Its creation might have been overshadowed by the latest demise of their unique drummer, Paul Hester, however Crowded Home’s critically acclaimed reunion album, Time On Earth, pleaded a convincing case for the band’s reappearance on the scene. Inspired by the response to the album and the band’s subsequent tour, frontman Neil Finn composed a recent batch of songs throughout 2008. Early the next 12 months, he reconvened with bandmates Nick Seymour, Mark Hart, and Matt Sherrod, and – after an preliminary demo session – Crowded Home repaired to Finn’s personal Roundhead Studio, within the New Zealand capital of Auckland, to start work on their sixth studio LP, Intriguer.
Ethan Johns and Steve Lillywhite had been drafted in to supervise the tracks on Time On Earth, however for Intriguer, Wilco producer Jim Scott manned the console. Not like its piecemeal predecessor (which had developed out of classes for a mooted Neil Finn solo LP), the band’s core quartet had been central to all of the songs, although Time On Earth’s collaborative vibe continued, with company starting from violinist Lisa Germano (David Bowie, U2), ex-Mutton Birds multi-instrumentalist Don McGlashan, and Neil’s guitarist son Liam all dropping by to put down telling contributions.
Intriguer
Issued in June 2010, Intriguer was as winsome and persuasive as Crowded Home had ever been. It kicked into life with its most fast, exhilarating, and hard-hitting anthem – the bass-heavy, psych-flecked “Saturday Sun” – and likewise proffered a few notable leftfield departures such because the pensive, enigmatic “Archer’s Arrows” and the ambient-streaked “Either Side Of The World.”
Intriguer was additional distinguished, nevertheless, by quite a few examples of the dreamy pop classicism by which Neil Finn had lengthy since excelled. The stand-outs had been arguably the majestic “Twice If You’re Lucky” and the tremolo guitar-framed “Isolation,” although the house straight concluded with a consecutive trio of Finn’s most beautiful ballads courtesy of “Even If,” “Elephants” and the piano-led “Eyes Grow Heavy.”
The reception and tour
Ably abetted by a clutch of enthusiastic evaluations, together with a five-star discover from revered UK broadsheet The Occasions, Intriguer carried out effectively. Predictably, the album topped the charts in Australia, and went Prime 5 in New Zealand and Prime 20 within the UK, nevertheless it additionally made a robust displaying in a brace of European Prime 40s and peaked at a extremely respectable No.50 on the US Billboard 200.
Transferring with the instances, Crowded Home not solely launched into an in depth world tour in help of Intriguer, however in addition they interacted with followers on-line by way of their web site and social media shops, promoting stay recordings of quite a few exhibits on the tour by means of USB flash drives.
Every of Crowded Home’s albums have been reissued on vinyl and in expanded 2CD editions, and can be found as full bundles right here.
