Crowded House released Time on Earth

Time on Earth Crowded House

Released: June 29, 2007 Peak: 46 US, 3 UK, 38 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 0.45 world (includes US and UK) Genre: adult alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Nobody Wants To Don’t Stop Now (6/16/07, –) She Called Up (9/17/07, –) Say That Again Pour Le Monde (12/10/07, --) Even a Child Heaven That I’m Making A Sigh Silent House English Trees Walked Her Way Down Transit Lounge You Are the One to Make Me Cry People Are Like Suns Total Running Time: 58:31 The Players: Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, piano) Nick Seymour (bass, backing vocals) Mark Hart (piano, keyboards, electric guitar, harmony vocals) Matt Sherrod (drums, backing vocals)

Rating: 3.790 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Crowded House released four albums in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Frontman Neil Finn then ventured out as a solo artist and released “the kaleidoscopic Try Whistling This and the hazy One Nil, both book-ended by albums with his brother Tim.” AMG Year after year went by without new music from Crowded House. Then tragedy struck in 2005 when Paul Hester, who’d drummed with Finn on all four Crowded House albums and even worked with him back in his Split Enz days – committed suicide. This sparked Neil to reconnect with Nick Seymour, the bassist on all four Crowded House albums. Multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart, who’d worked on Together Alone, also rejoined the fold and what had initially been intended as Finn’s third solo album evolved into the first Crowded House album in fourteen years. However, this still looks and sounds more like a Neil Finn solo outing than a Crowded House effort. Most of the album was recorded with session musicians – nost notably guitarist Johnny Marr of the Smiths. The team of Finn, Seymour, Hart, and Sherrod only appear on four of the album’s tracks. As a result, “it’s streamlined where their previous albums were ragged, and the most notable element that’s been trimmed is the humor that ran throughout each of their albums.” AMG “This curtailing of good spirits is an appropriate, even expected, reaction to Hester’s death, and his ghost does linger over the whole of Time on Earth.” AMG Nick Seymour did the cover art, as he did for the previous Crowded House albums, and made it a tribute to Hester. The cover – a direct reference to the sea serpent in Olaus Magnus’ book History of the Northern Peoples, features a blue dragon eating a human, a symbol of the depression that consumed Hester. WK Of course, Hester’s presence is “most apparent in the subdued, contemplative tone of the album.” AMG Uncut’s Bud Scoppa says the opening cut, Nobody Wants To, sets “the prevailing melancholy mood.” WK Regarding People Are Like Suns, Finn said “part of it is the idea that people burn brightly and then they fade out.” WK Yahoo! Music’s Andy Strickland asserts that English Trees is a “brilliant weaving of a tale of loss and yearning…[that puts him] up there with the very best songwriters working today.” WK Less direct are songs like Silent House, which Finn initially wrote with the Dixie Chicks prior to Hester’s death. It first appeared on their 2006 album Taking the Long Way, but resurfaces here. The song reads specifically as a reminiscing excursion sparked by going through a grandmother’s belongings after her death from Alzheimer’s. However, on a grander scale it works as a reflection on loss of loved ones in general. “This mildly mournful vibe is enhanced by the subdued tone of the album.” AMG Billboard’s Jessica Letkemann says, “Gone are the more overtly ‘80s top 40 flourishes.” WK “This set of songs takes its time, relying heavily on ballads and meditative, mid-tempo pop tunes, and even the brighter numbers like She Called Up are far from sprightly.” AMG “Finn may in a ruminative mode but Time on Earth is not heavy-handed or oppressively sorrowful: it’s contemplative and sweetly melancholy. Given this hushed vibe, it’s not surprising that the album, as a whole, is a bit of a grower, as Finn’s tunes take some time to reveal their gifts. A few songs have an immediate impact; such as the gently propulsive Don’t Stop Now, the snappy, jangly Marr collaboration Even a Child (the closest this record comes to a rocker) and the spacy, tongue-in-cheek Transit Lounge, featuring Beth Rowley as vocal support; but most of these are subtle songs that unfold at their own speed. It may take some time for the songs to catch hold, but once they do, they dig deep, sticking around in the memory like much of Finn’s best work.” AMG Pour Le Monde (French for “For the World”), one of Finn’s “achingly fine ballads,” WK was inspired by a demonstration Finn observed in Paris against the war on terror. WK Transit Lounge is about the time Finn spent in transit lounges around the world, particularly Singapore and Bangkok. WK “Even if the best of this album does stand proudly alongside the best of Finn’s music, Time on Earth is still quite unlike any of his other records: strangely, it feels more like a solo album than either of his solo albums, partially because it’s such an introspective work, partially because it sustains a bittersweet tone from beginning to end, whereas his other solo efforts careened wildly between moods.” AMG While this is “Neil Finn’s show, this also does feel like the work of a band, since there is a warmth here, a feeling of support, that sounds like a group, not a one-man-band. This curious intermingling of sounds and intent makes Time on Earth a haunting yet comforting affair that is quite unique in Neil Finn’s body of work, yet functions as an oddly appropriate, utterly worthy, comeback as Crowded House.” AMG Notes: The CD was released with a bonus DVD.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/3/2008; last updated 8/9/2021.

