History
In a 1996 interview, lead singer Bernard Fanning described Parables for Wooden Ears as "big and presumptuous", and stated that it had "a pretty massive sort of sound". He said that the band somewhat regretted this, and didn't intend to do so again on future releases.
On Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger worked with producer Tony Cohen, whom Fanning described as having a huge reputation, and thus being expensive to work with. However, due to the "lack of an obvious single", the album sold poorly, despite the effort put into production. The album was recorded at Melbourne's Metropolis Studios in February 1994. Parables for Wooden Ears contained references by Powderfinger to Aboriginal rights, with a song written by drummer Jon Coghill discussing the idea that the band's generation was the first to reach out to the concept of reconciliation.
In 1998, guitarist Ian Haug described Internationalist as a moderation between the band's last two albums, calling Parables for Wooden Ears a "complicated beast". In a 1999 interview, Fanning said that the band "were sorting out our sound" on the album, and that despite it not working well they still thought it was "a good record". Juice commentator Simon Wooldridge noted in 2000 that Parables for Wooden Ears contained "million"s of riffs, and thus the band were not able to produce a simple sound on the album.
In a November 2004 interview with Melbourne newspaper The Age, Fanning recalled that the head of Polydor Records had described the album as "awful", and remarked that "God knows what we were on then". He also said that in making Parables for Wooden Ears, Powderfinger "went through this weird stage of trying to be something weren't." Fanning also told Australian Musician that the album, a "spectacular failure", was a result of the band feeling "forced" to play like other bands that were popular in Brisbane at the time.
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