Findlay Brown – Love Will Find You

Bare-knuckle boxer turned singer/songwriter, Findlay Brown was on his way back from a sold-out show in London (promoting his debut album, Separated By The Sea) when a cab driver ran over his leg, shattering his tibia and breaking his ankle in two different places. Terrible misfortune? Perhaps, but the 28-year-old from North Yorkshire took a different perspective. “In a weird way, it felt like it had to happen,” he said, “I needed to slow down, stop working, and get some perspective on what I wanted to do for the next album.” He took his time to develop the theme of the album, Love Will Find You, which (painfully) revisits the sounds of the late ’50s and early ’60s.

The record sounds like something you would hear on the jukebox at a ’50s diner. Brown’s new songs are very similar to those of long ago pop stars like Elvis, Frankie Valli, and Roy Orbison. While it’s very traditional, the entire album seems like an anachronism. It’s strange to think these are new songs, and the product of the 21st century. The vintage feel of the album evokes a certain type of nostalgia, but it hardly held my interest. In an attempt to recreate classics like “Stand By Me,” Brown seems to have created lesser versions of the same. All 10 tracks follow the same universal theme of love (surprise, surprise). The only song that stands out as a possible hit is the title track, “Love Will Find You.” Brown sings, “How long, how long can we wait for it?/ You know that we pray for it, only to fear inside/ Love will find you” in the same smooth, high baritone of Roy Orbison, over that classic pop beat. The last track on the album, “I Had A Dream,” also has some musical value. The big band sound of the horns paired with the electric organ, and the chorus of “aah ahh”’s in the background reminded me of the soundtrack to Pleasantville.

While not quite enjoyable, Brown’s intentions are admirable. It is not unusual to hear someone say, “They just don’t write songs like they used to!” And it’s true, “they” don’t. He looked at an era of music he admired, studied the songwriting of epic musicians, and tried to replicate the kind of classics he grew up loving. I admire the fact that he tried to make something new out of the old, but I really would have liked to see a little more creativity here. Where he could have added a new-age spin to the old classics, he fell short, and instead merely copied what has been done before.

Tagged as: England, North Yorkshire, Rock

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