For the record, Crowded House's high water mark would appear to have occurred with the New Zealand trio's 1986 debut LP that bore them a #2 hit single, "Don't Dream It's Over". But to the truly indoctrinated, who've come to view frontman Neil Finn as a minor pop messiah in the tradition of songsmiths such as Squeeze's Difford and Tillbrook, and the Beatles' Lennon and McCartney, the cream was probably sweetest with the arrival of 1991's Woodface. That release saw the band becoming a four legged creature of sorts with the addition of elder Finn brother Tim, who had basically roped his younger brother into the musical arena to begin with back in the early days of Split Enz. Being spun from the same genetic code, Tim and Neil's harmonies have a sort of naturally impregnable coalescence to them. That and the fact that they seem to reflexively write from similar strokes was enough to keep the muse aloft long enough to re-cement their artistic faith in another. All this makes the advent of Finn, etched out between the brothers Finn during early 1995 to nearby Polynesia, to have been a somewhat expected and welcome appearance.
Far from the painted new wave of Split Enz and even somewhat distanced from the lush pop of Woodface, this third collaboration of Finns has overtones that match closer to the more playful moments of Crowded House's Together Alone. Where Together Alone comes to halt amidst the rumble of aboriginal drums, Finn's lead off track ("Only Talking Sense") starts up with a bit of spare, organic percussion. It's as if someone had suddenly realized that they had accidentally taken the needle off the gramophone before the record was actually over. What follows that initial moment is a very footloose collection of skewed lyrical passages meshed with their typically resiliant melodies and the odd atonal sonic twist. The association to their combined and separate paths exist, but it's as if a good number of their musical roots have newly blossomed but with more lush, exotic, and strange fruit.
Without having to be encumbered by any particular band format, or having to be mired in the concern for chart success, Finn has the massively liberated aura about it. Both brothers can dip freely substitute new colour charts for old, without the worries of having anyone stare particularly hard at what they produce. With having weaved a pastoral, South Pacific vibes like "Mood Swinging Man" and "Paradise (Wherever You Are)" as well as bashing out the raucous "Kiss the Road of Rarotonga" all in the same space, it shows the not quite so subtle freedom embossed all over the record.
And it's these blissful detours that make the lapses to their traditional palettes not seem so obvious or expected. With being put on something of an odd footing now and again, it actually makes standard Neil Finn ballads like "Last Days of June" shine all the more. The initial single, "Suffer Never," is probably the least likely choice to highlight, but as one Finn or another has said, it wound up being more of an attempt to sever any expectations. Quite coincidentally, Finn's US release also marks the last curtain for Crowded House. Offering up explanations of being somewhat creatively stifled after a decade in that lineup, Neil Finn seems to be making all the appropriate noises of the artist bristling anew or preparing for mid-life tumult. With or without Tim's solid accompaniment as seen here, it should be good in either instance. Highly recommended.
