It's funny, fitting, whatever you want to call it, that Liam Finn is captured in mid-air upon the cover to his solo debut, I'll be Lightning. His brand of retro/original indie pop makes you walk on air. If Liam was living in dad Neil's heyday (yes, that Neil Finn), songs like "Lead Balloon" would have a giddy accompanying music video featuring paper airplanes and band members doing cartwheels and smashing crockery. And it would be shown every morning on MTV while you sat home on summer vacation, eating sugary cereal.What I'm really digging at the moment is "Lullaby," which finds Liam sounding nasally, amateurish, aching, organic. There's no accompanying instrumentation -- save for a touch of strings -- just overdubbed "ahs" and "ohs" in the background, all while Liam sings of simple things like finding rest and the proper roads to take. And it feels like the one being serenaded isn't a child fighting sleep, but a big person at the end of their rope. It's Robert Frost meets Jason Pierce.
Then there's the bottled-up pep of "Second Chance," with its plastic drum loops and what sounds like lap steel guitar, Liam ever willing to add bits and bobs to the basic indie pop template. Or the bibulous, unrestrained "Music Moves my Feet," with its nifty, hits-a-little-too-close-to-home couplet, "Drown your dreams in alcohol / Underneath the breath you hold." Ironic, that song title is, since Liam works best at stirring hearts, not feet.
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