Latest update on Facebook shares a brief song snippet along with "8am NZ 10/29"
I'm guessing the song is called "Whatever You Want" and it sounds very catchy! Reminds me a little of Lindsey Buckingham actually, which is not entirely surprising.
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He sang bits of that one on Fangradio yesterday.
Aaarrgghhh the vocoder returns!
I've been humming this thing for 4 hours now, so I guess it works 😉
Feel excited about the whole thing, the first Crowded House release I'm going to meet as a fan. Hope the new album will really have those 80s Froom vibes!
I'm with you there, Georgen, and welcome!
I feel completely out of the loop and had no idea there was an album in the works. Who is even in Crowded House these days and will this just be a glorified Neil solo album? Maybe it's good to be going in with zero knowledge or expectations...
The current lineup is Neil Finn, Liam Finn (guitar, vocals?), Mitchell Froom (keyboards, production?), Nick Seymour and Elroy Finn (drums).
It's not a glorified Neil solo album, at least in my opinion, they've got Neil, Nick and Froom involved. They gathered properly as a band in Los Angeles in late 2019/early 2020. It seems like they were in the thick of recording the album when the pandemic hit, so some of it must have been finished during the lockdown.
I'm still curious about some of the other credits, like who officially produced it? Neil and Mitchell, I would assume? And who mixed it - I would guess either Tchad Blake or Bob Clearmountain.
The snippet posted above is promising. It sounds like Neil is indeed back in Crowded House mode as I think of it, or at least as I prefer it, the classic style of their earlier albums, listenable and catchy. Kind of a "Cruel to Be Kind" vibe to that one. I'm excited to hear more.
https://youtu.be/ZggTaHMoQYs countdown to the release
Whatever you want #WYW
Just played the full thing on fang radio.
New artisit artwork for the band on spotify.
looks like a nick painting.
Where are you, Silent Stream? Don't see it on Spotify in the US yet.
Just listened to the premier on YouTube. Glad they are doing something up-tempo, but to be honest, sounded more like Pajama Club than Crowded House to me. Hopefully will grow on me, and very excited to have a full album coming, but I wasn't overwhelmed.
Cool! Good song, very Enzy...
I'll be playing this loud on November the 3rd.
Having said what I did, it IS stuck in my head, and not in a bad way.
After listening twice, I think it’s boring. It does not sound like Crowded House, or Neil Finn solo, or even Liam Finn solo. I agree it is most like Pajama Club, mainly because it’s built around a groove, but it’s not as good as Pajama Club.
And the video - a guy on a toilet? Really?
I hardly ever post here, but I was really excited to check out the new song. Great start to the song, with a really nifty bass part, but then it goes right into the chorus which I honestly find kind of weak and since they repeat it so much I am currently underwhelmed. The verses are much much better melodically. Someone in the you tube comments said it sounded Bowie-ish. I don't think so. I think it sounds like someone trying to fit a melody to an already written bass / drum part. Bravo for the new CH music fellas. Maybe a few more listens will help me appreciate it more?
@slowpogo posted:Kind of a "Cruel to Be Kind" vibe to that one. I'm excited to hear more.
I love NL's cruel to be kind - one of my all time fav songs, but 'whatever you want' not as much.
Hm. As a lead single it seems pretty ho-hum compared to Don't Stop Now, for example. I like the production and the band sounds good. I'll keep listening but if I'm honest, I'm underwhelmed.
I'm remembering now, I had a very similar reaction to Saturday Sun a decade ago. I sure hope I like this album more than Intriguer.
Loved it! Yes Pajama Club feels, video reminded me of I got you Split enz days but hey That’s what brought me to the Finns initially. So cool and happy with this catchy ear worm. Definitely will be humming all day. ‘People will tell you Whatever you want....’
I also felt the same vibes as for Saturday Sun, which was decent but didn't represent the quality of such album tracks as Amsterdam, Either Side of the World and Inside Out, so I'm eager to listen to the whole album. The new track is uplifting and that's enough for me right now.
@brownie posted:And the video - a guy on a toilet? Really?
It's Marc DeMarco on a toilet! That's quite a catch.
The song is catchy (sticks in the head pretty good....easy feat for a small mind like mine...lol)....someone said sounds like Pajama Club. I felt the same. And that is not too bad because something from Pajama Club was way overdue anyway, in my opinion. They could have edited out the toilet scene though. Now I can't show this to my wife, kid, grandparents etc etc. lol. Kinda embarrassed to send it to anyone.
@Candyland Joe posted:It's Marc DeMarco on a toilet! That's quite a catch.
I don’t ever need or want to see anyone in a music video sitting on a toilet. Even Mac DeMarco.
