Sometimes it doesn't feel like
Craig Finn is really, truly a songwriter, especially outside the confines of his work with
the Hold Steady. While the music on his solo albums is fine (and quite wonderful at times), it's clearly playing second fiddle to
Finn's lyrics, and what he does barely counts as singing, talking more than lifting his voice into a tune as he tells stories that sometimes rhyme, and occasionally don't. But if what he's doing may not be songwriting, there's no arguing he's a brilliant writer, whatever you call his medium.
Finn has a tremendous gift for creating short sketches that offer a powerful insight into someone else's life for a few minutes, taking some offhand thoughts and scattered events from their days and spinning a rich, affecting world out of it. The results make his albums absorbing and emotionally powerful, grabbing the listener's heart and soul and gently but firmly refusing to let go, and 2022's
A Legacy of Rentals is a fresh example of the sort of work he can do.
A Legacy of Rentals was written during a time when America was struggling with various forms of turmoil, from a severe health crisis to political division that struck to the heart of how we view one another.
Finn is smart enough not to try to offer us an album that attempts to explain it all, but as a keen observer of the human condition, he does offer ten short stories about struggling with hope and dreams, and there's a compassion in these songs that makes a difference, even when the circumstances of the protagonists is messy and difficult. There's love, death, good intentions, and bad choices running through these tracks, and the messiness of human existence is the lead that
Finn turns into gold here, making
A Legacy of Rentals one of the very best albums he's created outside
the Hold Steady banner.
Finn's lyrics and performances are what really make this effective, but producer
Josh Kaufman has created lovely musical counterpoints for
Finn's delivery, brimming with details in his washes of guitars, keyboards, and rhythm loops that don't just accompany the songs but bring them another degree of strength, reinforcing the emotional notes of this music. Whatever you want to call what
Finn is doing, it's something special and honestly moving, and
A Legacy of Rentals captures him at the peak of his powers. It's art wrought from real life, which is all the more devastating for its easy recognizability. ~ Mark Deming
