What's Next for Neil Finn?

Sugar Mouse posted:

And I know that I'm in the minority on this but I LOVE to see Neil release an album of piano/strings versions of older songs such as Possessed, Nails in My Feet, She Goes on, Sunset, etc. along with real rarities such as Blue Hotel, Guiding Star, Ray of Hope, Love Is All That Remains, etc.  Here would my choices for the album ...

Not in the minority at all. 👍 I have to agree with you there. But am going to throw a spin into this. I would like to see another musically led one similar to Enzso. Gosh that would be magic. Back to dreaming 😊

My interest level of proposed future album projects for Neil:

1 - Crowded House
2 - Finn Bros.
3 - Split Enz
4 - Finn Family
5 - Neil Finn (solo)
6 - Fleetwood Mac album
7 - 7 Worlds
8 - Neil w/ Jimmy Barnes or other collaborators
9 - Neil & Liam
10 - Pajama Club

11 - Movie soundtrack

Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’m hoping that being onstage as part of Fleetwood Mac, brandishing a guitar and playing someone else’s pop-rock masterpieces, may inspire Neil to put out something a bit more straight-up commercial, a lot more up-tempo, with a bit less of the “atmospherics” that are so pervasive on Pajama Club, Dizzy Heights, and Lightsleeper.

I understand that, throughout his career, Neil has mostly composed songs at the piano, and he IS a very talented piano player, but his piano/keyboard-based songs tend to stick to the slow- to mid-tempo range.  He’s been in that mode a lot in recent years, starting with Intriguer.  I’m ready for Neil fall in love with guitar-based songs again.

That being said, I actually liked Out of Silence a LOT, but as a one-off kind of thing.  With it out of his system, I was hoping that Lightsleeper would find Neil taking on some of Liam’s high energy, and that the album would be up-tempo and full of the type of melodic hooks they both excel at.  Alas, my expectations were not met on either front (hence my low ranking above for a future Neil & Liam album).  But I’m glad to know that some people are really loving the album.

Why do we need to “ let Crowded House rest “ ?! (: 

Its the best thing Neil ever did . 

Its the thing I yearn from most from Neil . Light sleeper may grow on me , but I still hope for the type of songs that Neil created with the best band since the Beatles . 

Can people not just say what they’d like to happen most as the initial post requests rather than preach that something as brilliant as Crowded House be “ let rest “ ?! 

stuartjb posted:

 

Can people not just say what they’d like to happen most as the initial post requests rather than preach that something as brilliant as Crowded House be “ let rest “ ?! 

I'll go along with that and I'll say it: I want Crowded House more and rather than anything else. It's the best Neil sound for me. And I want guitar-driven rock/pop with Nick's bass lines and Mark' harmonies and keys and Matt's brilliant drumming. 

I get his need for other projects. Fleetwood Mac, the piano ballads, the meandering keyboard experiments with Liam. Still better than a lot of other music out there, and certainly interesting. Problem is, most days I don't want "interesting" music, but music that is my TASTE. And - most days - that happens to be Crowded House. 

Mica posted:

stuartjb posted:

 

Can people not just say what they’d like to happen most as the initial post requests rather than preach that something as brilliant as Crowded House be “ let rest “ ?! 

I'll go along with that and I'll say it: I want Crowded House more and rather than anything else. It's the best Neil sound for me. And I want guitar-driven rock/pop with Nick's bass lines and Mark' harmonies and keys and Matt's brilliant drumming. 

I get his need for other projects. Fleetwood Mac, the piano ballads, the meandering keyboard experiments with Liam. Still better than a lot of other music out there, and certainly interesting. Problem is, most days I don't want "interesting" music, but music that is my TASTE. And - most days - that happens to be Crowded House. 

Hear, hear, Mica.  😉

I want Neil to get back to the business of making beautiful music.

Family projects are personal.

Crowded House is business.

And yes, I watched Godfather 1 and 2 all day yesterday.

Yeah, while I find things to like in all his releases, those things feel fewer with every album since Time On Earth...Neil is free to drift into late career esotericism but I just want one more good Crowded House album before the guys are all 70. 

Amen to this Slowpogo big time . I couldn’t agree more .

To be honest, as much as Crowded House means to me, the bottom line is whether or not I like the music. If each and every album Neil has been involved in had been crammed full of the kind of great songwriting he produced during the original CH era, I don't think we'd be having this discussion.

I'm not saying his writing has got worse over the years, just that he's veered away from the style that first drew me to him. I still enjoy enough of his work to stay interested but his more recent work has come nowhere near achieving the deep seated adoration I felt for those early CH albums.

I accept that he doesn't want to just keep churning out CH-by-numbers material, and that he wants to stretch, but it just hasn't produced songs as enjoyable as that early material. Perhaps he set the bar too high. 

