If you could pick one Finn song to hear again for the first time, which would you chose?

"When You Come" and "Distant Sun".

Kare Kare and Walking on the Spot. I can listen to both over and over.

I would choose Four Seasons in One Day.

I literally fell off my chair the first time I heard that song, when it got to the bridge.  The sound was so unexpectedly lovely that it knocked me off my desk chair onto the floor.  *laughs*

I would love to be able to experience that again.

Maybe Distant Sun. It starts out pleasant but rather benign, the second verse takes it up a notch, and the bridge snaps things into focus. Then the final chorus is really resonant and poignant. Thinking back, that song was critical in really appreciating Crowded House, and Neil Finn as a great songwriter.

Great thread.

Damn, does it have to be one?

Oh well. I guess it would be "Four Seasons In One Day". Perfection in less than three minutes, and as Peter Paphides wrote: "Here’s another one. ‘Four Seasons In One Day’, when those ghostly harmonies converge upon Neil’s voice like vultures to a carcass."

wow ... way too many to list. I guess it would be that "from the Gods" bridge in "Fall At Your Feet".  Thank you Mitchell Froom for suggesting Neil put those verses with that chorus and that bridge and out comes what would be a once in a lifetime song for most songwriters.

Excellent topic!

I’ll have to give this some thought.

Off the top of my head, maybe “Mean To Me”...

”She Will Have Her Way”...

In my command.    Nails in my feet.

In '93 I'd just found TA in a record store on a visit we took to see family, and my Mom and I listened to the tape twice on the way home. Of course it just washed over me at the time. But that's the point!

Hmmm...easy one....Into Temptation.

I'd pick something more left field, maybe a track off the Finn album.

Perhaps 'Eyes of the World', I love the lyric.  That line about Englebert Humperdink always makes me smile, and is apt for the theme of this thread (except Neil and Tim instead of Englebert!)

This is my first post! How exciting...

I didn't even have to think about it. "Message Boy" from the Luton Tapes. In fact, every time I hear it still sounds like the first time.

Wow.

completedv posted:

This is my first post! How exciting...

I didn't even have to think about it. "Message Boy" from the Luton Tapes. In fact, every time I hear it still sounds like the first time.

Wow.

Great call! Luton was my most anticipated album ever! I read about the tapes in Mike Chunn’s Stranger Than Fiction book in 93 and had to wait about 15 years to finally hear them - So much expectation, so much hope and it exceeded it incredibly!

The song I would choose though is “Semi-Detached”. I heard it for the first time when it was put on the “Spellbound” Best of. It just blew me away... How could an Enz song THAT good fly under the radar for so long...

completedv posted:

This is my first post! How exciting...

I didn't even have to think about it. "Message Boy" from the Luton Tapes. In fact, every time I hear it still sounds like the first time.

Wow.

I'm honored!

I suppose this question refers to songs which really struck you on the first listen, kind of the opposite of a 'grower'. It's pretty rare for me to love a song the first time around, but here are three:
Wherever You Are - Has Neil's voice ever sounded better?
She Goes On - Nearly melted when I first heard the chorus
Sacred Cow - Groovy but moody atmosphere, immediate earworm

Agree on I Feel Possessed. That was my favourite song by CH for a decade. Well, it is still among my favourites.

Likewise w/ I Feel Possessed. TOLM  was one of the first CDs I bought in 1988.  Blown away when first  heard this song and great lead in to rest of album.  Remains my favorite CH album and in my all time top 10.  In a more perfect world CH would’ve reunited in 2018 for 30th anniversary TOLM tour (which would’ve much preferred to FM tour)...