Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera
Caught By The Heart Out now
For musicians, the pandemic has brought some terrible pain, from lost colleagues to wrecked livelihoods. But this vast black cloud has two silver linings. We, the audience, have seen just how much we need music. And they, the artists, have poured their energies into writing and recording.
Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera have been friends since 1975, when Finn’s band (Split Enz) supported Manzanera’s (Roxy Music) on an Australian tour. Living 11,500 miles apart – one in Auckland, the other in London – they haven’t met in person for 15 years. But when lockdown descended in March 2020, Finn sent Manzanera an email.
‘I asked,’ Finn says, ‘if he had any slow Latin grooves I could work with.’ It was like asking David Hockney if he had any paintings of trees. Latin grooves have been Manzanera’s forte since 1957 – when, as a six-year-old living in Havana with his English father and Colombian mother, he took up the Spanish guitar.
He and Finn ended up writing 23 songs together. The first they released, Caught By The Heart, made a glorious single, capturing the giddiness of falling in love. Now here is an album of the same name, and the same artistry.
Their sound bears the hallmarks of Latin pop – instant hooks, underlying sadness – and Finn’s impassioned vocals slip in and out of Spanish. But this is really world music. The lyrics are a plea for the planet, not ranting but aching. The musicians, all excellent, range from an Israeli ace of bass (Yaron Stavi) to an AngloBahraini flugelhorn player (Yazz Ahmed).
The melodies speak a universal language: every few minutes you come across something beautiful. Manzanera’s guitar is as elegantly lucid as ever, and one track, The Cry Of The Earth, has the sumptuous sophistication of Avalon. He leaves you looking forward to his next album with Finn, while also wishing he’d make one more with
Bryan Ferry.