Crowded House full of innovative joy
If you tend to like the old stuff better than the new stuff, you’re in for a treat, because perhaps the highest praise you can heap on the new Crowded House album, Dreamers Are Waiting, is it has the same energy as the early stuff.
It’s packed with surprising melodies that seem obvious in retrospect. Casual yet comforting, mundane observations elevated to balladry by Neil Finn’s poetic patois and friendly familiar tenor. The instrumental flourishes, uplifting choruses, compact verses, freewheeling solos and songs that feel like they’ve always existed and will never fade away.
It shouldn’t be surprising. The core of the band remains, with Finn out front and Nick Seymour’s solid anchor setting spacious frameworks from which to improvise. Mitchell Froom, who produced and shaped their early sound, brings a deft touch on keys, surreptitious, yet essential.
Likewise, the two younger Finns – Neil’s sons – have embodied the band’s ethos and style.
It was surely a natural progression for Liam, who has been playing with the band since he was quite young. He famously joined his dad on stage at the Royal Albert Hall to play guitar when he was still (essentially) a foetus.
Elroy, the younger Finn, is quite a revelation. Paul Hester’s original drumming was vital to the band’s energy and Elroy has done his homework carefully, emulating his style while advocating his own flair.
Neil Finn’s joy of belonging to a band was reignited by his time with Fleetwood Mac and helped lay the foundations for a
Crowded House renovation. Typically, his instincts were right. Not to take anything away from his solo work, but he truly thrives as a collaborator, despite his distinctive voice.
Which bears mentioning. Somehow he’s in better vocal shape than ever and, to be fair, he was always in pretty good nick. His melodic acumen seems unnaturally prescient. He’s like a rogue detective working hunches. There’s no logical reason this chord progression should lead from point A to point B, but the evidence, the songs, speak for themselves.
Even the album’s moniker, Dreamers Are Waiting sounds like a Crowded House title. Same with songs such as Start of Something, Too Good for This World and the lead single (which could have emerged from any Crowded House era) Whatever You Want.
Bad Times Good gently opens the record (and your heart), with Finn whispering sweet aspirations over a guitar that struggles to walk a straight line. When it wobbles unexpectedly, Finn stays the course, effortlessly embraceable, an optimistic beacon of light.
Likewise, Sweet Tooth grins widely from its opening chords and cheerfully bops and weaves, with images of sugar plums and chocolate swirls, before Liam shreds a short, searing solo. Then it’s over, before you know it. It’s one of the best here. Vocal harmonies are everywhere, voices in unison, inducing inner smiles and inclusive enough to have you singing along in no time.
Playing with Fire interlocks verse, pre-chorus, chorus and bridge with such madcap glee, stacking hook on hook, you almost miss Neil’s succinct, humble warning: ‘‘And this time, let’s all be quiet
The next generation’s talking
We’re behind the wheel.
We’re driving straight to the wall.’’
Not all these songs will end up on the greatest hits collection, but there aren’t any clangers.
Neil observed in a recent interview that about 60 per cent of his songs grow lives of their own. They get bigger in scope, meaning and audience as time goes on. The other 40 per cent diminish, fading into the background.
If you think about it, that’s a pretty strong hit rate.
It’s quite remarkable how well it all works.
The combination of these new members is the best lineup since the original trio and retains the exciting, innovative joy that made them so dynamic and durable in the first place.