Crowded House’s 'Gravity Stairs' is an album of poignant reflection
CROWDED HOUSE
GRAVITY STAIRS
BMG (CD, LP)
By John Curley
Gravity Stairs, the eighth studio album by New Zealand’s Crowded House, is their first since 2021’s Dreamers Are Waiting. The recording sessions for Gravity Stairs took place in New Zealand, Australia and California. The lineup for the band on the album is Neil Finn (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting), Nick Seymour (bass, backing vocals, keyboards), Mitchell Froom (keyboards), Liam Finn (guitars, drums, backing vocals) and Elroy Finn (drums, backing vocals, guitar, keyboards). Liam Finn and Elroy Finn are Neil Finn’s sons.
The title Gravity Stairs was inspired by a heavy stone staircase near where Finn vacations. The stairs are symbolic of the struggle to climb up, to keep going, which grows in difficulty as one ages. And the stairs are a metaphor for Finn’s creative process, the building-up process that ends with the completed song.
“The Howl” is a gorgeous song and one of the highlights of the album. It’s got a great lead vocal by Liam Finn with excellent backing by the band, tight work by the rhythm section and great guitar. “Thirsty,” another highlight, is a softer song with acoustic guitar and brushes on the drums. Finn’s perfectly measured lead vocal is at its center. A dreamlike song with good backing vocals, it has a countrified feel to it.
“Magic Piano” is the first song that the band worked on for the album. It’s a mellow song with an echo-laden lead vocal by Finn. It gets a bit trippy with great backing vocals at about the three-minute mark. Regarding the song, Finn stated in the album bio, “It was a very different song when we started playing it. It was probably ambitious as a first recording because it’s not a simple song — it’s got a lot of twists and turns. But the aim is to produce something that sounds effortless, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and that it’s always existed like that. That’s the art of record making.”
Despite being listed as separate songs on the album’s tracklist, “Teenage Summer” and “Life’s Imitation” are really two parts of the same song. While there is a pop sound to “Teenage Summer” and Life’s Imitation,” the theme is of longing for connection during a time of isolation. Addressing “Teenage Summer” in the album bio, Finn said, “It’s about trying to achieve some reality and being aware that connection is hard to make. And even before Covid, it was hard to find closeness to people. That became particularly acute afterward.”
“Some Greater Plan (for Claire)” poses the question: “Do you want to heal the heart / Of this broken man?” Finn’s father’s war diary inspired the song, which is about a brief romance that his father had in Italy during the Second World War and the wistful look in his eye in later years when discussing his time in Italy during the war. Finn’s brother Tim Finn guests on the track. The Claire of the song’s title is a friend of Neil Finn’s that passed away, so he has dedicated the song to her.
The lovely “All That I Can Ever Own” is a rumination on growing older and wiser, and realizing that there are many things in life that one cannot control. On the subject of the song, Finn said in the album bio, “Throughout your life there’s an element of letting go of anything other than the love you feel for somebody.”
The upbeat, bright “Oh Hi” was inspired by Finn’s involvement with the international nonprofit So They Can, which builds schools in remote parts of Kenya and Tanzania. Discussing the inspiration for the song in the album bio, Finn stated, “… it’s very much inspired by these incredible kids and their magnificence.”
“Black Water, White Circle” is a moody and gentle song with a soft lead vocal by Finn that is supported by perfectly understated backing by the band. “Blurry Grass” is a bit laid back with some trippy elements to it. “I Can’t Keep Up with You” is dreamlike at the outset with echo effects and distant vocals before it shifts about 30 seconds in to a more straight-ahead rock song with strident guitar, solid bass and drums and Finn’s direct lead vocal. It contains some quirky, Split Enz-like elements to it. At the end, the song slowly grinds to a halt.
Album closer “Night Song” is jazzy with light piano and a smooth lead vocal by Finn at the outset. The pace picks up about two minutes in, with more prominent bass and drums. Finn’s lead vocal grows stronger and is complemented by equally powerful backing vocals. The song was inspired by a guy that Finn heard ranting outside a hotel-room window one night at 3 a.m. On that subject, Finn said in the album bio, “You share that part of the night with people who are on his kind of trip. I felt a strange kinship with him.”
The best songwriters never repeat themselves. They always grow, and that growth is reflective of the wisdom that comes with age. Finn is such a songwriter. While the material on this album is quite different from that of Crowded House’s 1980s heyday, it still resonates quite powerfully with the listener.
Crowded House’s tour dates can be found at https://www.crowdedhouse.com/shows.
The music video for “Teenage Summer” can be seen below:
The music video for “Oh Hi” can be viewed below:
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