Album review: Crowded House climb the Gravity Stairs to deliver another classic
Jeff Jenkins
STACK Writer
“Words matter,” Neil Finn sings at the start of Crowded House’s new album, “but they get in the way.”
He makes a good point. How do you describe the craft of the perfect pop song? As Finn believes, “When you got some stories to tell, let the melody reign.”
Crowded House’s eighth album opens with a beguiling song called Magic Piano. To get a deeper understanding of the record, STACK asked the band’s bass player and co-founder Nick Seymour if he believed in the concept of a “magical” instrument, one that unlocks something deep inside. His circuitous response provided a fascinating insight into the Crowded House creative process:
“Some instruments are really easy to play, so you can find the zone quicker,” Seymour said. “But you’ve got to be in that crazy frame of mind, almost the remnants of your sleep pattern from the night before where you’ve dreamed a lot. Your body has cycles: sometimes in your conscious hours you are much more attached to a semi-conscious assessment of a melody that’s happening in your head. If you happen to be playing an instrument when you’re in one of those cycles, it just flows beautifully, and I think that’s what Magic Piano is.
“The irony of that song,” Seymour continued, “is that when we recorded the take that is on the album, I don’t know what I played – I’m having to learn it. The actual bass itself flows in a way that I would not normally do; I must have been in a really whimsical mood. When I’m in the verse, I’m playing these melodies that are a counterpoint to the topline melody but not holding down the root notes. Normally, people would say, ‘Can you just play the root note, you’re the bass player!’
“It’s possibly the reason we kept it and why it worked so well with the lyric defining a magical moment – the beauty of playing the magic piano, that song where we were all in the same zone together. Then it became the lead track; it was one of those moments.”
One of those moments. The joy and the mystery of Crowded House. All one can do is give thanks. As Finn notes in Thirsty, “It’s lovely to have you back.”
There’s no doubt the addition of Finn’s sons, Liam, and Elroy, has given the band new life – and both make significant contributions to the record. But the album also addresses the concept of ageing, knowing that the teenage summer will someday end. The album’s opening line is: “I began to sense my own weight, walking up the gravity stairs.” And later, Finn declares: “As I grow old, I’m grateful.”
In the end, this is an album about love and gratitude. “We all become a part of someone else,” Finn concludes in All That I Can Ever Own. “Love is in my heart – it’s all I can ever own.”
Crowded House – Neil, Liam, and Elroy Finn; Nick Seymour and Mitchell Froom – have climbed the Gravity Stairs and delivered another classic.
Words get in the way, but many of them will be floating around your head long after you listen. “If all that we can do is fill the room with a song of love” from Some Greater Plan (For Claire). And then the band leaves us with “Another night song stuck in your brain”. Fittingly, it’s filled with gratitude. “I owe you thanks now for everything, remembering you got me so inspired.”
Who knows who or what Neil Finn is singing about? It doesn’t really matter. You can’t put magic into words. Just let the melody reign.
Gravity Stairs by Crowded House is out May 31 via BMG.
^Discounts apply to previous ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. As we negotiate, products will likely have been sold below ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. Prices may differ at airport stores.