Crowded House released Together Alone

Together Alone Crowded House

Released: October 11, 1993 Peak: 73 US, 4 UK, 18 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 0.3 UK Genre: adult alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Kare Kare [3:35] In My Command [3:43] Nails in My Feet [3:39] (11/20/93, 22 UK, 34 AU) Black and White Boy [4:01] Fingers of Love [4:26] (6/11/94, 25 UK) Pineapple Head [3:28] (9/24/94, 27 UK) Locked Out [3:18] (12/25/93, 12 UK, 8 MR, 81 CN, 79 AU) Private Universe [5:38] (8/94, 46 AU) Walking on the Spot [2:55] Distant Sun [3:50] (10/2/93, 19 UK, 26 MR, 4 CN, 23 AU) Catherine Wheels [5:12] Skin Feeling (Hester) [3:57] Together Alone (N. Finn/Hart/Wehl) [3:57] All songs written by Neil Finn unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 51:32 The Players: Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, keyboards) Nick Seymour (bass, backing vocals) Paul Hester (drums, percussion, vocals) Mark Hart (keyboards, guitars, etc.)

Rating: 3.896 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “More experimental and musically varied than any of their previous releases” AMG Together Alone is “arguably [Crowded House’s] best record.” AZ The band is “branching out into traditional Maori music and heavy guitars;: AMG “the musical arrangements here reflected and encompassed more of their native Kiwi homeland [of] New Zealand.” AZ The band switch from longtime producer “Mitchell Froom to Killing Joke’s Youth,” AZ a move that “energizes their sound without losing sight” AMG of “the shining pop songcraft that is Neil Finn's trademark.” AMG “Each track…is played with passion and heart…The music is simply breathtaking and the lyrics poetic and intelligent.” AZ “Neil [writes] meaningful heartfelt material…in droves.” GS “Most of the songs have ‘The Touch’” GS on “this set of thirteen ear catching tracks.” AZ “One really good new element here is new member Mick Hart's guitar playing. His style is mostly quite traditional; far from being an aficionado of "new" playing techniques, his main idols seem to rather belong to the Clapton/Harrison crowd…it helps make the opening pop rocker, Kare Kare, about ten times moodier than it could have been otherwise. The idea is to create a slightly dark, but utterly romantic mood without sounding cliched, and the subtle touches of Hart's slide guitar after each verse are the main ingredient in the concoction; the song's main hookline is not the actual chorus, but rather the way Finn's oo-oo-ooing seamlessly merges with Hart's playing.” GS “For those who want to hear their favourite band rocking out, there's In My Command, not exactly a hard rocker per se, but a song that cleverly alternates power-pop choruses with hellraising guitar passages.” GS Nails In My Feet’s “melody…is as gentle and crystal clear and fresh and guitar-based as always, and vocal hooks just keep splashing off the walls. The transition from the rough desperation of the verses to the gorgeous ‘and it briiiiings me relief’ culmination is so natural and easy-going you can't help but admire the artistry.” GS “Other soft-sounding, caressingly arranged ballads like Pineapple Head and Catherine Wheels also qualify in this regard.” GS “If you wanted something really heavy, there's always Black & White Boy, with easily the grungiest guitar part to ever come from these guys…[There are also] mysterious lyrics whose protagonist is definitely not easy to decipher…some people have suggested it's actually a dog - could certainly be, at least it's a nice explanation that relieves the band of any possible racist/sexist accusations.” GS “The speedy, funky, Madchester-influenced Locked Out, with a particularly paranoid coda offer[s] something tasty for the headbangers.” GS “For those who just want straightahead, unassuming…power-pop, there's…Distant Sun…For all their adult-contemporarishness, Fingers of Love and Private Universe…betray far more personality.” GS The latter features some “neat guitar textures…where it almost sounds like an Eno-enhanced pseudo-ambient synthesizer, successfully outpunching the real (boring, but maybe necessarily boring) synthesizers.” GS “The title track, closing the album in anthemic style…[is] all about paying tribute to Neil Finn’s native homeland, including some Maori tribal chanting and drumming (although, for some reason, the chanting suspiciously reeks of generic gospel in places.” GS In short, “Together Alone wasn’t actually planned as a goodbye album, [but] it works well as one.” GS

