gravity stairs

howdy pop pickers

well right now, as in the time of writing, it is roughly a month since Gravity Stairs off of Crowded House got released. a month more or less, look you see. in this peculiar and incomprehensible world in which we find ourselves, where all has been made instantly available and disposable, presumably most will have by now forgotten it even ever came out. how strange. 

anyway, since i (reluctantly) bought the tape (disc) and have now played it, my usual sense of obligation to write of such kicked firmly in. so yes, then, this is a kind of vague review of it. for those in some sort of immediate rush, and who(m) is not so, indeed it's quite good and certainly better than the previous one. but also no, it's not Temple Of Low Men or Woodface good. 

by no stretch of the imagination do i have all of the music what Crowded House have gone done. this may be a bit peculiar (yes a sort of review to come along eventually) with my proclivity for going full tilt autopilot on buying stuff off of my favourites. my passion for Crowded House stems off of my devotion to Split Enz. of course the bands are quite different, but at first it was like Crowded House are simply a different kind of the same excellence. think i kind of went off them when they released the first of a few "greatest hits" things, which featured Instinct which i consider to be a truly brilliant song, but i seem to recall the band for whatever reason didn't care for it themselves, so i just went f*** it and let them get on with their lives. likely three or even four tapes (or discs) what they gone done which do not feature it my collection. 

so, this album. it's much more better than the previous (link above somewhere) but not entirely sure how to best quantify that. feels rather more "together" with a good flow, if that makes sense. last one, in retrospect, was disjointed, but then i suppose such would happen when everyone was in exile due to that plague or whatever it was. how about i word it like this. on the afternoon i got to play the tape (disc) at last i played it through some five (or maybe six) times. so yes, inoffensive. but that said, after the first play (or so) it was on as a bit of background music as i did all sorts of other things.

the above is, ultimately, the reason the tape (disc) got bought. on that big social media thing an advert cropped up off of HMV, offering copies of the album with a signed insert. the price of the tape (disc) was not increased from a standard version sans signatures. honestly i am a bit fatigued by the novelty factor of signed tapes (discs) and now have to go out of my way to find Manics releases what they haven't signed. being truthful my most desired Finn signature would be that of Tim, preferably on a copy of Time And Tide or Frenzy. but that said Neil has written some incredible songs which i could list here, but shall not. 

returning to the album and, well, track (song) one, Magic Piano, answers a very important and pressing question. this is true if anyone has asked "did Neil Finn ever hear Dark Side Of The Moon off of Pink Floyd and did he like it". it turns out the answer is yes, and yes. he pays a most decidedly overt and generous tribute to Breathe with this song. oh. 

no, i am not too sad that i am not going to see them live (in concert) this year, as it is likely they will for the most part just play stuff off of this Gravity Stairs tape (disc). quite like James, then, and their new album didn't sound that great live. actually the more i think about that gig the more i am aware of just how bad it was. got to see Crowded House in the early 90s, so that will do. i would absolutely hate myself if i went to a Neil Finn gig and did not enjoy it, so best leave well alone. 

most of the reason i wasn't going to buy this tape (disc) was in the lead single, Oh Hi. when i first heard it i can distinctly remember thinking "f*** that's sh!t, i am having nothing to do with that". here on the album it doesn't sound that bad. not much better than my original reaction, but still. 

how best to classify this album? back in the 80s it was excellent. when one needed to buy a gift for Dad, be it birthday, christmas or father's day, you could absolutely count on their being something out on tape (or record) by, say, Dire Straits, or Paul Simon. even them tw@ts Sting and/or Phil Collins. a perfectly harmless, non-threatening gift that would be appreciated by the recipient. that is what this album sounds precisely like, with the main issue being not that many people buy records for dads for gifts no more. such is the sorry mess of the world we are in. 

for a measure of that, on the week of release it charted at 8, then the next week it was gone. so everyone who wanted it got it in the first week, and a (very) few of us bought it the following. not enough of us around in that second week to even keep it in the top one hundred. as a i said, strange world in which we live. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!