Crowded House have returned once more, with their new album, Intriguer.
It is an exceptionally fine album. Neil Finn is unarguably one of the finest songwriters of his generation, and any album that he releases -whether solo, with his brother or as a part of Crowded House - is given considerable scrutiny. It is perhaps this latter category that receives the most glaring attention, given the high regard in which the Crowded House legacy (ie discography) is held.
Finn's decision to reactivate the band following the suicide of drummer and founding member, Paul Hester, certainly raised some eyebrows. It had been ten years since the band had held their glorious swansong performance on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. That concert seared itself into the minds of many people around Australia, and indeed, the world. It was one hell of a way to end things, and any attempts to reactivate the band could really do little but detract from such an apt and epic conclusion. But if it was Finn's decision to dissolve the band, then it was certainly always going to be his decision to reform it. And whilst the Crowdies still remained an essential proposition when performing live, their first album post-reformation, Time on Earth, was somewhat of a mixed blessing. It was not the joyous return to form for which many had hoped; but given the album's tortured genesis (the death of Hester), it was perhaps a flawed hope that the album would be anything other than a trifle maudlin. But the new album, Intriguer, is the album that should more than satisfy anyone who considers themselves a musical devotee. It is a ten-song set that gets better every time it is played.
Lyrically, Finn is as obtuse as ever, and musically, he is actually getting better. (Which is a little frightening.) He's always been a master of the unexpectedly delightful pop hook - whereby the musical and the musically surreal take a dangerously exhilarating twist before one's ears, but rarely has he packed quite so many twists and turns into a single album. I think this is perhaps why some (only some) of the initial reviews I've read have been a little lukewarm; the album is actually quite overwhelming (which strangely sounds underwhelming) on first listen. But trust me, after about half a dozen spins, you'd wonder what on earth was wrong with your hearing when you first played the thing. The album's musical colours simply fizz with that energised blend of Beatlesque whimsy and psychedelic introspection that have always been present in Finn's music.
The album's production is as intriguing as its songs. There is an awful lot of music - layers and layers of it - on each of these songs. Listen carefully, and instrument after instrument suddenly leap forward from the mix. As such, it album initially seems to lack the coherent sound of album like Woodface or Together Alone, but after a while, you realise that it does. It's just that it's a sound that's all its own, whilst still being unquestionably a Crowded House album. And this is as it should be; every album any band releases should re-define what one understands the sound of that band to be. In this regard, Finn and his co-producer Jim Scott are to be commended.
I could spend an age noting the twists and turns of each song, but I'll refrain from doing so. Instead, I'll simply state that they are uniformly excellent. Whilst all eventually reveal their charms, 'Twice If You're Lucky' is more immediately apparent as one of Finn's finest ever songs, with its soaring chorus (lyrically and musically) and surging middle eight. 'Archer's Arrows' possesses one of those chord changes that only someone in full command of their song-writerly craft would even attempt. Finn has often been compared to Paul McCartney, and the influence of McCartney in his writing has always been clear. But on this album, I think the influence of Lennon is equally signficant; there are edges to these songs. Listen to the twists in 'Amsterdam' and 'Falling Dove' in particular, if you want to get a sense of what I mean.
More than anything else, this is clearly the work of a band. Finn is to be commended for so decisively returning Crowded House to the richly rewarding musical path they trod so purposefully on their first incarnation, and he is to be further commended for resisting the urge to re-tread that path. To borrow from the lyric of sixth song, 'Isolation', he's still striving for the "epic unknown". God bless him for that.
I sincerely hope that if you read this review, you'll go out out and buy it. And buy the album on a disc or vinyl; don't download the bloody thing. And once you get it, listen to it at least a dozen times over the course of a week. That's the plea contained herein; listen carefully, and be prepared to let the songs go to work on you. Trust me, you'll be all the better for it.
Cheers, Neil and fellow Crowdies. Bloody great album.
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