Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 02/07/07
Label: Parlophone

There was a time, 1991 actually, when Crowded House's music was everywhere. People stripped floors, drove to IKEA or tasted their first Pesto sauce to the omnipresent strains of the band's "Wood Face" album, while radio stations lapped up a succession of breezy singles and the press embraced Neil Finn's charming, thoroughly 'decent bloke' persona. Finn's no fool. That record was supposed to be a Finn Brothers album (Tim was also in Kiwi superstars, Split Enz), but it sounded more like a band outing and drummer Paul Hester (tragically to commit suicide in 1996, the year the band split) had a song or two to contribute, so it became a Crowded House LP - and a hit one at that. Know your audience.

This time around, we have a Neil Finn solo record masquerading as a Crowded House reunion album; the band only plays on a handful of the songs. Nobody can blame Finn for deciding the time is right to make big bucks on the back of a Crowded House world tour, though the singer/songwriter has always celebrated his back catalogue at his own famously, chummy gigs in recent years. So here we have a, perhaps overlong, collection of songs that reflect Finn's usual palette of singalong pop ("She Called Up"), achingly fine ballads ("Pour Le Monde"), and darker, more ambient sounds ("A Sigh").

Lyrically, particularly in recent years, Finn's abstractions are often dense and stubbornly confusing. But when he gets a great, simple idea, such as here on "English Trees", his brilliant weaving of a tale of loss and yearning marks him out as up there with the very best songwriters working today. The aforementioned "Pour Le Monde" would even have graced John Lennon's "Imagine" album. The singer has always gone to great lengths to collaborate with other artists and old pal Johnny Marr crops up again here on the sprightly, inevitably Smithsy, co-written "Even A Child".

At 14 tracks long, the album will try the patience of the casual listener. "Transit Lounge" doesn't help matters with its German spoken intro and laid back '80s feel, heightened by Beth Rowley's odd, mannered backing vocals. "You Are The Only One To make Me Cry" and the closing "People Are Like Suns" only serve to leave a maudlin taste in the musical mouth, though Finn fans will know that previous albums often end on a sombre note, stubbornly refusing to pander to rock's 'leave them on a high' rule.

None of which detracts from the overall impression of a fine singer/songwriter enjoying life in a purple patch. And if Neil Finn wants to tour under the Crowded House moniker (in the UK before Christmas, folks) then why shouldn't he? Expect to hear a smattering of gems from "Time On Earth", more than holding their own with the band's much loved and more famous moments.

    by Andy Strickland