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I’ve mentioned Finger Eleven on the site a couple times by now, and it’s about time they got their own post. I was pretty lucky to find these guys as I found them back in my gambling days of buying cheap rock CDs I hadn’t heard of. While I don’t agree with their creative choices for their most recent CD, they still had a few great albums before they turned to complete mainstream. The first album I purchased was The Greyest of Blue Skies (2000), but my favorite is their first release under Finger Eleven, Tip (1997). Anyways, instead of writing a negative post about my dashed expectations of their latest release, I figured I’d try to get the word out about how solid their first three releases were.
I know it’s hard break first impressions, but if your first impression of Finger Eleven is from their latest album Them vs. You vs. Me (2007), I pray that you’ll have enough confidence in my tastes to believe that they used to be so much more than that (even Pearse liked them!). Maybe I just hold them at a higher regard because they were among the first bands I found when I began developing my own taste in music, but I still think they had a unique take on hard rock… certainly at the time, and even still today. I mulled over the idea of giving Scott Anderson a spot in the Strongest Voices in Rock post, but realized that even though he’s one of my favorites, he wasn’t really as strong as my other choices. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great singer.
Aside from strong vocals and quality writing/arrangements, the next aspect that stuck out to me was their bass player. Too often bass players are either just guitar players that picked up a bass because they realized there’s more of a demand for bassists than guitarists or the bass guitar is mixed in such a way that you have to really listen for it to realize it’s good. Sean Anderson is one of those good bassists that just plays too damn subtle for anyone other than musicians to notice. He’s very rarely flashy, but he’s definitely creative. If you ever see him live, you can tell he’s holding back… you’ll probably also notice his feet nailed to the ground. If there’s anyone that moves less than me when performing on stage, it’s Sean Anderson. But that doesn’t bother me in the least bit.
I’ve got to give Finger Eleven some credit for being able to redefine their sound so many times. They’re no Radiohead or anything, but each album definitely has a different sound and feel. I’m really not sure how to describe the first album. I guess you could say its slightly harder and darker than alternative. The first track in this post’s audio clip is a pretty good slice of what to expect from Tip, it also happens to be my favorite Finger Eleven track, Awake and Dreaming. The Greyest of Blue Skies took their sound a little harder; it has a little hint of Korn, or at least Korn if they knew how to write good music. This album had a couple singles out, but didn’t do quite as well as Tip… perhaps their new American following wasn’t ready for the change. That might explain why they changed it up once again on their self-titled album which was released in 2003. I actually really liked this album, but there were a few tracks that just seemed like media grabbers just shy of the quality writing I came to expect of them. This album wasn’t as hard as The Greyest of Blue Skies. I’d say the guitars were “dirty” and not so much heavy or hard. Also, I really liked the bass guitar in the self-titled album… much more intricate than the prior release. Despite the stylistic changes from album to album, Scott’s voice was always great. So if you like his voice, you’ll like it on every album. Overall, Finger Eleven is still one of my favorite bands despite their latest release being well below par. The audio clip in the post includes Awake and Dreaming, Suffocate, and Converstions from Tip, The Greyest of Blue Skies, and Finger Eleven respectively.
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