Bernard Fanning Reviewed
Bernard Fanning
Tea & Sympathy
(Lost Highway)
Former Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning sits on the front porch for his solo debut.
Not that he didn’t always have it in him, what with the Australian band’s devotion to Crowded House harmony and straightforward Wallflowery adult pop. Tea & Sympathy is a mere manifestation of his desire to go back and be the ’70s chief singer-songwriter. While he has some Jackson Browne in his blood, he also very obviously lived through the last decade and bears a little too much resemblance (“The Strangest Thing,” “Not Finished Just Yet”) to the Jack Johnson/John Mayer/Damien Rice generation. The white funk of “Which Way Home?” shows flourishes of soul and “Down To The River” rejects affectation as it acquiesces to mortality, but overall the album’s too anonymous to garner any sympathy.
— Kevin Keegan
Click here for a Windows Media sample of “Down To The River.”
