The Sun Came Out

iTunes Review

Neil Finn assembled 7 Worlds Collide and this, their second offering, benefits Oxfam International and features Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt and Pat Sansone as well as Johnny Marr, Bic Runga, KT Tunstall, Ed O’Brien, Phil Selway, Sebastian Steinberg, Lisa Germano, Don McGlashan, Glenn Richards, and the Finn brothers, Neil, Tim and Liam. The collaboration between Tweedy and Marr is the most fetching — “Too Blue” opens like an anglophile’s version of Wilco replete with that unmistakable Smithsesque guitar tone, sweeping strings, and Tweedy’s scratchy voice making for an uncanny musical chemistry. Tweedy goes solo on “Duxton Blues” mixing garage rock and Americana to sound like Golden Smog. But under his acoustic guitar he adds simple drum machine and keys to the plaintive ballad “What Could Have Been.” Marr plays and sings on “Run In The Dust,” a haunting Britpop gem where he inflects a bit like Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. Lisa Germano’s “Reptile” sounds like an art-folk gem from a late-‘90s 4AD compilation and Neil Finn’s “All Comedians Suffer” is quirky and catchy.