Album Review: Various He Will Have His Way The Songs of Tim & Neil Finn

He Will Have His Way album cover. Photo / Supplied

Rating: 3.5/5
Verdict: Tribute album's amusing masculine sequel

Five years after She Will Have Her Way - a 16-track salute to the brothers Finn by an all-women Australasian crew - comes the boys' own version. The predecessor wasn't a lot of fun - too many milkmaids squeezing the last drop of pathos out of the tunes was the over-riding impression.

This though is largely an improvement. For a start it's got a decent spread of ages - from the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and ex-Midnight Oilers The Break, through to youngsters like our own up-and-comers Artisan Guns.

Though it does swing a bit to the left side of the Tasman with Mint Chick Kody Nielson (making oddity Kiss the Road of Rarotonga even odder) the only other local rep included.

But there are plenty of intriguing interpretations among the 16.

That includes Boy & Bear's harmony-lush banjo-picked Fall At Your Feet; Glenn Richards' She Got Body, She Got Soul capturing the crazy paving of early Enz; Barnesy's hairy-chested Message to My Girl as well as the two takes on Better Be Home Soon - The Sleepy Jackson find its hitherto undetected goth-disco undercurrent and render it unrecognisable, while Busby Marou gives it the acoustic beach-folk treatment.

For the Finn follower who has everything.

-TimeOut