luna
05. Only This
06. Best Be Motoring
07. Barefoot In The Snow
08. Stones Must Roll
09. Georgia May
10. Only Human

Americana man Jeff Finlin has, over the course of half a dozen albums, acquired a reputation of being a less is more writer par excellence, a lover of somewhat opaque imagery and a maker of music that requires commitment to listen to rather than something you put on while vacuuming.
2002’s Somewhere South of Wonder is his definitive work and while his latest doesn’t quite capture those heights it’s not far short. Tao loosely translates as ‘the way’ and the ten songs here are all about journeys of one sort of another – some obviously like Hands Off The Wheel and My Maybeline, some like Barefoot In the Snow less so. Finlin is in search of freedom, of change, but he’s comfortable being on the journey and if he never quite gets there in the end, well the trip will have been worth it.
Finlin has done everything on the album himself and his washes of soft guitar and delicate picking soundtrack his quavery, slightly cracked voice as it sings songs with layers of meaning, songs that make you think. Everything here is good but he saves the best until last. Only Human (a dream of consciousness) is an epic trip (the word is used advisedly) through a slightly out of focus landscape that moves between personal recollection and Dylan-esque lines about the world in general. It’s essence of Finlin and even if the listener doesn’t quite understand all of it it grips them softly but irresistibly. It leaves you feeling sated, thoughtful and ready to reach for the repeat button, and you can’t ask for much more than that.

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