Press (Record Reviews)

'I DREAMS AND VISIONS':

"Ragged and Wonderful sliver of a debut from London noiseniks." As America's rock underground surged to the surface with Nirvana's success, some strange and wonderful noises scattered briefly across the mainstream. Ten years later, bands like Finlay bear the fruit of these strange seeds of influence, with their scratchy altrock and serrated tales of urban paranoia. There are echoes of Sonic Youth, Pavement and Eric's Trip in these blasts of avant-melody and bruised burnished punk, building to the 1-2 punch of 'Magic Queen' and 'Theme', the former a thorny late night hurtle through dark alleys of fuzz and septic riffage, the latter a soul-sating, speaker-shredding guitar-vs-melodica duel a la Mogwai. Over 12 tracks Finlay explore these dual poles with wit, invention and no little fire permeating the lo-fi fug; come loose yourself in this perplexing maze of ideas."
- KKKK (Kerrang!)


"Finlay's debut is a skelter stitch together of heroic and inspired pop music tuned in from an unearthly frequency. An album written for a state of shock, perhaps an attempt to make sense of a world that can seem frightening and violent. "IDreams And Visions" hurtles, near autistic, through moments of scratchy joy and sheer scabbed terror, from the slaloming urban gothic of 'Magic Queen', disintegrating under the panic-choked riff lash, to the turbulent calm of "Theme", soundtrack to a cool nouvelle vague scene. Crawling the pavement, certainly, but gazing starwards, Finlay revel in dark poetry and cracked rock'n'roll, and are as brilliant as such casually sculpted sidewalking can get."
- Careless Talk Costs Lives (Sept/Oct 2003)


"Too many young bands come out of their bedrooms before they're ready. No such accusation can be levelled at Nottingham quartet Finlay. It's three years since their first single, and since then they've been crafting a debut of clever, spiky lo-fi post rock on which the influence of late period Damon Albarn, early Mogwai, Lou Barlow and Pavement is clear. Yes, Finlay, you can come out now. It sounds like you're just about Ready."
- UNCUT Magazine


"At last, a real alternative. London's Finlay specialise in accessible alterna-pop that makes absolutely no concessions to this years model, instead they deploy primitive beats and off-key harmonies, recalling the early adventures of Pavement and Ted Leo. Finlay's music seems designed as a reaction to Blur's wholesale misappropriation of lo-fi, a sinister whisper with a simple message: THIS is how you do it."
- LOGO Magazine


"Their album doesn't quite capture the thrill of these London-based fuzz poppers' gigs, but it's still a good helping of skewed fuzz-pop. Imagine Pavement or Grandaddy, with Sonic Youth's Thurstan Moore twiddling the knobs."
- The Independent

"As the mainstream embraces pop, Finlay's plaid chatter offers a peculiar appeal ... there's charm in the 'Hour's Coming' and 'Anna's Calling', as Adam Straw croaks over kooky keyboards and Anamik Saha keeps disinterested time by poking a cymbal with a lollipop stick ... there's a charismatic beast lurking behind their adolescent excesses ... a gallant effort."
- BANG Magazine

"Oblique lyricism and music that brings to mind words like 'fuzzy', 'spiky' and even 'whimsical'. But beneath all the lo-fi anti-bluster there's something else going on, namely that Finlay have a rather fortuitous ability to write good songs ... 'I Dreams and Visions' is a warm, huggable friend of a record, and an inspired choice for those times when only indie will do."
- Taste Fanzine(To Hell With)

Press (Live Reviews)

