It's only natural

Crowded House - Woodface (1991) ****

Nominated by: Kevy

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition:  Weather With You

Tim and Nil Fun together is a magic combination - whether it be in Split Enz, as The Finn Brothers, or when they pool their considerable talents in Crowded House.

Woodface is a no-brainer NZ music high water mark. For some it's Crowded House's best album (my vote is for Together Alone in case you're asking).

Commercially and critically a huge marker in their careers, so what is there to talk about? Well, first of all how great some of these songs are. I speak of Chocolate Cake*, It's Only Natural, Fall At Your Feet, Weather With You, and Four Seasons In One Day. All are Finn/Finn songs except for Fall At Your Feet - Neil's alone. 

My goodness. Breath-taking in their genius - all five stars [Chocolate Cake* only just - that recurring line about Tammy Baker always grates with me. For me, it's a mistake naming someone current like that - songs date that way].

But hang on, you say, that leaves 9 other songs to discuss. I'm not counting the tacked on 'hidden' track - I'm Still Here (ha ha). They probably regret that now.

Tall Trees - Nil and Tum vocal duet. It's upbeat! But not that memorable. Not in the same class as Chocolate Cake - the one it most resembles. Smells a bit like filler.

Whispers and Moans - a Neil song. Good, but not great.

There Goes God, How Will You Go (Finn/Finn) - duet songs and worthy entries. Like Chocolate Cake - There Goes God is touched by the same absurdist brush lyrically - surely Tim's influence. How Will You Go is an excellent closing song - the brothers lock in vocally to great effect.

Fame Is, As Sure As I Am, She Goes On (all Neil songs) - all familiar territory for Crowded House fans - i.e. really good songs, played well. Lovely accordion on As Sure As I Am. She Goes On is terrific. Surely a love song for Shazza (love the Beatley backwards fade out).

All I Ask (Finn/Finn) - beautiful song, sung so well by Tim alone. Sounds out of place though with those sweeping strings (great as they are). Probably would have been more suited for inclusion on Before And After maybe?

Italian Plastic (token Ringo, I mean Paul Hester song) - Tim and Neil do their best with an okay song. Does have a promising chorus. The reprised ending wasn't a terrific idea.

Bottom line - those very familiar tight five genius songs tend to overshadow the rest of the album somewhat. They are that good.

Based on Kevy's criteria for a 5 star classic album - that every track should be a masterpiece, I have to stop short of awarding 5 star status because as an album, Woodface's no Mental Notes.

Thanks for recommending this one Kevy - always lovely revisiting this album. I hear new things each time and hadn't previously realised what an excellent song How Will You Go is.

Highest branch on the apple tree It was my favourite place to be

Crowded House - Together Alone (1993) ****

Nominated by: Kevvy

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition:  Private Universe, Together Alone

This one is world famous in New Zealand. I've written about it on my music blog before - see this link on  Goo Goo G'Joob.

So, I'm on record as saying this is my favourite Crowdies album:

Fourth album... is my favourite - mainly because of the enormity of the stand-out tracks: Pineapple Head; Private Universe; Distant Sun and Together Alone, but also because it feels like a proper album, rather than some great songs mixed with other songs.

Kudos to Youth and Bob Clearmountain for their expertise in making these songs sound great!

So there it is! I stand by those comments.

I've also written about the Distant Sun single when I did a run down of all my singles. Go here for that one.

I summed up that song with:

Distant Sun sounds like a Macca outtake circa Red Rose Speedway. That's a good thing btw. It's a cool song and a stand out from Together Alone.

Again, I stand by that. But what about the album as a whole?

Well, there's a palpable darkness and sense of loss to these songs that is kind of appealing. The cheeky chappy Crowdies of the earlier albums are replaced by something different this time out. If I didn't know better I'd say Neil suffered some traumas as a child that surfaced in his writing during Together Alone: 

• We're standing in a deep dark hole beneath the sky as black as coal (In My Command)
• You my companion run to the water on a burning beach (Nails In My Feet)
• To the depths of despair you will crawl (Black and white Boy)
• There is time yet to fall by the way from the cradle to the grave from the palace to the gutter (Fingers Of Love)
• If you choose to take that path I will play you like a shark (Pineapple Head)
• The view when I look through the window is an altarpiece I'm praying to for the living and the dead (Locked Out)
• It's a tight squeeze but I won't let go, time is on the table and the dinner's cold (Private Universe)
• I will run for shelter (Private Universe)
• At odd times we slip slither down the dark hole (Walking On the Spot)
• An eerie shadow falls (Walking On The Spot)
• Will we be in our minds when the dawn breaks? (Walking On the Spot)
• Lounging on the sofa maybe see the living room die dishes are unwashed and broken all you do is cry (Walking On The Spot)
• As time slips by, and on and on (Distant Sun)
• Bad moon is rising again (Catherine Wheels)

That's a fair dollop of bad juju right there.

Given those lyrics and themes, I'd assume some purging of bad experiences was taking place, however, I know Tim and Neil and their two sisters had a great childhood in Te Awamutu, and that Dick and Mary were terrific parents. 

So what's going on?

I guess you could put a lot of this down to poetic license, but it does seem like Youth unlocked some weird and wonderful lyrics in Neil. Maybe it was all the electric puhu that they were smoking! Maybe it was the isolated location in their hired house and the eventual cabin fever. Maybe Nil decided to unleash his visceral Lennon  side. Or maybe he was channeling Tim's darker persona. Who knows. No one's saying.

There's also a great sense of experimentation going on in the music on this album. Mark Hart brings a lot to the party. And Youth's hippie presence and tendency toward wild abandon helps tracks like Black And White Boy, and Locked Out take on U2 style guitar edge (see what I did there?). Generally though, it appears they all went a little bat shit crazy in KareKare.

What I also love about the album is the unified sense of love for place and person that bookends things.

Opener, Kare Kare, is all about celebrating the place where the album was recorded, and final song Together Alone is surely about brotherly love in general and Tim/Neil in particular. The use of Maori choir, brass band and Pasifika log drummers are great touches. They throw everything at this song and everything works. It could only ever be the final track.

The parting words of the album are all about an enduring love that the brothers share (and by extension their parents):

Rangi the sky-father is above/ The earth-mother is below/ Our love for one another/ Is everlasting.

It's not perfect as an album, so it gets 4 stars from me. A couple of the tracks (Nails In My Feet and Fingers Of Love) I find either unconvincing or too Nil Funn mannered in the vocal inflection department to really enjoy whole heartedly.

But, that's nit picking really, as this is, overall, an outstanding achievement from an outstanding band.