In 2021, Finneas O’Connell stepped out of his sister Billie Eilish’s shadow to release his own solo record, Optimist (QRO review), an intimate, if quite Millennial/Gen Z album. For his follow-up, For Cryin’ Out Loud!, he widened his production & producers for very nice release.
Indeed, Loud! is decidedly a nice listen, could even be called ‘easy listening’ were that term not already taken. Most notable is the easy seventies nature of many of the songs, such as the killer smooth “What’s It Gonna Take To Break Your Heart?”, or the light funk backbeats to “Cleats” & catchy charming “2001”. It does mean that the songs can veer a bit basic, outside of stand-outs “Heart”, “2001”, and the notable intimate change-up “Family Feud” (that one can’t help but think is about him and Billie Eilish O’Connell).
FINNEAS didn’t need to go solo and all-caps his name, as he’s already almost as big in little sister’s music as she is. But it’s given him a nice avenue to showcase his own nice self & nice music.