But if he were still turning out melodies of the quality of Distant Sun or Nails in My Feet I don't think we'd care less who he was working with.

Paul H posted:

But if he were still turning out melodies of the quality of Distant Sun or Nails in My Feet I don't think we'd care less who he was working with.

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE

Partially , but the band is also important to me .

Well, I have an emotional attachment to Crowded House as well, and love nothing more than seeing them together but, as I say, I'd rather have great Neil songs without them than rubbish songs with them. It's the songs that matter.

Paul H posted:

Well, I have an emotional attachment to Crowded House as well, and love nothing more than seeing them together but, as I say, I'd rather have great Neil songs without them than rubbish songs with them. It's the songs that matter.

Ok, but tell us which rubish songs in CH catalogue are that? And which Neils "great" songs in era after Intriguer are that (except Out of Silence album in whole)?

See, I can relate with those who was dissapointed how Intriguer turned out - all that americana unnesecery style, Wilco infuence, lack of energy, sounded too loud without good reason, but...

Most of us here can agree that all Intriguer era (bonus 2. disc of Intriguer)  was fantastic time, with lot of classic pop-rock songs in which is easy to fall in love; Twice if youre Lucky, Amsterdam, Falling Dove, Either side of The World, Only way to go is Forward, Bound to Rescue, etc...even Strangest Friends recorded later with Nick Launey sounded 10 times better than same song on Neils solo Dizzy Heights.

I know that not everyone here will agree, but after Intriguer era only Out of Silence can be measured with CH catalogue in quality. If fans wont agree, professional critics will! Ask anyone of proffesional reviewers, 99 % of them will agree with that. After all, just look at metacritic scores for albums - every album after Intriguer had less and less praises, except Out of Silence which had highest score, on the level of reviews you can find for previous CH albums. This last one, Lightsleeper is now on 67 % which is far under level of extraordinary musician like Neil. And, this 67 % is maybe even too much, in my opinion.

After that we can talk about next issue -for whom Neil makes all that new solo/family albums, when with every new album he has less and less fans? His singles last few years gets about 15.000 views on youtube and new album ussualy drops from chart after one week charting,...

All in all, its no wonder that many of us want him back to road with CH band, with classic poprock songs, which we will listen many many years after publishing(for example I didnt listen Dizzy Heights from 2014. and Pajama Club from 2011., like many others as well, I am sure), and not to mention that I want singles that can be heard on radio also. Its not something unimportant - this keeps music, songs and album alive through the time.

Mariola, you really shouldn’t base your argument on metacritic reviews.  Music is so personal.  It’s all about what it means to you.

I am firmly in the camp that Neil’s recorded output since Time on Earth has not been as consistently wonderful to my ears as that which came in the 10-15 years before, but the metacritic scores don’t agree with what does and does not speak to me.

Just because “professional critics” (whatever that means) rate Out of Silence over Lightsleeper doesn’t mean I am wrong to think exactly the opposite.

Music is highly subjective, so there's no reason for anyone to agree with anyone, professional critics or not, about what they like and what they don't. E.g. for me 'Wings at the Speed of Sound' is Wings' best album. 

Moving to the topic of Neil's music pre- and post-Time on Earth, Neil definitely has changed his music. Clearly there are some people who will like that, and some who don't. But, artists rarely stay the same pumping out album after album for decades at consistent quality. If they don't vary their style, the music gets stale and the artist uninspired. 

brownie posted:

Mariola, you really shouldn’t base your argument on metacritic reviews.  Music is so personal.  It’s all about what it means to you.

I am firmly in the camp that Neil’s recorded output since Time on Earth has not been as consistently wonderful to my ears as that which came in the 10-15 years before, but the metacritic scores don’t agree with what does and does not speak to me.

Just because “professional critics” (whatever that means) rate Out of Silence over Lightsleeper doesn’t mean I am wrong to think exactly the opposite.

Ofcourse, Brownie.

But, we dont talk here about human rights to like or dislike or just tastes in music. I am sure that there are some folks who think that Paul Weller made his best music in 80s, but its definitely not something universaly aclaim. Further, what to say in my case when about every new Neils album after TWT I have more similar opinion with most of the critics than most of the fans here? Am I not having a right to be subjective?

Futrher, isnt a fact that with every new album Neil getting less and less new fans, less and less publicity, new albums dropp from chart in one week, his videos on youtube getting less attention than some anonymus dude from Texas washing his hair?

Well, that speak something. Add to that even some hard core fans here speaking that will consider even to buy or not buy new album, be realistic and admit that there is elephant in the room.

In the world where we live, more people know him as "Crowded House guy". And some of those folks realize what a great band they were.

Until the mid-90's I was a known to friends as a HUGE fan of their music, yet (yes, I'm ashamed) I hadn't memorized the band members' names. But the music was AMAZING.