Mike Finazzo Dear Phoebe
Baltimore-based musician, singer songwriter Mike Finazzo has a new album of songs that explore the realism of disappointment and remorse, Dear Phoebe. Musically, it’s gentle and stripped down with just a man and his guitar, and occasional percussion. Invariably with this presentation style, the lyrics have to carry a high degree of weight, to be able to withstand scrutiny and stand on their own. There’s no hiding behind layers of fancy production. It’s all just honest expression and bare emotions. Listening to this album, Finazzo’s lyrics hold up in this format easily.
This is an album of regrets. Disappointments.
“If I Had Dreams” sets out the emotional context for the album, with a feeling that there should have been “more” to life: “a little less hair on my head a little more grey in my beard… but somehow I know less today than I did before, and if I had dreams, I would have dreamt for more. I’m not sick but I always feel like dyin’.”
“A Sad Mother’s Day Song” is a song that identifies the difficulties of this (and really, any) holiday: “it’s Mother’s Day once again and that don’t mean a thing to me.”
Particularly bitter is “The Loneliest Road”: “I don’t need a thousand pictures to prove that you’re alive, and if you stopped talking I wouldn’t think you’d upped and died.” But, then there’s “if I Die Tomorrow,” which lingers on this emotional note: “if I die tomorrow won’t you say a prayer for me. I’m not angry, it’s sadness in disguise / If I tell you I’m happy it was probably a lie,” sung with a Bob Dylan cadence style.
“Too Old To Cry” finds some bright spots within life’s struggles: “The only thing that seems real is when I look in my daughter’s eyes. Days like these I feel too old to cry.” It’s universally relatable, that pure kind of love.
“Growing Up To Do” hosts delightful lines like “you’re 35 and in your childhood room, it might have been cute at 22. The basement might be good for you but you got growing to do.”
Mike Finazzo’s playing is adept and nimble on bright sounding guitar. His songwriting is stirring and takes a deep dive to explore moments and experiences of disappointment. It’s clearly also a breakup album, but will hold up for times when things seem stalled out, or played out, for those times when you need to regroup.
The music is available here on BandCamp: https://mikefinazzo.bandcamp.com/album/dear-phoebe-2 and more information and show dates are here on his website: https://mikefinazzomusic.com/
The album was written, produced and engineered by Mike Finazzo.