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine AZ Amazon.com GS George Starostin First posted 3/3/2008; last updated 5/15/2021.

Crowded House released Woodface

Woodface Crowded House

Released: July 2, 1991 Peak: 83 US, 6 UK, 20 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 0.6 world (includes US and UK) Genre: adult alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Chocolate Cake [4:02] (6/15/91, 2 MR, 69 UK, 9 CN, 20 AU) It’s Only Natural [3:32] (8/17/91, 5 MR, 24 UK, 55 CN, 15 AU) Fall at Your Feet (N. Finn) [3:18] (10/19/91, 75 US, 17 UK, 27 CN, 31 AU) Tall Trees [2:19] Weather with You [3:44] (2/20/92, 7 UK, 34 CN, 27 AU) Whispers and Moans (N. Finn) [3:39] Four Seasons in One Day [2:50] (6/20/92, 26 UK, 68 CN, 47 AU) There Goes God [3:50] Fame Is (N. Finn) [2:23] All I Ask [3:55] As Sure As I Am (N. Finn) [2:53] Italian Plastic (Hester) [3:39] She Goes On (N. Finn) [3:15] How Will You Go [4:45] Songs by Neil and Tim Finn unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 48:11 The Players: Neil Finn (vocals, guitar, keyboards) Tim Finn (vocals, piano, guitar) Paul Hester (drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals) Nick Seyour (bass, vocals)

Rating: 4.108 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Quotable: “A depth and texture…just not found in most popular music” – CdUniverse.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Woodface reunited the band’s front man and principal songwriter Neil Finn with his big brother, Tim, with whom he had previously played in the eccentric, influential cult group Split Enz.” EG “More than half of the album was originally conceived as a Finn Brothers project, which was Tim and Neil’s first crack at writing together. The songs are easily their finest to date, combining flawless melodies and the outstanding harmonies of the brothers’ perfectly matched voices.” AMG The album’s “consistency and complexity secured the Finns’ status as smart-pop heroes.” EG “Where Crowded House’s previous album, Temple of Low Men, showcased the often dark side of a man alone with his thoughts, Woodface represents the joy of reunion and the freedom of a collaborative effort.” AMG This is an “album that’s filled with intelligence, grace, and humor, not to mention absolutely breathtaking vocal harmonies. There is a depth and texture to the songwriting and performance in the songs of Crowded House, which is just not found in most popular music.” CDU Album opener Chocolate Cake “would have easily fit onto either of the two preceding albums.” GS With “its thinly veiled attack on mass culture values,” GS the song “categorized Americans as fat and greedy and didn’t exactly earn the band a top spot on U.S. airplay lists.” CDU It not only “hits really hard…metaphorically [but] literally, with a mean drum attack and angry guitar wailing.” GS ”The disc moves to the stunning Its Only Natural” CDU which is “ well-written, well-played, and well-meaning.” GS Fall at Your Feet is “romantic without being too sappy, moderately catchy without being annoying.” GS “There’s one moment of really really pretty modulation…where [Neil] goes ‘I’ll be waiting when you call’. That moment happens to be truly captivating.” GS ”Just listen to Weather with You to find out how perfect pop music can be—it’s a track that manages the difficult task of never devolving into sentimentality or inanity.” CDU It was this song that finally broke Crowded House in the U.K. – the song crawled its way up to #7 on their song chart, one of a whopping five songs from the album to land on the U.K. singles chart. ”The stirring surrender of Four Seasons in One Day further demonstrates Neil Finn’s ability to transform his deepest, most disturbed emotions into great songs.” CDU “It is really a pretty, utterly believable ‘philosophical ballad.’” GS An argument can be made that this album could be pared down a few songs, but weaker songs like Tall Trees, Fame Is, and Italian Plastic keep the album from tipping too heavily to an adult contemporary sound. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to lop off She Goes On and How Will You Go - they aren’t bad songs, but by the time we’ve gotten to the end of the album, there’s no need to add any slow tempo tunes to a collection that already gave us the brilliant balladry of “It’s Only Natural,” “Fall at Your Feet,” “Weather with You,” and “Four Seasons in One Day;” not to mention “All I Ask” and “As Sure As I Am.” When all is said and done, though, this is Crowded House’s most interesting album, if not their best. Adding Tim Finn “brought an offbeat edge to Neil’s polished song craft, resulting in biting, ironic rockers…and…pointed, wistful ballads.” EG "’Beauty’ is not a word often used to describe pop music. But in the case of…Crowded House, it is more than appropriate.” CDU Notes: In 2016, a deluxe edition was issued which included a second disc comprised mostly of demos.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Chris Woodstra CDU CdUniverse.com EG Elysa Gardner, Barnes & Noble GS George Starostin First posted 3/3/2008; last updated 5/15/2021.

