Crowded House - Woodface
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Free Music Notes for Woodface
Free Music Review: Woodface, a tour de force
Hit: 5 Stars
This is simply the best melodic pop album recorded since Abbey Road.Free Music Review: excellent
Hit: 4 Stars
When this came out in 1991, I was suprised when I heard "Chocolate Cake" on the radio. After years of enduring Michael and Modona and posers like Bryan Adams and Loverboy, real rock was back. Nirvana and Pearl Jam were about to break big, and hearing drums that sounded like drums and guitars that sounded like guitars was something I thought I would never hear again.
This is no grunge album, but does catch that excitment lovers of real rock felt in 1991-the currents had shifted. Woodface has a real Squeeze influance, evidenced on tracks like "Chocolate Cake" and "Everywhere You Go."
Speaking of 1991, Woodface has an innocence to it that would be impossible today. Gorbachev was ending the cold war. The fresh, clean songs on this album have a feeling of spring springing, things beginning new. For a brief time, peace was breaking out all over. When the singer here sang about a women giving birth and bowling 257, Andrew Lloyd, Tammy Fey, or Mrs. Harry Legs, he piled on the cultural confetti we became obsessed with through much of the 1990s, and that seems nostalgically nieve in a post September 11th world.
Crowded House sounds like Squeeze here,but rocked harder. And if they don't merit a direct Beatles comparison for Woodface, you still can't help but hear the ghost in the distant background. This type of 80s influenced power pop--but with an older school organic playing- is not an out and out fab four tribute, but certianly has at least a few blood lines to some of the melodic templates the Liverpool Gods set all those years before.
Liniage aside, fantastic albums for fans of good rock music.
Free Music Review: A rediscovery
Hit: 4 Stars
A couple of days ago I listened to this CD for the first time in about 5 years, and it was a revelation. This is the album which die-hard Crowdies dismiss as "overproduced" (much like Squeeze fans dinegrate "Babylon and On"); once, on a CH mailing list, someone actually complained that it had "too much harmony." HA! To be honest, I do love "Temple of Low Men" far more, but I realized that this is the album that turned me into a slavering CH fan in 1991 (actually, a slavering Neil Finn fan), and that's because it's essentially the first Finn Brothers album -- the first time since the dissolution of Split Enz that Neil and Tim actually wrote songs and sang together with their customary hair-raising beauty. "Woodface" has some wonderful songs, namely the gorgeous "She Goes On," the poignant "How Will You Go," and my personal favorite "Whispers and Moans," which made me realize that Neil is both a sex god AND a guitar hero. Skip the snide "Chocolate Cake," the truly awful "Italian Plastic" (obligatory Paul Hester song) and the somewhat over-reaching "Fame Is," and you're left with some amazing pop songs (burn in "In Love With It All" from Tim's "Before and After" and "Catherine Wheel" from "Together Alone" and you'll have a perfect Finn whole). "Woodface" may be slick, but it's preferable to the disjointed "Together Alone" (my least favorite CH CD) and the very, very lo-fi "Finn Bros.," which, while sometimes endearing and tuneful, sounds like they were drunk when they made it.Free Music Review: Woodface has shining moments--and weak ones too
Hit: 4 Stars
"Woodface" was to be Crowded House's return to the top of the pop charts--Neil Finn, I understand, delivered a much darker record to Capitol that they rejected, and that's how Tim came into the band--he and Neil had been collaborating on a Finn Brothers project that pretty much became "Woodface." And while Tim Finn is truly an outstanding songsmith in his own right, he's not the consistently impressive lyricist that Neil is--some of the lyrics don't work as well as one would expect from a Neil Finn composition. Still, much of the material is among the best and catchy Crowded House stuff available--"She Goes On," "Four Seasons in One Day," "Fall at Your Feet," "Fame Is," "Weather With You"--which is why, I think, it's such a popular album in Europe--that, along with the tongue-in-cheek poke at American shallow consumerism: "Chocolate Cake." In a nutshell, they bartered some of the artistic lyricism for pop sensibility when they brought in Tim (and if you want to hear the "Woodface" rejects, pick up "After Glow"). But it works--this may be the most immediately accessible of all Crowded House stuff. The only truly "weak link" is the obligatory Paul Hester comp that shows up on all of their albums--the Ringo effect, I guess. "Italian Plastic" is okay, but it's a bit like serving a platter of corndogs at a wedding reception--sure, they're tasty, but don't belong with the caviar and champagne.Free Music Review: One of my favorite bands ever. Period.
Hit: 4 Stars
I have liked Crowded House ever since hearing "Something So Strong" on the radio when I was twelve. They are a consummately talented and passionate musical ensemble and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy them. I waited till a couple of years ago to finally purchase "Recurring Dream" (their best of-CD, a nice place to start) and purchased this earlier this year because I wanted the album with "Chocolate Cake" (a very witty tune - I can appreciate any band who mentions Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tammy Faye in the same song! Ha!) and got to hear some B-sides I was not familiar with, especially the very-funny "There Goes God" and beautiful "Whispers and Moans." When my great-aunt passed "She Goes On" was a beautiful love letter to the departed and helped to ease the void of her passing. There were also some solid numbers that I was already familiar with such as "Fall at Your Feet" and "It's Only Natural" which are likeable, rock/pop tunes. I think Crowded House is best heard in the car and this CD will never get tired on road trips. They do various genres and yet each album I hear from this group sounds like a completed project of married styles and not a jumble of disparate parts like some groups I hear these days. I am only giving this 4 stars because the last two songs are kind of weak for Neil Finn's talent, but overall it is a very decent album and I hope you enjoy it.