New album for Crowded House
Band to bring Gravity Stairs out next month
Te Awamutu born-and-raised Neil Finn’s multi-platinumselling rock band Crowded House have just revealed the second taste of their forthcoming album, Gravity Stairs, with the new single Teenage Summer.
Their eighth studio album will be available worldwide on May 31 via BMG.
The new single played on stage in recent shows, formerly known as Life’s Imitation, has now curiously been renamed Teenage Summer.
“My grandson Manaia told me Teenage Summer was one of his favourite songs,” Finn said.
“He’d identified the peak moment in the song, and a light went on. It’s that simple: the children must be heard.”
Produced by the band with Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Gravity Stairs shows Crowded House in its current incarnation — Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn’s sons Elroy and Liam.
Finn said the album title, Gravity Stairs, was inspired by an unnaturally
heavy stone staircase near where he holidays.
“The ‘gravity stairs’ are symbolic of the struggle to ascend, acknowledging the opposing forces of weight on the mechanics of living. It’s an act of will every day.”
Crowded House have sold over 15 million records worldwide, as well as having earned 13 Aria Awards, an MTV VMA, and a Brit Award. The band have been captivating audiences for nearly four decades.
Originally founded by Finn, Seymour and the late Paul Hester, the group’s self-titled debut in 1986 went platinum, uplifted by iconic smash hits Something So Strong and Don’t
Dream It’s Over, which have been covered by everyone from Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande to U2, among others.
In 1996, the group delivered a legendary performance to an audience of over 150,000 on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, beginning a hiatus that finished in the wake of Hester’s passing in 2005.
This led to albums Time on Earth (2007) and Intriguer (2010) and a return to the Sydney Opera House for three unforgettable nights.
In 2018, Finn join Fleetwood Mac as a fulltime member, canvasing the globe on a massive world tour.
Two years later, he and Seymour led another era of Crowded House, forming the band’s current line-up.
They issued their first full-length offering in 11 years, the unanimously acclaimed Dreamers Are Waiting (2021), and the band leapt into a rapturous world tour in support.
From joining his brother Tim as part of “new wave” favourites Split Enz to leading Crowded House his numerous solo efforts, Finn’s varied body of work is connected by his knack for penning meticulous, indelible melodies and impressionistic lyrics that demand multiple listens.