Crowded House is back

I'm really excited about this new lineup of Crowded House. I think Liam, Elroy, and Mitchell Froom will be great additions to the band. I'm thinking "Dizzy Heights" was the first full album Neil made with his sons, and even though I wasn't crazy about it at first, I now consider it to be absolutely fantastic. Elroy is certainly a very good drummer and Liam is a great multi-instrumentalist, singer, song-writer, just a really creative talented guy to say the least. I like it when bands go in new interesting directions, stagnation in a band usually leads to music that isn't very inspired. Well, luckily, Neil has never been the stagnant type, he is always trying new things, playing with different musicians, it seems like every new project he does is a fresh, creative step forward. Of course, there are always fans who don't want their favorite band to change. I don't like the new members! Why did they get rid of so and so...etc. It's always the same bs....the Pixies and the Chili Peppers probably being the worst examples. Yeah, past members of CH have brought their own unique favors to the mix, but Neil has always been the main driving force of the band and I believe him when he says "The best is yet to come".

 

Does Neil ever talk about writing with Tim again? I was disappointed the 2010's went by without another Finn Brothers album.

 

2010's 'intriguer' was not very good IMHO.

 

It's more their personalities, but Liam has it in spades during his live shows and, although I haven't seen Elroy perform in person, just the fact that he named his classical acoustic guitar instrumental duo "Pablo Vasquez" says a lot to me.

 

Excellent post.

 

I don't know what is it about Nick that makes it feel more like Crowded House, but it exists. I think Mark has it,too.
When the Neil's boys are playing with Neil it just feels more like accompaniment, but not band-like.

 

Tempted by the Manchester show. I’ll keep an open mind, but it is a shame Mark Hart isn’t there; he’s an all round monster musician.

 

There was some great music on it. I suggest giving it another chance. It took time to grow on me. The mixing and mastering didn't help.

 

When was the last time CH or Neil Finn played the States? I'd love to see them, but I don't know how likely it is for them to tour here. Anybody have any thoughts / info on this?

 

It would be great if Johnny Marr played with them in Manchester!

 

The live album released by Neil with Paul Kelly and BOTH their sons is a great listen. For that reason I’m not concerned about his kids joining him in CH the way I was when Wolfgang Van Halen replaced Michael Anthony in VH.

 

2010 perhaps...since I’ve been revisiting the three CD North American Travelogue set.

 

Neil Finn played the States just last year with Fleetwood Mac. Prior to that, he toured the States behind Dizzy Heights.

Here he is in Colorado in 2016:

 

Neil’s visit to the States in 2016 was very brief -I believe he played two festivals here (including Telluride, shown above) and another, I believe in Canada. I had hopes when those festival dates were first announced that it would be part of a larger tour. Alas, it was not.
I think the last proper full scale solo Neil Finn of the U.S.was in 2015. It’s been too long.

Come back, Neil!

 

They have written and maybe recorded an entire set of songs but can’t decide if it’s to be an album or a theatrical production, Neil said in 2017.

 

I bought the last few CH albums and nothing really connected with me. I think the first 3 CH albums are masterpieces(I'll give the crown to Temple), but Together Alone and the first post-Paul albums left me a little cold. Try Whistling This was much better, and the Finn album is a low-fi classic. It's probably just me, but Neil's work either hits me or doesn't, but when it hits.....whoa.



Dan

 

Excited to see the line up. Hoping to see them in Berlin.

But I just don't see it as Crowded House....some kind of half-Crowded House, half Finn Family Circus. I just hope that Liam and Neil don't strip down to their skivvies and wrestle again.

Together Alone is in my top 5 albums of all time, and I think that Mark's contributions there and on Intriguer absolutely speak for themselves. (Time on Earth to me is mostly a Neil solo album with Nick on bass, not a band and honestly, I feel that half of Woodface is a Finn Brothers project with Nick and Paul guesting. Boy, is this a complicated band.)

But Mitchell's just as important as Mark was, more even, to the first two albums and more than half of Woodface, as well, and Mitchell and Mark have never been able to work together.

I do think that Mark's work as a sideman will be prove more interesting than Liam/Mitchell combined work; I think that Mark really knows when musically to assert his own ideas and yet remain subservient to Neil's overall vision. He is probably my favorite of all of Neil's musical collaborators (other than Tim.)
So I wonder if the band is too top heavy.
Liam might have stronger personality than Mark and is going to have big ideas: as will Mitchell. Neil has traditionally not been too comfortable with that since he left Split Enz. Will he be able to handle a talent as big as Liam's? Also Liam has a very strong on stage presence -- stronger than Tim's even -- which might end up awkward.

But the music could be very good, so though I don't see it as quite Crowded House, I see it rather as another permutation of Neil's remarkably varied career and I"m excited about it.

 

After all these years, since Neil took over leadership of Split Enz, I just see a continuum of Neil Finn's songwriting and musical exploration evolving, taking detours, experimenting, collaborating - all under different names, almost never the same exact set of musicians playing with him - none of that "is it solo, CH, Finn Brothers, PJ Club, etc?" stuff worries me in the least.

