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Oct 14, 2021While Optimist makes a good case for FINNEAS' skills around a pop melody and a perceptive viewpoint, he also drops the instrumental piano piece "Peaches Etude" in the middle of the track list. Accordingly, the album plays like a portfolio, perhaps fitting for a musician still sorting out and amplifying his potential.
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Oct 29, 2021O’Connell colours firmly between the lines. His ideas do not stray beyond the conventions you’d expect for each singer-songwriter outfit he puts on from song to song.
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Nov 11, 2021What begins as a deeply personal commentary eventually evolves into a world-renowned producer taking the attention away from his ability to refine others’ work, alternately placing the spotlight over his own voice, with its startling ability to carry a tale of kindred love, loss and the weight of fame.
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MojoOct 19, 2021Nothing remotely insipid here; rather anger as an energy and top tunes. [Dec 2021, p.84]
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Oct 14, 2021‘Optimist’ is an accomplished first album that really shines and, given Finneas’ track record so far, we wouldn’t have expected anything less.
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Oct 18, 2021While bidding for timeless and universal appeal, Finneas sometimes comes up with hollow platitudes. ... Occasionally, he hits on something more stirring, like on “Love Is Pain” when he recalls waking in tears from a dream about his parents’ death—demonstrating the very real consequences of getting older rather than vaguely fretting about them. Finneas’ exercise in restraint has its limits: These subdued songs are surrounded by highly produced, pointedly topical ones.
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Oct 14, 2021While his pretensions can at times make things a little awkward (see the impressionistic piano piece “Peaches Etude”), there’s an admirable idealism in his desire to write earnest songs in a cynical age, and those songs can end up leaving a clear, large mark on your emotions.
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Oct 14, 2021This album feels like the most cohesive and considered statement of who he is, both as an individual and as a solo artist. Stylistically, it has everything: chamber pop, grunge, classical, Latin, rock.
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Oct 18, 2021Optimist is unlike any other debut, as this is not an introduction but rather a fateful reckoning.
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Nov 8, 2021While not necessarily “solid” and occasionally clumsy. ... Enjoy Optimist for what it is—an honest and insightful bit of commentary from a seemingly centered, obviously talented young artist.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 43
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Mixed: 2 out of 43
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Negative: 6 out of 43
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Oct 17, 2021
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Feb 12, 2022
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Nov 2, 2021this is one of the most beautiful album released on this year, no skips. good job, finneas.