Crowded House

★★★★ Dreamers Are Waiting PARLOPHONE. CD/DL/LP

First album in a decade from revitalised Neil Finn vehicle.

It’s 35 years and several line-ups since Neil Finn’s band first bothered the charts, and this latest iteration now includes Finn’s sons Liam and Elroy on guitar and drums. Although the first sessions for the album were held in Los Angeles just before the 2020 lockdown, it’s hard not to hear unintended prescience in the lyrics and even title of opening track Bad Times Good, but mostly the songs explore familiar Finn themes of love and family, Catholic guilt and eternal hope. The addition of his sons, however, sets Dreamers Are Waiting apart