New Music Reviews: Crowded House and Jessica Pratt

Neil Finn’s Crowded House has become a family firm, with his two sons officially in the band, while his wife and older brother Tim also contribute backing vocals Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Jessica Pratt is back with a record where Phil Spector and 1960s tropicalia are clear touchstones.

Gravity Stairs

2024, 7.5/10
With their eighth studio album, Gravity Stairs, Crowded House’s career divides into two neat halves. Their first four records were recorded with drummer Paul Hester between 1986 and 1993. Crowded House reunited with 2007’s Time on Earth to eulogise Hester, who committed suicide in 2005.

Ever since Crowded House has struggled to sound like a band. Sometimes it’s more like a Neil Finn solo project, with bassist Mark Seymour the only other constant member. But Gravity Stairs feels more like a band than their other post-Hester records. It features the same lineup as 2021’s Dreamers are Waiting, with Finn and Seymour joined by Mitchell Froom on keyboards and Neil’s sons on guitar and drums. Liam and Elroy Finn contribute to songwriting, which helps Gravity Stairs feel like a band’s work. Liam’s ‘The Howl’ is one of the best songs here, jangly and tuneful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvFCiFVz3Xs

The members of Crowded House are spread throughout the world, but the Finn family come together on regular holidays in Greece. ‘Magic Piano’ opens the record, chronicling stone stairs near Finn’s holiday home. It also serves as a reflection on mortality, with Finn singing:

I began to sense my own weight
Walking up the gravity stairs
Bells ringing in the temple above

As you’d expect, the hooks aren’t quite as vibrant as their early work. But there are valiant efforts, particularly the gorgeous bridge on ‘All That I Can Ever Own’. Tim Finn provides backing vocals and gets a writing credit on ‘Some Greater Plan (for Claire)’. There’s a welcome hint of psychedelia on ‘Blurry Grass’.

Gravity Stairs is more impressive than I expected, the strongest Crowded House album in three decades.

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Jessica Pratt

Here in the Pitch

2024, 7/10
San Francisco-born musician Jessica Pratt learned guitar playing along to T. Rex’s Electric Warrior. Pratt’s voice is distinctive, pinched and mannered. I previously covered her 2019 album Quiet Signs. It felt akin to the early 1970s folk and freak-folk scenes with its finger-picked guitar.

This time around, Pratt mines the 1960s for inspiration. There’s more than a hint of tropicalia. It also recalls the spacious 1960s productions of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. Pratt told the New York Times “I’ve always been very interested in that micro era of ’60s pop music where the production is atmospheric like a snow globe.”  ‘Life Is’ opens the album with the ‘Be My Baby’ drumbeat, a clear nod to the era that inspired the album.

Pratt sometimes relies on atmosphere more than melody. But there’s at least one great song – ‘World on a String’, with its evocative piano introduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXYxe1PaMo

Closing track ‘The Last Year’ pares down the arrangement to little more than Pratt’s acoustic guitar. A piano join for the outro, while there’s just a light touch of drums. There’s plenty of vintage Mellotron – a keyboard that recreates orchestral instruments.

Pratt’s not entirely my beverage of choice, but Here in the Pitch is an often charming recreation of 1960s pop.

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