When a young upstart named Courtney Barnett was first touring the east coast in the early 2010s, she was performing alongside a drummer, Oliver Mestitz. He’d go on to form The Finks – an understated, lo-fi solo project with a heavy emphasis on minutiae lyricism and storytelling. Barnett went on to… well, you know.
It’s easy to see Mestitz as the Garfunkel of the situation, but anyone who’s paid close attention knows he is just as formidable a songwriter as his former touring partner. His third LP under the moniker brings more attention to the composition side of things, both in terms of fleshing out full-band arrangements and allowing for instrumental numbers to generate a further sense of place and ambience within the tracklisting.
Mestitz also enlists vocalist Sarah Farquharson, who quietly stole the show on 2016’s Middling and threatens to do so again here on numbers like ‘Charlie’s Manifesto’ and ‘Fantasies Fade’. There’s a vulnerability to The Finks’ music – a quaint honesty, plain yet powerful in the same way that a Grant McLennan or a Paul Kelly may impart.
With Rolly Nice, it’s a warm and welcome return from potentially the most underrated act in Australian music.
7.5/10
