It’s something of an understatement to say that Tim Finn has earned a best-of album by now. The only catch is that it’s taken so long that there’s probably a whole generation in New Zealand – never mind everywhere else – asking “Tim who?” Hence, North, South, East, West… has a bit of an identity crisis: it’s not just a Tim Finn compilation, but crams in the better part of a best of Split Enz best-of album and selections from Crowded House (well, after a fashion) and the Finn Brothers, in addition to the obligatory new songs designed to hook in everyone who’s already bought all of Tim’s previous work.
With that in mind, you have to forgive North, South, East, West…‘s inherent schizophrenia. The one common thread linking all of this very disparate material is Finn’s extremely versaitle voice. Whether it’s the very orchestrated sound of Split Enz or the relatively stripped-down guitar wash of Crowded House or the Finn Brothers, Finn’s voice cuts through the whole mix every time. His solo work has darted back and forth between more ornamented, Enz-like songs and more acoustic fare, so even if you set aside his non-solo projects, there’s no one sound dominating the entire 2-CD set.
The obligatory new material includes songs we haven’t heard before, and new recordings of songs that we have. Finn covers Split Enz’s “Stuff And Nonsense” as a duet with Missy Higgins, and gives Crowded House’s “It’s Only Natural” a similar treatment with Bic Runga riding shotgun. He also covers the Crowded House hit-in-some-parts-of-the-world “Weather With You” with Neil and Liam Finn. Also included are very stripped-down new versions of “So Deep” (from his very-produced, dance-rhythm-heavy second solo album Big Canoe) and Crowded House’s “How Will You Go”, and an instrumental piano cover of a portion of Split Enz’s “Poor Boy”. I felt that a partial cover was a little bit of a cheat (especially when it’s done so well), and “So Deep” already wasn’t my favorite song from Big Canoe, and it doesn’t really benefit from the toned-down rethink. I’m much more partial to “How Will You Go” in its original form, so this new recording, relieved of most of its beautiful vocal harmonies, certainly doesn’t supplant the original. It’s interesting to note that none of the Crowded House songs on this collection are the original recordings – all of them are re-interpretations.
Fortunately, the genuinely new tracks are a treat: “Into The Water” and especially the jumpy “Light Years Away” are up there with the best of Finn’s output over the past decade, and “Nothing Unusual” winds up being a kind of theme song for the whole compilation: it borrows the main riff from “Many’s The Time” and namechecks Enz chestnuts like “Maybe” and “Malmsbury Villa”, and the lyrics talk about the inspiration for songs in general – it’s a song about when one writes and performs songs, a bit of a meta-song, and a pleasant one at that.
Listening back to the songs chosen from Finn’s large body of solo work, I have to say that generally, the songs are very well-chosen; it seems like Big Canoe and Finn’s self-titled 1989 album were buried for some reason (and I still count the latter among his very best solo work), and his work from the musical stage production Steel City isn’t represented at all, but as many labels as Finn has 
been on over the years there may be issues there (which may also explain the Crowded House oddity noted above). Once the compilation moves on to music from 1993’s Before & After, things tend to line up, more or less, with the Tim Finn best-of mixes that I’ve been creating for myself for years. Considering how hard it’s become to find some of Tim Finn’s material, this compilation is probably a good idea for those curious about his work.
Disc One
- I See Red performed by Split Enz (3:17)
- My Mistake performed by Split Enz (3:02)
- Poor Boy performed by Split Enz (3:23)
- Six Months In A Leaky Boat performed by Split Enz (4:23)
- I Hope I Never performed by Split Enz (4:36)
- Dirty Creature performed by Split Enz (4:01)
- Maybe performed by Split Enz (2:53)
- Stuff And Nonsense performed by Tim Finn & Missy Higgins (3:27)
- Fraction Too Much Friction (4:10)
- Made My Day (3:20)
- So Deep (4:15)
- How’m I Gonna Sleep (3:52)
- Not Even Close (4:18)
- Many’s The Time (4:20)
- Persuasion (3:52)
- Into The Water (3:14)
- Nothing Unusual (4:02)
Disc Two
- Weather With You performed by Tim, Neil & Liam Finn (3:43)
- How Will You Go (2:59)
- It’s Only Natural performed by Tim Finn & Bic Runga (3:44)
- Underwater Mountain (3:55)
- Dead Man (4:04)
- What You’ve Done (3:43)
- Subway Dreaming (4:16)
- Angels’ Heap performed by the Finn Brothers (2:50)
- Disembodied Voices performed by the Finn Brothers (3:37)
- Luckiest Man Alive performed by the Finn Brothers (3:59)
- Winter Light (4:11)
- Couldn’t Be Done (2:53)
- Astounding Moon (3:36)
- Straw To Gold (3:58)
- Out Of This World (3:01)
- The Saw And The Tree (4:05)
- Light Years Away (3:09)
- Poor Boy (instrumental) (1:31)
Released by: Capitol / EMI
Release date: 2009
Disc one total running time: 64:25
Disc two total running time: 63:14
