Birthdays at Solo Pasta by the Finks

We frequently dissect artists’ decisions to include certain elements in their art, but we often overlook the equally important decisions regarding which elements to exclude. In this case, Australian band The Finks crafts songs using a post rock mentality. This band flexes their emotional intelligence frequently throughout this release, giving us unforgettable poetry that forces us to rewatch the best days of our lives from an unbridgeable distance. In many cases, The Finks encounter opportunities to build their music into the sorts of immense crescendos that frequently appear in similar albums these days, but they always choose instead to massage these shallow peaks back into the soft form of their songs. Such restraint only amplifies this band’s poetic voice, building intensity into every tiny inflection. The Finks here experience heartbreak without crying, feel joy without laughing, instead dissociating so heavily into the moment as to completely detach from any bodily reaction. Birthdays at Solo Pasta embraces the profound silence and mundanity of life-defining moments, replacing the usual musical drama with a deeply sympathetic defeated yearning.

- Michael