Music Notes: Crowded House, Together Alone
August 4th, 2007
By Crowded House’s fourth album, Tim Finn left the group and touring musician Mark Hart became a full band member. Hart played piano and lead guitar (the latter of which he wasn’t particularly good at) lending an unpolished edge. The recording took place in a remote New Zealand house on Kare Kare beach – literally near the end of the world – with new producer Youth.
The sessions were alternately chaotic and artistic landmarks with the producer employing odd creative methods to inspire the band – such as having them run around naked to lose inhibitions or locking the usually shy Hart in a dark room to improvise the odd “fighter pilot narration” of Skin Feeling. Other unique touches are more electric guitar and traditional Maori drums, brass band and choir. The result is an album that sounds organic, haunting, and strangely timeless.
On my first listen, Together Alone sounded like a catastrophic mess, but in retrospect I feel it has aged rather well, due to some increasingly sublime Neil Finn songwriting that even the strangest production couldn’t obscure. But sadly, after Woodface, the added voice and contributions of Tim Finn are rather missed, and the group on the cusp of greatness seemed to slip away.
Here are two parts of a short documentary on the making of Together Alone. I had never seen the recording location until now:
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Kare Kare
= 4 stars
This song’s mood is quite evocative of the recording location, reminding me of a small cabin enduring a downpour in a dark rain forest. The slide guitar is technically out of tune, but I don’t really care, as the way it dips in and out are like waves crashing on a beach. Paul Hester’s drumming near song’s end (2.40) is especially impressive. We also get some the mumbling Neil.
In My Command
= 5 stars
The manner in which Neil belts out the verse is the first time I’d say he channels John Lennon to perfection, say on Glass Onion. Add some biting guitar and “double like a diplomat” lyrics and it’s a thumbs up from me. The chorus provides a soothing contrast and the song as a while is another exploration of the minor verse, major chorus pattern that Neil seems to love so much.
Nails In My Feet
= 4 stars
Sounds like a Temple Of Low Men outtake but with a more natural and free-form sound. The askew electric guitar solo at 1.21 is pretty cool, too.
Black And White Boy
= 3 stars
A most distorted and haunting Crowded House song, and the first time the electric guitars sound appropriate – I prefer this mood to the “rock” tunes on Woodface. There’s a real hook in the way the title is sung, but it also gets a bit boring. Note a little bit of Neil Cold Turkey screaming at the end (3.17).
Fingers Of Love
= 3 stars
Not a fan of this one – a tad excessive and overlong.
Pineapple Head
= 4 stars
I really like the way the bass guitar supports this tune. It really needs another section, I think.
Locked Out
= 5 stars
A rocker, very similar to the first album, that sounds on the verge of exploding, and there’s some nutty guitar playing to boot. Ranting Neil shows up, too. This song was on the Reality Bites soundtrack.
Private Universe
= 3 stars
A really nice melody, but something about the production doesn’t do the song justice. The Maori drumming is amusing but seems more like an addition because nobody quite knew what to do with the song.
Walking On The Spot
= 4 stars
A very pretty piano pattern supports a lovely melody, with some marvelous chord changes, note “before my very eyes” at the one minute mark.
Distant Sun
= 5 stars
A really pretty mid-tempo song, another of my favorites, especially the outro where Neil’s falsetto recalls the first song Mean To Me.
This video is embarassing – looks like a karaoke company produced it:
Catherine Wheels
= 4 stars
Quite similar to She Goes On, however at 3.05 it enters into a new section that eventually supports an amusing electric slide guitar lick.
Skin Feeling
= 2 stars
A Paul Hester tune, that reminds me of a weak Until The End Of The World by U2. The only item of note is the amusing “fighter pilot” narration.
Together Alone
= 4 stars
I think what gives this song an edge is the Maori choir, brass band, and drumming. Other than that it’s pretty yet simplistic. But I love the slightly off-tune choir and the nod to New Zealand history. It also worked as a last, farewell song to Crowded House itsef – well, until recently.
Wikipedia: Together Alone
Intra Album Rank: 3.69
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Posted In: Crowded House
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Great take. That’s probably the right assessment, it’s an “interesting” album, but not quite up to the level of Woodface or the debut album. All in all a decent addition to the catalog.
I do find your music video reviews funny though. It seems like Crowded House is one of the more incompetent bands vis a vis the medium. Either that or music videos in general are ridiculous — I seem to recall that Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” was no great piece of cinematography either
Definitely – the obvious take is wondering what Mitchell Froom would have done with some of the material, and I still wish Tim Finn had been retained.
And as for these videos – I had never seen a lot of them before, and they’re pretty lame. I get the feeling that the label didn’t think they were worth promoting and kept shunting them off to second rate video dudes or something. I think their best video was for “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Better Be Home Soon”. Kinda too bad, because during that time period videos really made or broke a song.
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