Crowded House released Temple of Low Men

Temple of Low Men Crowded House

Released: July 1, 1988 Peak: 40 US, 138 UK, 10 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: adult alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. I Feel Possessed [3:48] (8/89, 35 CO, 49 CN, 93 AU) Kill Eye [3:14] Into Temptation [4:33] (12/88, 26 CO, 64 CN, 59 AU) Mansion in the Slums [3:45] When You Come [4:45] (8/88, 18 CO, 27 AU) Never Be the Same [4:28] (10/8/88, 45 AR, 32 CO) Love This Life [3:36] Sister Madly [2:52] (8/88, 33 CO, 66 AU) In the Lowlands [3:57] Better Be Home Soon [3:07] (6/12/88, 42 US, 26 AC, 18 AR, 29 MR, 4 CO, 8 CN, 2 AU) All songs written by Neil Finn. Total Running Time: 38:04 The Players: Neil Finn (vocals, guitar) Nick Seymour (bass, backing vocals) Paul Hester (drums, backing vocals)

Rating: 3.930 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Quotable: “One of the most critically acclaimed yet commercially neglected releases of the late '80s” – CdUniverse.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Temple of Low Men was one of the most critically acclaimed yet commercially neglected releases of the late '80s.” CDU “This stunner of an album is an expression of the thrills and dangers of fame.” CDU “Following the success of Crowded House's debut…Neil Finn was clearly showing signs that he was no longer happy being New Zealand's zany ambassador to the U.S. While the material…demonstrates great leaps in quality over its predecessor, it is a darkly difficult album, especially for those expecting Crowded House, Pt. 2.” AMG “Neil digs into the depths of his emotional psyche with obsessive detail, crafting a set of intense, personal songs” AMG that reveal him as “weary, displeased, unhappy, and a little bit God-fearing.” GS “Through all of this introspective soul-searching, Finn reveals, most of all, his true mastery of melody.” AMG “The decade that introduced sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek references…needs its share of albums like these.” GS This “is a superb follow-up to Crowded House.” CDU “The record…open[s] innocently enough” GS “with the gorgeous I Feel Possessed,” CDU “a song very much in the debut album vein, only emphasized by this strange buzzing keyboard sound in the background…almost sounds like Mellotron…but…it's probably just an organ.” GS The album “drifts into menacing territory” GS with “the raucous exorcism of Kill Eye,” AMG a “power pop anthem…with a killer bassline, great jarring guitar melodies, more of that ominous organ buzz and Finn at his most paranoid - screaming 'I wanna be forgiven! I wanna laugh with children! Won't you ever forgive me?' It's not really ‘scary,’ because Finn can't bring himself to writing (and arranging) a truly scary song, but it's certainly disturbing to some extreme. And if the powerhouse brass lines do seem at times to be lifted from 'Lady Madonna', well, it's just a natural chain of evolution.” GS There’s the “lyrically disturbing” and “all-too intimate look at infidelity” AMG of Into Temptation, "where Finn comes so close to adultery that you can almost feel it.” CDU You “wonder whether Finn really means it when he sings 'the guilty get no sleep in the last slow hours of morning, the experience is cheap, I should've listened to the warning' or if he means, well, something else. And in the meantime, there's more of that organ sound enveloping you…He could have used generic ‘heavenly’ synth tones of the times, but he prefers to construct something radically different for the background.” GS “In the next song, Finn boldly proclaims that 'I'd much rather have a caravan in the hills than a Mansion in the Slums…the overall sound fully compensates for its indirectness…it emphasizes everything that rules about the Crowded