Rocktrospectiva: The Enthusiastic "Intriguer" Turns 15

 

Released on 11 June 2010 "Intriguer" was the sixth studio album by New Zealand rock band Crowded House, it was the band's follow-up to the group's 2007 reunion album Time on Earth. The first single for the album, "Saturday Sun", was released to radio and the video clip released to the internet in April 2010, the other single from the album was "Either Side Of The World". 

Following the release of Crowded House's reunion album Time on Earth, Neil Finn announced that the band would re-enter the studio to record a follow-up album which would feature the current lineup, consisting of Finn on vocals, guitars and piano, fellow founding member Nick Seymour on bass guitar, Mark Hart on guitars and keyboards, and then-newcomer Matt Sherrod on drums. The band performed a small concert in The Leigh Sawmill, north of Auckland, in February 2008 and featured a few songs which were later to be recorded by the band for the next album.

In 2009, the band re-entered the studio and recorded demo tracks of 11 songs, some of which Finn had written during the tour around the previous album. For these recordings, the group enlisted producer Jim Scott for the first time, who then continued to produce the whole album in Finn's studio, Roundhead Studios in Auckland, New Zealand.

The band hired various guest musicians throughout the recording process, including multi-instrumentalist Don McGlashan, Lisa Germano on violin, Jon Brion on vocals and guitars, James Milne on additional vocals, and Finn's wife Sharon and son, Liam Finn contribute backing vocals and guitars, respectively.

Intriguer was as winsome and persuasive as Crowded House had ever been. It kicked into life with its most immediate, exhilarating, and hard-hitting anthem – the bass-heavy, psych-flecked "Saturday Sun" – and also proffered a couple of notable leftfield departures such as the pensive, enigmatic "Archer's Arrows"  and the ambient-streaked "Either Side Of The World."

The sound issued on the record contained numerous examples of the dreamy pop classicism in which Neil Finn had long since excelled. The stand-outs were arguably the majestic "Twice If You're Lucky" and the tremolo guitar-framed "Isolation," though the home straight concluded with a consecutive trio of Finn's most exquisite ballads courtesy of "Even If," "Elephants" and the piano-led "Eyes Grow Heavy."

The album topped the charts in Australia, and went Top 5 in New Zealand and Top 20 in the UK, but it also made a strong showing in a brace of European Top 40s and peaked at a highly respectable No.50 on the US Billboard 200. Moving with the times, Crowded House not only embarked on an extensive world tour in support of Intriguer.

The album was very well received by critics and the public, due that "Finn's durable songcraft never fails to enthrall." other thought the album had to stand or fall on its own merits and if there would be if there would be any justice in the world it will be a bestseller. And that was true, nobody saw it coming and this record would be his best work in nearly two decades?.

 

Intriguer Track List: 

 

1. Satruday Sun

2. Archer's Arrow

3. Amsterdam

4. Either Side Of The World

5. Falling Dove

6. Isolation

7. Teice If You're Lucky

8. Inside Out

9. Even If

10. Elephants