Album Info

Always Been

By Craig Finn

Indie Rock - 2025

The sixth solo album from Craig Finn may venture further from his rowdier work with The Hold Steady, but the... more

Tracklist

1

Bethany

5:49 min
2

People Of Substance

2:59 min
3

Crumbs

3:43 min
4

Luke & Leanna

3:30 min
5

The Man I've Always Been

4:07 min
6

Fletcher's

5:39 min
7

A Man Needs A Vocation

4:49 min
8

I Walk With A Cane

4:36 min
9

Clayton

2:55 min
10

Postcards

6:05 min
11

Shamrock

5:26 min

About Always Been

The sixth solo album from Craig Finn may venture further from his rowdier work with The Hold Steady, but the communal atmosphere remains a selling point; The War On Drugs’ Adam Granduciel produced the album, and members of his band play on it, as do Kathleen Edwards and Sam Fender. Never one to shy away from vivid storytelling, Finn crafts a concept album of sorts, telling the tale, in his own words, of a person who becomes “a clergyman despite a lack of faith.” Epics and ballads abound, like on the piano-driven “Crumbs,” where the narrator tells of staying with family, imbued with Finn’s one-of-a-kind eye for detail: the crumbs of toast around her niece’s mouth during breakfast time, the sound of the nearby highway. Moments like these often pass through lives unobserved, but Craig Finn turns the mundane into declarations of humanity.