I Need a New War

Finn is operating at a whole new level of finesse here, and gifts us something truly beautiful.

He, producer Josh Kaufman, and the supporting musicians have added lovely flourishes along the way. This album luxuriates at times in languid, jazzy ambience, while female backing vocalists coo in response to Finn’s lead and brass coexists winningly with synths.

It may make you feel many things but crucially Finn, the most human of story tellers, has created a record and a world within which you will never feel ashamed or alone.

What these songs capture is the darkness of life, of America, of the cities and surroundings inhabited by the characters in the songs, of the systems in place that lead to the richest country in the world being home to some if its most broken, desperate people.

The rambling nature of Finn’s delivery adds to the immersive storytelling, where listeners are focused on Finn’s lyrics--and what’s going to happen next to the characters in these stories--rather than worrying about hooks, riffs, or even the music at all. That isn’t to say that the album offers nothing in that area, but when Finn decides to figuratively dot his i’s, it feels like you’ve arrived at a momentous occasion.

After a pair of impressively strong solo releases, Craig Finn has made it a hat trick with I Need a New War, and the passion and superb craft of these songs make this a must for anyone who cares about American songwriting.

Finn has already built a sturdy legacy, but his solo records yield their own durable pleasures: I Need A New War shines like a beacon of light in a dark time.

He’s gone as far as he can go, done all he can. He’s lost in a bursting world of endless storefronts, in an America he no longer recognizes. He hasn’t a clue what he needs, only that he needs it. Songs as easy to imbibe to as to heave a sigh to, these are fogged, fading portraits for the ages. We all need a new war.

I Need A New War is organic, human, and alive in the moment while conscious of the fleeting frailty of it all, it may just be the next step in his musical journey, but it is a confident stride.

Regardless of the song or sentiment, Finn's skill for detail never wavers. In that, I Need A New War ranks among his best.

Finn’s stories channels truths that are timeless and universal. This trilogy shows he’s doing more than moonlighting from his main gig, along with a body of elliptical tales that deserve a fuller telling.

There’s not necessarily any closure here as Finn brings his trilogy to an end, but there is a sense of completion. After examining these characters in different lights, from various angles, it’s as if he has done what he can to make their stories resonate. Whatever he decides to do next will indeed be the start of a whole new war.

I Need a New War delivers its stories with the skill we've come to expect, and fans will likely be more than satisfied. At the same time, Finn's been telling these stories for a while, and the completion of a trilogy suggests it he might be starting to look elsewhere. If so, War makes for a nice conclusion to this run.

With its dreamy atmosphere and loitering tempos, the album is more reliant than ever on Finn’s wordplay. ... At the same time, Finn can get too bogged down in minutiae, such as devoting an entire verse of “Holyoke” to binge-watching TV shows. But even then, the aside serves the song’s larger purpose of illustrating the anxiety-ridden narrator’s vain attempts to distract himself from the omnipresence of death.

Finn remains an astute and supremely compassionate songwriter, but musically, New War is often mellow to the point of lethargic. It's best when it showcases his deep eccentricities. [May 2019, p.27]