Optimist Tracklist
Optimist is FINNEAS’s debut studio album, released on October 15th, 2021 under OYOY and Interscope Records.
On February 6th, 2021, FINNEAS released the album’s lead single, “What They’ll Say About Us” later following a second single which was released on August 5th, 2021, titled “A Concert Six Months From Now.” The same day FINNEAS dropped his second single, he announced via Instagram the title and the official date for the release of his debut album.
A month later, he released his third single, “The 90s.” The official music video for the track premiered a day after its release. And finally, on October 15th, 2021, the album’s fourth and final single “Love is Pain” along with its official music video was released.
“Optimist” Q&A
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What have the artists said about the album?
FINNEAS:To me it’s about the delineation of me as an artist versus myself as a producer and collaborator. That has a bit to do with opinion. It’s not always my job to voice my opinion on someone else’s song. It’s my job to support their experience. So my album is very opinionated; it’s my view on life. I want it to be transparent. I wanna be as myself as possible, which is scary and hard to do but necessary. I read this quote the other day: “The irony is that what people are trying to imitate is authenticity.” That’s the truth.
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Translations
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What have the artists said about the album?
It’s very hard to prioritise your own music, because it’s more excusable to let yourself down than to let other artists down. The biggest challenge in making an album for myself is having to actually always look inward and be like, ‘Is this how I want it to sound?’ I’m not trying to please anybody with it except myself.
When I listen back to it [his sister Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever album] now, I was writing a very introspective album. And I think that’s what a year of sitting at home and thinking will do to you.
I think, sometimes, when stuff is finished and sits on a shelf for a while, you look up at it and you’re like, ‘I don’t know how well that’s ageing,’. When I listen, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this is how I was feeling and this is how I’ve felt my whole life about certain things.’ I think this album is honest enough that it doesn’t really matter how it ages because it’s how I feel.
—via Apple Music
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How did this album perform on the charts?
“Optimist” debuted at #94 on the Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Popular Albums Chart during the week ending October 21, 2021.