@renzo posted:The song is catchy (sticks in the head pretty good....easy feat for a small mind like mine...lol)....someone said sounds like Pajama Club. I felt the same. And that is not too bad because something from Pajama Club was way overdue anyway, in my opinion.
I would have been happy with a new PC album (yes, I liked the first one. sue me.) But I'm having a hard time imagining this thrown into the middle of a bunch of Crowded House classics in concert. I feel like after the tour to promote the new album, it will be largely forgotten, at least live.
But, as has been noted before, sometimes Neil doesn't choose the most obvious for the first single; hopefully the rest of the album will recall more of the CH vibe.
@Candyland Joe posted:It's Marc DeMarco on a toilet! That's quite a catch.
I guess we're supposed to know who Marc DeMarco is?
@Steve Shealy posted:I guess we're supposed to know who Marc DeMarco is?
lots of info on him here: www.google.com
It's definitely not as bad as She Called Up....so there is a good thing. I was hoping for an extension of the Together Alone album, which I know Neil still has it in him to do. I was hoping for a less poppy, bouncy fun single. He has tried that with She Called Up etc on Crowded House recent albums.
At the 1:09 mark of the video.... is that perhaps Elroy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggTaHMoQYs&t=69s
I will listen to the song some more, but honestly it left me a bit... disinterested. If it wasn't CH I don't know if I would have played the whole thing, and I doubt seriously that I would give it a second spin. Most songs that stick with me over the long haul have to grow on me, but this doesn't feel like one of those songs.
I do like the nod to the Enz in the video with the Noel head chia pot!
I love the vibe of the song. I think it's great that Neil's experimenting and evolving. Great to hear new music!
I love it, put me in a good mood, upbeat, and the video is hilarious. This will be fun live.
So far so brilliant in my opinion.
People are worried about someone sitting on a toilet? What’s with the Victorian England pearl clutching? It’s not Dumb & Dumber, lol. I barely even noticed.
I like it a lot. Lots of people making a Pajama Club comparison but I don't really see that (apart from the prominent bass line).
For me the more obvious influence is Lindsay Buckingham-era Fleetwood Mac - both in the sophisticated arrangement and the vocals, with Neil singing at the very edge of his range in places. His time singing those Buckingham songs with FM has rubbed off on him - in a good way.
Makes me very interested to hear the rest of the album.
I like it.
The song has made a better impression on me than Don't Stop Now or Saturday Sun. It certainly is more in an art-pop direction and, if i'm being honest, doesn't really reflect an earlier Crowded House sound (it could sort of work on Woodface).
But, the song has charm and heart (whilst lacking a Hart of another kind). I still think it was a mistake to let Mark loose as there are some palpable tonal differences with this lineup. The drum sound of the last 15-20 years also continues to be a bugbear of mine where there's a certain snare and echo lacking (although it seemed to return for Everyone Is here).
A great song which makes for an interesting context for the upcoming album.
Any release dates? Titles? At the moment it just looks like a standalone single.
I’m not into the video. Would rather see the band than whatever is going on there. But the song is great! Catchy and fun!
The opening bass and drums remind me a lot of “Saturday Sun.” It also sounds a lot like all the other albums Neil has released in the last ten years but better produced. Except for Out of Silence. It doesn’t sounds anything like that.
The album is called Dreamers Are Waiting but no clue on the release date.
@slowpogo posted:The current lineup is Neil Finn, Liam Finn (guitar, vocals?), Mitchell Froom (keyboards, production?), Nick Seymour and Elroy Finn (drums).
It's not a glorified Neil solo album, at least in my opinion, they've got Neil, Nick and Froom involved. They gathered properly as a band in Los Angeles in late 2019/early 2020. It seems like they were in the thick of recording the album when the pandemic hit, so some of it must have been finished during the lockdown.
I'm still curious about some of the other credits, like who officially produced it? Neil and Mitchell, I would assume? And who mixed it - I would guess either Tchad Blake or Bob Clearmountain.
The snippet posted above is promising. It sounds like Neil is indeed back in Crowded House mode as I think of it, or at least as I prefer it, the classic style of their earlier albums, listenable and catchy. Kind of a "Cruel to Be Kind" vibe to that one. I'm excited to hear more.
Mix is by David Boucher. Mastered by Bob Ludwig. Producer credit is “Crowded House”.
I’m liking it more and more. It definitely put an extra skip in my step walking in the snow from downtown Winnipeg to my house 30 min away. Skipping in my mind all the way...but in a good way. So all in all I’m happy with the song and hoping the album is going to be amazing. Oh ya, one more thing, I like that it is more upbeat (I guess in a more happy key) than Don’t Stop Now or Saturday Sun. It does sound like his sons will have an influence on the sound and give things extra energy....
udiscovermusic article about single release/video and New Zealand 2021 tour:
