Getmusic

Australia’s favourite New Zealand via America and Oz band, Crowded House, are back with album number six and their second with drummer, Matt Sherrod. Front man, Neil Finn now dons a moustache and appears to have embraced not just a new physical style but one that has passed through to his writing. In 2010 Finn has embraced the synthesiser and vocoder, tools synonymous with 80s music (but ones that haven’t stopped fans considering it to be a case of better late than never).




Intriguer topped the Australian music charts and contains twelve songs of the quality pop ilk you’ve come to associate with all members of the Finn family, although this time around a darker thematic edge appears more prominently. Take a song like, “Isolation,” one that could only be written on the coast of New Zealand where a disconnected feeling can overtake your outlook and it’s hard to believe that this is the same man who once wrote things like “Everything Is Good for You” and “Weather With You”.




“Saturday Sun” is the record’s big single and is bolstered by some superb vocoder work and one colourful music video. While this one seems to be about “moving forward” (Gillard’s slogans are now permeating music reviews it seems,) “Archer’s Arrows” takes a different outlook and almost regresses back to a Split Enz-style space vibe.




“Amsterdam” is one melancholy song for such a vibrant city. With songs like these it seems that Finn has decided to make Intriguer his own personal travelogue. So whether he’s travelling world cities in song title, referencing exotic genres in the music or hinting at other things in his trademark, double-barrelled lyrics, it appears he covers all and sundry - from his native homeland and piece of Dutch courage all the way through to a slice of Americana apple pie on “Inside Out”.




Intriguer is a collection of sublime pop songs written by a knowledgeable elder statesman of Australian pop who has notched up more than his fair share of experiences and insights. All that was left was to tell the listeners all about it through song, which he does via his array of gorgeous pop songs tinged with melancholy. In short, this album is one for the world traveller in all of us.

This track is simply GORGEOUS. I wish it was available everywhere...please make that happen!