More power (Liam Gallagher) (LP 2609 - 2611)

Liam Gallagher  C'mon You Know (CD, Warner Records, 2022) ***  

Rory Gallagher Transmission Impossible (3CD, Eat To The Beat Records, 2022) **** 

Crowded House Gravity Stairs (Vinyl, BMG Records, 2024) **** 

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Everything's Electric (C'mon You Know)

Gear costume: Black Water, White Circle (Gravity Stairs)

Active compensatory factors: A recent trip to Palmerston North resulted in these purchases (these and more but we'll get to them in due course).

C'mon You Know is Liam's fourth solo outing and probably the weakest, if truth be told. However, given I gave all of the others four stars, this is a three-star (pretty fine) album.

Opening track (More Power) has a kids' choral group introducing the song's opening lyrics. It's cheesy and doesn't bear repeat listens. But then Liam's vocals kick in and all is (mostly) forgiven. He is unique and he sings with real authority.

The rest of the album is good but not great and certainly not a patch on his first solo album which is untouchable.

Rory's triple CD pack collects up songs not on his BBC Sessions double set. The first CD features Taste in BBC sessions from 1968-1969. The power trio is a great setting for Rory. This is raw and in your face. So - good, in other words.

CD 2 and 3 feature sessions from 1971 to 1974 and Rory delivers every time. Some great slide guitar on Could Have Had Religion from a John Peel 1971 session. There are tons of other highlights.

Crowded House's latest iteration have just released their new album - Gravity Stairs. Its sound harks back to the dream-pop of Liam and Neil's Lightsleeper project from four years ago. That's good news, I love that album.

Neil's voice lends itself to this kind of music and he's ably supported by his sons, Mitchell Froom and Nick Seymour. Even Tim and Sharon make appearances, so at times it has a Woodface feel to it. I'll be playing this one often I suspect.

Great Revolver style cover too!

Where do they all belong? Other purchases to come along the way.

Love this life (Crowded House) (LP 780 - 782)

Crowded House  Crowded House (CD, Capitol Records, 1986) ***

Crowded House  Temple Of Low Men (CD, Capitol Records, 1988) ***

Crowded House  Together Alone (CD, Capitol Records, 1993) ****

Genre: NZ music

Places I remember: Vinyl Countdown (New Plymouth)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Private Universe

Gear costume: Don't Dream It's Over

Active compensatory factors: These three complete my Crowded House collection. For some reason I hadn't got around to getting these albums earlier - that Greatest Hits collection is a beauty!

Their debut album is a bit uneven but still includes some wondrous Neil Finn songs: Mean To Me, Don't Dream It's Over and Something So Strong stand out.

Second album, Temple Of Low Men also has some terrific songs: I Feel Possessed; Into Temptation; and Better Be Home Soon. 

Fourth album (I've discussed third album - Woodface elsewhere) is my favourite - mainly because of the enormity of the stand-out tracks: Pineapple Head; Private Universe; Distant Sun and Together Alone, but also because it feels like a proper album, rather than some great songs mixed with other songs.

Kudos to Michell Froom, Tchad Blake, Youth and Bob Clearmountain for their expertise in making these songs sound great!

Where do they all belong? That's it for Crowded House but there are still some Neil Finn/Tim Finn albums to come on CD.

Too good for this world (Crowded House) (LP 633)

Crowded House  Dreamers Are Waiting (Vinyl, Lester Records - EMI, 2021) **** 

Genre: NZ pop/rock 

Places I remember: JB HiFi (Palmerston North)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: To The Island

Gear costume: Whatever You Want, Playing With Fire 

Active compensatory factors: I'm not a Crowded House completist but I am a fan. Their 1996 compilation Recurring Dream is an amazing collection of Beatley pop.

Since then they've reformed a few times to create interesting, if somewhat inessential albums. This time out (the first Crowdies album in eleven years) Neil carries on the tradition of employing fellow Finns to flesh out the band (not Tim this time, but his two sons - Liam and Elroy, and his wife Sharon).

Bassist Nick Seymour remains onboard - along with Neil, he's the only constant member of the original band.

And so to the music - it's fresh but instantly recognisable as a Crowded House record. The harmonies and melodies are present and correct, while the younger generation Finns add plenty of flavour. Liam even contributes two of the songs and co-writes others with Neil.

I've only played the record twice but already it sounds like the effort to resusitate the band was a brilliant decision. 

Where do they all belong? I must find a copy of Together Alone!

