Experiencing a Fink song is to be cast out in the wide open, left adrift on the road with not much water by a vehicle that throws up an inordinate amount of dust as it drives into the distance.
That's not to mock, mind, for Fink's recent transition to a double life as electronic beatsmith and singer of acoustically led, inwardly facing songs has been a seamless one. Having tried out his new bent on the rather wonderful Biscuits For Breakfast album, This Is The Thing marks the start of a collaboration with Lamb's Andy Barlow behind the studio desk, and confirms the move to be a successful one.
Low-slung guitars, husky, murmured vocal and a softly pulsing bass combine for a heat-soaked three minutes of escapism, audibly building on the bare bones of the previous album but keeping the principal weapon to the fore - Fink's wonderful voice.
It's these qualities that have seen the modest singer recruited for a high profile credit card advert - and will doubtless see one or two more around the release of forthcoming album Distance And Time. The difference being that this is a songwriter we should be hearing more of, not one who wails incoherently or gets too caught up in himself. He's a singer-songwriter it's OK to like.