House sound. Big, massive drums, and at the same time not at all electronic, just brought high up in the mix. Free-flowing, breathing bass. Unprocessed jangly guitars. Lots of fat keyboards - pianos, organs…Plus, there's that singing - so lively and humane.” GS “Everything so natural and ‘anti-synthetic.’” GS “Finn is always a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to creative ways of describing coital bliss, and this collection contains the debut of the first of many paeans to the orgasm, the not-so-subtly titled When You Come.” CDU ”The charm of [the song] is rooted in his singing - one word: ‘modulation.’ He goes from one note to another, stretches out when necessary, he knows the secrets of this profession almost as well as, say, Jeff Lynne, easily the best ‘voice modulator’ of the preceding decade.” GS Sister Madly is “a boppy jazzy composition with the drummer boy taking up the brushes and the great Richard Thompson himself guesting on guitar (delivering a short, but fun, solo). Great catchy chorus too.” GS Better Be Home Soon, which is the most beautiful song Crowded House ever crafted, is a bit of an answer to the infidelity that tempted Neil on “Into Temptation.” It is here “where his opportunity for redemption lies, the emotion is palpable in every line.” CDU It is “a suave folksy ballad that could be rendered hideous through generic production, but with its reliance on acoustic guitars and more of that electric jangle, it turns out marvelous - and presents a suitably optimistic, heart-warming conclusion.” GS

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Chris Woodstra CDU CdUniverse.com GS George Starostin First posted 3/3/2008; last updated 5/15/2021.

Crowded House released “Better Be Home Soon”

Better Be Home Soon Crowded House

Writer(s): Neil Finn (see lyrics here) Released: June 12, 1988 Peak: 42 US, 30 GR, 26 AC, 18 AR, 4 CO, 29 MR, 8 CN, 2 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 6.98 video, 39.74 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After the new wave band Split Enz split up in 1984, Neil Finn formed Crowded House. The group found success with their debut album, which produced the “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and“Something So Strong,” #2 and #7 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 respectively. When it came time to record their second album, the band jokingly said it would be called Mediocre Follow-Up. While the collection proved quite worthy, it didn’t measure up to its predecessor commercially. The lead single, “Better Be Home Soon,” just missed the top 40. It did, however, get to #2 in Australia and New Zealand. It also won Song of the Year at the 1989 ARIA Music Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Grammys). The song’s lyrics are open to different interpretations. When asked specifically about the video for the song, Nick Seymour said it was “about being home, how it’s better being home.” WK In a StereoStories.com article, David Oke suggested it could “be about a relationship where the partner is ‘absent,’ but possibly, not physically. It seems to be a cry out for restoring a relationship and for partners being honest with one another.” DO Oke also floats the idea that Neil wrote the song about Hester and his struggles and his need “to be in the security of being safe at home.” DO This takes on even greater weight in the context of Hester’s suicide in 2005 and Finn’s subsequent performance of “Better Be Home Soon” at the 2005 ARIA Awards as a tribute to Hester. DO Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Neil Finn DO StereoStories.com (3/25/2018). “Better Be Home Soon by Neil Finn” by David Oke WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/25/2020; last updated 12/26/2022.