Tall trees (Crowded House) (LP 472 - 476)

Crowded House Woodface (CD, Capitol, 1991) **** 

Crowded House Afterglow (CD, Capitol, 2000) *** 

Crowded House Farewell To The World (CD, Capitol, 2006) **** 

Crowded House Time On earth (CD, Parlophone, 2007) *** 

Crowded House Intriguer (CD, Universal, 2010) *** 

Genre: NZ pop/rock 

Places I remember: These have all come from various Warehouse stores - Cambridge, New Plymouth, Taupo, Hastings. There was a time there that these were the only places I had access to for CDs and they were cheap!  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Woodface is chocker block with fab songs - Weather With You, Four Seasons in One Day, Fall At Your Feet. Afterglow has a terrific version of Private Universe (another brilliant live version is on the Farewell To The World album).  

Gear costume: Don't Stop Now (Time On Earth); Either Side Of The World (Intriguer)

Active compensatory factors: I feel that my Crowded House collection, as presented here, without either a Greatest Hits collection or three of their early studio albums, is on balance quite wilfully obscure.

There's only Woodface carrying the load - the amazingly brilliant third album that includes Tim Finn in the lineup and contains hit after hit. BTW: I've deducted a star for the length for Woodface - it needed to be pruned of at least two tracks for my money. 

The rest...

There's Afterglow (with the awful cover)- an odds and sods/ waifs and strays compilation of discarded tracks, the live Farewell To the World double which doubles as a de facto Greatest Hits of Crowded House Mark 1, and then the two post farewell reunions with new musicians augmenting Crowded House: Time On Earth (dedicated to Paul Hester) and Intriguer (a double as well - with the album twinned with a DVD of live stuff). 

These last two are different, less immediate and no hits but with a more mature sound.

That said - there is a wealth of great material spread over these five CDs. Neil Finn (pronounced Nil Fun in Nu Zild) is one of our favourite sons, after all.

Where do they all belong? Crowded House: kiwi legends - something so strong! Indeed.

The big hole in my CH collection is Together Alone, which I need to correct post haste.

It's the same room but everything's different (Crowded House) #457

Crowded House Distant Sun/ Walking On The Spot/ When You Come (Live)/Skin Feeling/Weather With You (Live) (EMI, 8809962, 1993)

The older I get the more I see Beatle clues in The Crowdies songs, the older Nil Fun gets the more he takes on a McCartneyesque post Wings persona.

In that the catchy amazing chunes of his Enz and Crowded House daze (read Beatle/Wings era) recede more and more into a wonderful past and the more a barren melody run stretches on and on.

Is it a case of been there dun that, don wanna do it no more? I don't know but it sure is a puzzler how these great men refuse to toe the genius line into their post mega selling output.

Distant Sun sounds like a Macca outtake circa Red Rose Speedway. That's a good thing btw. It's a cool song and a stand out from Together Alone.

Hidden gems: Most of the B sides are from Together Alone including the feeble Paul Hester effort Skin Feeling. Poor bloke - being in a band with Paul McCartney...oops - I mean Neil Finn.

The real hidden gem here is the live version of Weather With You: one of my fav CH songs. The crowd singalong is pretty good in this loose-ish version. Let's face it though - any version of this kiwi classic is pretty fine!

Close my eyes, she's somehow closer now (Beach Boys)

1. The Exponents – Like She Said (1994)/ Nameless Girl (1992)
2. Blerta - Dance All Around The World (1972)/ Joy Joy (1972)
3. Dragon – Young Years (1989)/ Rain (1984)
4. John Hanlon - Higher Trails (1975)/ Wind Songs (1975)
5. Crowded House - Private Universe (1994)/ Weather With You (1991)

Fifth in the Wozza countdown of the 10 best Nu Zild bands and their two best songs is Crowded House - something of an inevitability (say it as Smith from the Matrix - it's good).


Nil Fun is surely a Beatles acolyte, like me. The difference between the two of us is that Neil is a genius writer, singer, musician and I am practicing five basic guitar chords, but that’s by the by.

A genius? You ask. Yes – a genius. He can churn out hummable instantly loveable chewns for fun, in his sleep, with his fretting hand tied behind his back.

Picking two great songs from Crowded House is a very tough job (unlike Berta, say, who only had two great songs to my mind).

I’ve stuck by Weather With You because I use that philosophy a lot in day to day life. It’s like Emerson’s great quote – Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Neil’s version is even more succinct – you always take the weather with you.



And Private Universe edges out the more obvious pop songs (Don’t Dream It’s Over, Four Seasons In One Day, Distant Sun and loads of others) because it’s a proper mature Beatle song.





The lyric touches on the personal and the universal (private and universe). Neil evokes a Strawberry Fields style sepia coloured childhood domesticity in the song (in his own apple tree, dinner on the table, talking to birds) but he also touches on the cosmic quest for meaning - I have all I want, is that simple enough? A whole lot more I'm thinking of.

The music is otherworldly. There is longing and hope and there at the end are the Polynesian rhythms which take over from the drums. A magical aural experience in its own write (sic).

Macca would have been delighted if he’d written this song!