"OK. This is the hottest band to come out of Essex this year. It's true. Finlay really excite me. There is some kinda electric buzz in the air when this bunch of skinny bedragled young things wield their instruments - they are at once passionate and tender with caustic guitar sounds that rip your heart strings. You see there I was sitting idly staring at the next-dayness of it all, sometime mid-afternoon, wondering why I had got up so early seeing as I was being soooo uninteresting… when I was drawn towards the unmistakable sight of heads nodding merrily to a Pavement-ish sound in the main tent. So up I got a trundled across and what did I see? Young woman with barbie sized keyboard, drummer with one fist firmly raised in the air, thrashing his drums very very hard with the one drum stick… bass player boy doing sizzer kicks every 8 seconds and… two incredibly wonky looking guitarists: one sporting a peculiar headpiece that looked bizarrely enough like a visor with a peak made from ostrich feathers or some such thing, and one with the biggest goddamn gurn across his rather weathered face that you have ever seen. Oy hey, thought I. This should be fun. Now, the amazing thing about wonky-guitarist-number-two, or Chris as he is known to his friends… is that no matter how much he jerked and around the stage, tried and light a fag, tried and smoke a fag, fumbled with his water bottle, rearranged his clothing, whatever… he was a total fuckin mess until it came to actually playing the bloody guitar and then you know what? The bitch was goooood. But he was seriously strung out. Heavens knows what drugs he had been taking but he didn't get em from me, ok folks? Wonky-guitarist-number-one is Adam, the cracking and goofily handsome lead singer. And what a great fuckin voice, something like a combo of Thurston Moore with the Dandy's Lou Reed impersonation. Hey, my kinda guy. They rocked, glided crashed and slammed through their set, playing a range of lo-fi tender ditties and heart wrenching, powerful, fast and furious melodies, interspersing each number with philosophical insights such as 'um, we're from Redbridge'. Totally endearing. Their single 'Little Dancing Solos' is a gem - sorta sonic youth meets Mogwai… but Finlay have their own unique voice. They have a heartfelt passion and raw energy with just so much fizz and mean pop guitar riffs. So what are you waiting for?
Come see them on 13th November at the Spitz."
- Dive Music Magazine (venue:- Truck Festival)



"Something happened to Finlay since I last saw them, less than a year ago. They previously seemed an amorphous postpunk group with a hint of coherent song peeking through the customary guitar band noise. This time, they were transformed. The same five people, but each stood out more individually somehow, and they were better as a band for it. Thus I am able to say muso-critic things like “a really good drummer who joined with the fine good bassist to make a propulsive rhythm section” and so on. But it's true. And Loma, the girl who sits coolly over to the side playing little melodc bits on a tiny Casio in her lap and singing occasional harmonies, she is more than decorative. Those keyboard parts really shape the music.

The centre of it all is singer-guitarist and presumably songwriter Adam, the guy that looks like Seinfeld. He's got a genial voice that is unique, like Leonard Cohen with Hush Puppies and a pipe, or Stuart Staples on Prozac.

There's an obvious strain of irony running through the proceedings, a sure sign of intelligence, which is always reassuring when you can't make out the lyrics.

There is a visceral side to this band too; it's not all H.R. ‘Bob' Dobbs mild mannered ironica (hey, a new word – you heard it here first, folks. And look up the HR Bob Dobbs Church of the Sub-Genius website). Adam and gang like to plunge into the occasional psychedelic noise-a-rama, still maintaining that healthy sense of detachment. Kudos to bassist Giles for practicing his scissor kicks at various lulls in the music. Not to spoil the end of this story, but Finlay produced the best set of this night. It's a band that has crystallised its style and is ready to move up to the next level, whatever that is."
- Moles Club (venue:- Bath Moles, + The Butterflies Of Love)



"Finlay are wonderful and odd and spiky and off-kilter. They have bits that are all discordant and weird and shuffle along like a Home Counties Pavement, and then suddenly they'll break into a chorus so big and catchy that the entire front row of the audience starts doing that rubberneck nodding dog thing. Their secret weapon is a fierce rhythm section that pounds everything together while the guitarist blast off into their power-drill riffs. But the best bit about Finlay remains the incredibly bored looking girl who sits on the side of the stage, plays keyboards and occasionally singing."
- Careless Talk Costs Lives (venue:- Dublin Castle, + Death Cab For Cutie)



- NME (Hope & Anchor)