Neil Finn is one of the great singer/songwriters of his generation (or any) and I'm thrilled he's kept so busy and continues to release so much high quality work that challenges both himself and his audience.

CH feels a bit like the umbrella under which where he places his slightly more melodic, less experimental songs/records and, I assume, whomever is in this version of CH will support those songs in a manner that will basically justify or make sense for them to be released under the CH name. I assume it will make sense when we hear it, although there will be those who will be "outraged!" and look for reasons to decree that "THIS is not MY Crowded House, Good Sir" (even though there's only been two CH albums - the first two - with the same 3-man lineup - also considering ToE is 3/4 a solo album).

Either way - CH, solo, Mulanes, FinnBros, PJClub, 7WC, Liam&Neil, Enz - it's all good to me. More Neil Finn songs? Count me in!

 

Which is perfectly valid.

I think my own (conflicted) emotions centre around two issues.

The first is that, during my initial flush of adoration of CH, part of that adoration was based on a notion (that later turned out to be false) that CH were a "real" band. In my first exposure to their live show they improvised a song with lyrics based on the support act's setlist (!) (Green Rose for George, which appears on the Homebrew fan club CD). And I laughed more than I had at comedy nights. It seemed as though the band members were integral to them, not just side players.

Of course, I later learnt that things aren't always what they seem, but that notion of CH as a real band is what created a very real and strong bond between them and me. I can still recall the moment I learnt that Hessie had left CH, never mind the day I learnt he'd died.

Secondly, there's the issue of how band's evolve. This is also very dodgy ground, and I don't profess that my feelings on this have any basis in reality or any sense of being right. It's just how I feel.

Neil is right when he says that the membership of CH has always been fluid. But it's been based around a core membership. That core membership started out as a trio of Neil, Paul and Nick. Then - following the arrival of Mark and the departure of Paul, it became Neil, Nick and Mark. When CH split, they were a trio; when Neil reformed the band, he did so not by joining up with Nick, but by calling up Mark. Again, CH MkII were based around that trio.

All those early changes seemed to me (rightly or wrongly) to be more organic: people came and people left, but no-one got fired permanently (yes, I know Nick was briefly - that's part of the narrative that undermines my feelings). The decision to remove Mark - seemingly against his own desire - is the first time that Neil has wielded that power of band leader in a way that has stuck. And it just continues to undermine my sense of what CH is. Of course, many bands have only two members , but CH never did. So, for Neil to now set out his view that CH is really him and Nick plus whoever he wants to hire and fire turns them into something they never were.

I had (and still do have) great trouble seeing Time on Earth as a CH album for all the above reasons. Maybe the new line up will force me to see the "core" of CH (since Paul's departure) as being Neil and Nick after all. Maybe in a year or so's time I'll be able to look at CH MkIII as being as valid a version of the band as the previous iterations.

But, as I and others have noted, Neil has worked with a great many different people over the years, and part of what made CH different to the other collaborations was that it was the only place in which he, Nick and Mark came together to make music. Suddenly, CH just becomes part of a great melange of collaborations in which a group of musicians can diverge and congregate in any random order and, at various different times, be different things.

Maybe that's a point Neil is trying to make: "don't be so hung up on CH - view my career as a whole". But that's hard to do when the whole reason that I have any interest in that career at all is based on CH and the joy its members gave me.

 

I used to love Crowded House. My favorite songs were Don't Dream It's Over and Better Be Home Soon.

 

Well stated. It may be helpful to think of Mitchell Froom as the silent 4th member from 1987 - 1990, and he's simply returning. One thing I'm curious about, who's covering the high harmonies? Mark and Paul both had very strong upper range that featured in a lot of their work. Can Liam cover all that?

 

As good a place as any to post this. I've never seen it before, a great document of them at their early peak. Things got better in some ways of course, but this is a special moment.

 

Christine McVie would have her 78 or 79th birthday on that hypothetical tour. Other 3 are a couple years behind, and I believe they think they have another tour in them.

I wonder if Neil will be honest about FM or just PR talk. I can't remember if Neil ever talked up new FM stuff, but that would and interested question to hear him answer.

 

As long as Neil handles lead vocals on all of the songs just as they've always been done...

 

Some people thought only the threesome of Nick, Paul, & Neil were Crowded House. Eddie Raynor was in the band but yet he wasn’t. Mitchell Froom had as much or more to do with CH’s sound on record as Nick and Paul, but some people don’t think he belongs. Tim came and went. Peter Green came and went. It goes on. To me CH is a particular style of writing by Neil, indulging less his experimental side and more his facility for classic melodic popular songwriting. That’s my favorite of all his musical incarcerations. I like certain personalities associated over time with the band, having Nick still there appeals to my sense of nostalgia (and he’s a ridiculously underrated and creative bass player), but let’s face it, it always was and will be Neil. Thank god the idea of writing CH style music still appeals to him.