Crowded House’s Woodface reimagined

Crowded House’s Woodface was released in 1991. It marked a turning point in their commercial fortunes in pop music’s major English-speaking territories. The lead single ‘Chocolate Cake’, particularly the line “excess of fat on your American bones”, effectively killed their career in the US. Yet the album and subsequent singles like ‘It’s Only Natural’ and ‘Weather With You’ established the band in the UK, with Woodface reaching the top ten.

Woodface had a particularly complicated origin. Neil Finn was frustrated by the sessions for Crowded House’s third album, as their label rejected much of their material. He’d been writing songs with his brother Tim for a planned Finn brothers album and asked permission to use some of these songs on the Crowded House album. Tim Finn joined Crowded House, meaning Woodface was effectively a compilation, drawn from two sources.

Many of the rejected songs from the Crowded House sessions later turned up on the outtakes compilation Afterglow, while some of the Tim and Neil Finn songs were used on Tim Finn’s Before and After and Crowded House’s Together Alone.

Woodface contains some of Crowded House’s best-loved songs, but it’s always felt short of a classic album to my ears. There’s a stretch of weaker songs in the middle of the second side, and a couple of abrasive tracks, ‘Tall Trees’ and ‘Fame Is’, don’t fit. ‘Chocolate Cake’ is an odd opener and lead single, uncomfortably funky and lyrically barbed for Crowded House – it would have fitted better on a Finn album. Here’s my 11-track version of Woodface.

Woodface Reimagined

The Singles

After the false start with ‘Chocolate Cake’, the other singles from Woodface were successful and are beloved. ‘It’s Only Natural’, ‘Fall At Your Feet’, ‘Weather With You’, and ‘Four Seasons in One Day’ are all obvious inclusions. ‘It’s Only Natural’ is the obvious opening track with its sound effects.

In Love With It All

from Tim Finn’s Before and After, 1993
It makes sense that Tim Finn got to keep ‘In Love With It All’ for a solo album – he’s singing lead, and he generously donated some other amazing tracks to Crowded House. But it belongs on Woodface – it stands proudly among the other stellar Finn brothers’s songs here.

Time Immemorial

from Afterglow, 1999
The outtakes compilation Afterglow was dominated by outtakes from Woodface. It’s weaker than the group’s earlier studio albums, but it has its moments. One of my favourites is the pretty waltz time of ‘Time Immemorial’, elegant and restrained. Neil Finn later wrote that he was “very fond of it”, but producer Mitchell Froom felt it was “too folky”.

Left Hand

from Afterglow, 1999
The rock tracks ‘Fame Is’ and ‘Tall Trees’ on the original version of Woodface didn’t quite work for me – this loose-sounding track is much more fitting. It doesn’t have the band’s usual studio polish – it was recorded in an afternoon in Tim Finn’s studio. Even though it didn’t make it onto a studio album, the band liked to play it live – it turned up on the live disc of the compilation Recurring Dream.

Whispers and Moans

‘Whispers and Moans’ was written by Neil alone, one of the highlights from the original record. Finn often writes deceptively simple songs, but ‘Whispers and Moans’ is sophisticated, with complex chord changes. It’s mostly a wistful ballad, but the bridge and outro are surprisingly rocking.

‘Whispers and Moans’ features the line “Alan’s sound investments’. I bought a cassette copy of Woodface in Dunedin as a teenager – when we visit Dunedin nowadays, we stay with my wife’s uncle Alan, a chartered accountant.

There Goes God

Crowded House aren’t a controversial band, but ‘There Goes God’ is their most provocative track. The Finn brothers and bassist Nick Seymour all grew up Catholic, and ‘There Goes God’ is a reaction against their religious upbringing. It juxtaposes sincere verses with a surreal chorus. The secret weapon is harmonica player Chris Wilson, while Ricky Fataar, a former member of The Rutles and The Beach Boys, is on drums.

She Goes On

It took me a while to appreciate ‘She Goes On’ – it’s buried near the end of the record. But it’s one of Neil Finn’s prettiest tunes.

It was written after the death of a close friend and it was written at the request of somebody. I didn’t intend it to necessarily be on a Crowded House record but I thought, well, this is as good as anything else I’d written on the record so it has to go on, really.

Neil Finn, Neilfinn.com

How Will You Go

The closing track of Woodface isn’t acknowledged often enough as a Crowded House classic – the bridge is especially great.

Gimme time, gimme time
‘Cause I want you to see
Round the world, round the world
Is a tangled up necklace of pearls

It’s followed by a hidden track – a snippet from ‘I’m Still Here’, which is surprisingly raucous and punky.

Did I miss your favourite Woodface song? Is this version an improvement?

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