Since the breakup of Crowded House, front man Neil Finn has gone off on a few different directions of his own. Beginning with Try Whistling This, he has expanded his stylistic reach from the tightly constructed and swooningly beautiful pop songs with which he made his international reputation. He has experimented with new textures and, sometimes, darker themes. But that doesn’t mean his pop songs are any less swooningly beautiful; it’s just that sometimes you have to listen a little harder than before. Anyone who does so will be richly rewarded by his second solo album, which was made in collaboration with Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman and which stays mainly in an understated, strummy mode, with underpinnings that range from crunchy rock (“Anytime,” “Hole in the Ice”) to electronica (“Human Kindness”). Recommended.
Neil Finn
