Isolation can breed quality work. It happened for the ostracised studio in New Zealand where Crowded House brought about Together Alone. Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth had similar sorts of success and failure with Jamaican studios producing the disastrous Yes Please! release from Happy Mondays. But it is in those moments of expected calm and tranquillity we can massage our brain in the right spots, feed it the powerful expectations which can only be captured when musing alone. Neil Finn certainly presides over evidence of quality on the fourth Crowded House record. Expectations were high after frequent chart appearances and the sincere qualities of Woodface lingered in the background. Busy minds burst into the studio and find a slight, frightful edge on opener Kare Kare. Valleys shone on by the Moon and all the influences of taking to yourself in those dark nights are wonderfully sounded off on Together Alone.
Jabs of soft, alternative rock filter through on In My Command. Crowded House is not desperate for a new sound but remains aware of needing a change to its tone. They find it with Nails in My Feet and Pineapple Head, the latter still a dark horse of their discography and a wonderful experience thirty years on. Flirtations with a harsher guitar tone on the likes of Black and White Boy pairs well with the layering a crucial change for the band at this stage. Harsher tones, larger instrumental profiles and a desire to connect with where those heavy pangs of flavour can take them. It makes for the most consistent Crowded House release to date – despite the highs of their self-titled debut and Woodface – this remains a deep, moving experience. Because of this, there are few standout hits. Everything works in full swing with one another. Together Alone is an overall experience rather than a booming and hopeful exploitation as their earlier works serve.
Now their tones turn to sickly attempts at reconnecting with lost heartbreaks. Fingers Of Love has a progressive-rock undertone to it and the consistent percussion, holding the tone well as Finn and Mark Hart work their way through tensions lifted by Together Alone. Gloomy pieces are found on the bird conversations of Private Universe. Crowded House takes a risk in changing its model of connecting with audiences. Instead of their usual jolly, jangling materials, they are imposing fear and a darker flourish – their swing into the unknown is a healthy one and keeps them moving to new horizons. It is essential for any artist hoping to continue their growth and the likes of Locked Out and Distant Sun serve a wonderful purpose in achieving this. Lingering within these lyrical paces are Paul McCartney’s influences once more. Finn works them well and exposes the simpler charms of life, the oddities of staring at milkmen normalised into the humdrum of the day-to-day experience.
And such is the classiness of Together Alone. It is a jumble of welcome and everyday experiences which somehow explore the wider contexts of passion, love and death. These are the tones which Finn finds strange comfort and exerts true beauty in detailing them with ambitious turns and acoustic wonder in the latter half of Together Alone. A sincere treat for the ears this one, the whole way through a consistent tone lingers as the silky tones Finn is gifted with unfold. Lush string work on Catherine Wheels finds a tone for one of the many deep Crowded House cuts right on show for Together Alone. A vivid and gorgeous collection of classic tracks which are not paid their dues for one of their earlier songs has hogged the spotlight.
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