We’re just about a couple weeks removed from the release of Finneas’ debut solo album, Optimist, an album that has so far produced a pair of singles: “What They’ll Say About Us” and “A Concert Six Months From Now.” He performed on The Late Late Show yesterday, but instead of one of those singles, he chose to highlight album cut “Love Is Pain.”
He kept the performance understated, as it was just him singing the reflective song as he played it on piano. The stage design was similarly minimal but striking, as light dramatically emanated from holes in his piano.
Finneas previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of his new album, “When I listen to it back now, I was writing a very interpersonal introspective album, and I think that’s what a year of sitting at home and thinking will do to you. […] When I listen to this album of mine I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this is how I was feeling and this is how I’ve felt my whole life about certain things,’ and for that reason I’m very proud of this record and I feel very comfortable with it. 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 aging.’ I think this album is honest enough that it doesn’t really matter how it ages because it’s how I feel.”
Watch Finneas perform “Love Is Pain” above.