But this is nowstalgia, not nostalgia. “I want something new, but with the same ethos,” singer Fin Greenall explains. There’s a parallel between the restless 18-year-olds Fink once were and the autumn-aged family men they are now. Touring remains a compulsion as much as a joy, despite having played every major European city countless times. “The need to play your new material is so overwhelming that it trumps all the comforts and trinkets.”
City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky.