Review Summary: An experience to be had, Crowded House releases yet another work that epitomises their excellence.
As much as Paul Hester’s untimely death stimulated Crowded House’s humbling comeback, it would be rather superficial to assume it’s the predominant force Neil Finn and his band have chosen to portray throughout
Intriguer; an evidently quaint and more intimate approach to an already quaint and intimate signature sound. Instead, focusing on the subtly distorted lead, “Saturday Sun” -- an effectual version of parallels found during
Time on Earth (i.e “She Called Up”) -- House expresses that time has not diminished their charming musical prowess. Further signifying this is “Archer’s Arrows” employing Finn’s wife, Sharon, as a backing vocalist, trickling piano harmonies and restful guitar melodies from long time member, Mark Hart. But it is after these that the recording yearns for attentiveness in its listener, making Intriguer all the more intriguing. It coaxes, even lures, with the two tantalising engagers, before cloaking the listener in its more mystifying inner through innocent acoustic instrumentation during “Falling Dove” and “Either Side of the World” before tracking towards the ghostly “Isolation”.
In many of these and others, Finn suggests a more careful thought process towards his lyricism.
“We’re just paper over cracks” (“Archer’s Arrows”), and
“it’s useless to dwell” (“Even If”), bare the subtle weight of a caretaker’s darker uncertainties, while others reinforce a tendency towards a painter’s impressionism as in the evocative walkthrough of “Amsterdam”. In the same manner “Elephant’s” asserts, amongst other more abstract creature metaphors,
“let’s admit the whole world don’t turn around us / it’s acting like we don’t exist / [...]sweet dreams, make waves, find bliss”. Buoyed by Matt Sherrod’s rattling snare stroking, and caressed by the marriage of piano and Finn’s distinct voice, “Even If”, is quite close to being one of their best creations that could marry the credits for any feel-good film with further inspiring utterances claiming
“imagination knows no bounds”.
At this point, we couldn’t ask for more from Crowded House. However, with an album such as
Intriguer that fits in fluently amongst their repertoire, it’s hard to argue against its larger picture prospects. It’s a factor that separates it from 2007’s solid, but tentative effort, which many peddled as a conception of ideas from a soloist’s cupboard. Every song’s gift of matching pretty with picturesque and mysterious with compelling (or vice-versa) is the most attractive element of the album, alongside its evidently tighter form of musicianship. Here, Finn still retains his old job as song-maker, but has three talented keepers at hand who are responsible for much of the album’s cohesion through a well balanced fifty minutes of blissful dreaminess and basking pop-rock.
