If “Biscuits for Breakfast,” Fink’s debut album for Ninja Tune, traded, at least in part, on a seismic musical shift for both artist and label, then “Distance and Time” raised the game for both parties.
On this record Fink handed over production to Lamb’s Andy Barlow, and the resultant album is noticeably bigger, and more sophisticated, than its predecessor. Boldly, “Distance and Time” starts not with a bang, but the whispered introduction of “Trouble’s What You’re In,” so slight that you fear for its own safety.
“There are no samples, and we’ve kept the electronic trickery to a minimum on this record,” explained Fink. “I think that the songs have enough gravitas and emotional punch to get through without all of that, and I was very conscious of not being a touchy-feely photocopy of someone from the seventies or whatever. Our experience on the road has been that most Fink fans aren’t the same people who are into James Morrison or Paulo Nutini. Maybe that’s a Ninja Tune thing, or it’s in the songs – but it seems I’m the guitar-based artist you’re allowed to like if you don’t like most of the other stuff out there….”
“This is the Thing,” the second track on the album and lead single, continues the build. The lyrics, dying embers of a failing relationship, are resilient but brittle, delivered with matter-of-fact honesty: “…the things that keep us apart, keep me alive.” Following on from the stripped-back and painfully regretful “If Only,” “Blueberry Pancakes” ups the pace – the rhythm section hammering out the cut, as Fink’s guitar has no choice but to go electric. “I’m not an angry bloke,” Fink explains, “but if I do get angry, I internalise it and I think you can feel that tension in the album. There’s a line on the song ‘Get Your Share’ which sounds almost jovial, but in my head I feel so angry, it’s a little aside that means a lot to me, and would certainly mean a lot to the other person. There is something about a love song which everyone on the planet can relate to, whether they’re in love or out of love, hating love or loving love.”
“Under the Same Stars” and “So Many Roads” both signify greater ambition in Fink’s sound and writing, their meteoric arrangements reminiscent of the best records of the new acoustic movement. On “Make It Good” the paper-thin beats and almost a cappella introduction reflect the fragile sentiment of the song itself – optimistically hoping to put a broken relationship ‘back together, piece by piece.’ The closing minutes of the album are perhaps most telling of Fink’s time on the road, the epic “Little Blue Mailbox” having strayed as far from the DJ booth as can be…
