''Intriguer'' is the sixth studio album by rock group

Crowded House Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later ...

, released on 11 June 2010. It is 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.

Album history

Following the release of Crowded House's reunion album '' Time on Earth'' in 2007, 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 Nicholas More Seymour (born 9 December 1958) is an Australian musician and record producer. He is the founding bass guitarist and a mainstay of the rock group Crowded House, and is the younger brother of Mark Seymour, singer-songwriter-guitari ...

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 Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

. The band hired various guest musicians throughout the recording process, including multi-instrumentalist

Don McGlashan Donald McGlashan (born 18 July 1959) is a New Zealand composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist who Is best known for membership in the bands Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also composed for ...

Lisa Germano Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album ''Geek the Girl'' (1994) was chosen as a top album of the 1990s by '' Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a violinist ...

on violin,

Jon Brion Jon Brion is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and The Grays (band), the Grays before becoming an established producer and film score comp ...

on vocals and guitars, James Milne on additional vocals, and Finn's wife Sharon and son, Liam Finn contribute backing vocals and guitars, respectively.

Critical reception

The album was very well received by professional critics and the public. On Metascore it reached 75/100, as generally favourable album and 9.3 out of 10 from listeners. Most enthusiastic was

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

which pointed that "it goes shoulder to shoulder with their best materials" and gave it 5 stars. Also very positive was Billboard which found that "Finn's durable songcraft never fails to enthrall." BBC was also very positive with statement "Crowded House have always sounded in parts like the later solo career

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

should have had. Despite the anthems being on a tight leash, repeated listens reveal this to be one of their best albums."

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

gave it B+ saying that "the House head honcho proved he was still a classy, clever tunesmith, and does so again here on ''Intriguer''." Mojo,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

Guide, and

musicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

gave it 4 stars with many praises such as "''Intriguer'' will have to stand or fall on its own merits. If there is any justice in the world it will be a bestseller."

Guide put ''Intriguer'' in its annual list of best rock albums in 2010. ''Intriguer'' was on many lists of best albums in 2010 of various music magazines and sites including Popdose, "Popblerd", "Qromag", "Blurt-online", and others. In "Popmatters" which gave 7 out of 10 stars at first, ''Intriguer'' finished on "slipped discs" of 2010, great albums which didn't make top 70 of the year. Among mixed critics was Q Magazine, which gave 3 stars and stated that "who could've predicted, then, that ''Intriguer'' would be his best work in nearly two decades?"

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

also gave 3 stars, saying that the album "suffers slightly from Crowded House's signature weakness: a tendency to retreat into tastefulness." Ally Carnwath from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' also gave it 3 stars, saying "the trouble with the album's more conventionally crafted pop songs is that they invariably sound dull."

Track listings

* "Eyes Grow Heavy" was released as a downloadable bonus track from Getmusic. "Turn it Around" was released as a downloadable bonus track from iTunes.

Bonus DVD (deluxe edition)

# "Either Side of the World" (Upstairs at Home) # "Amsterdam" (Upstairs at Home) # "Saturday Sun" (Upstairs at Home) # "Twice If You're Lucky" (Upstairs at Home) # "Elephants" (Upstairs at Home) # "Falling Dove" (Upstairs at Home) # "Isolation" (Upstairs at Home) # "Archer's Arrows" (Upstairs at Home) # "Either Side of the World" (Live at the Auckland Town Hall) # "Isolation" (Live at the Auckland Town Hall) # "Saturday Sun" (Official Video) – USA/Canada issue substitutes "Don't Dream It's Over" for "Isolation"

2016 Deluxe Edition

Disc 1 (Original album)

Disc 2 (Unreleased and rare material)

* *Previously released.

Personnel

Crowded House

* Neil Finn: vocals, guitars, piano *

: bass * Mark Hart: piano, keyboards, electric guitar * Matt Sherrod: drums

Additional musicians

: mandolin, tambourine, acoustic and electric guitar and euphonium *Sharon Finn: vocals * Liam Finn: electric guitar on ''Isolation'' *

: violin on ''Archer's Arrows'' and ''Even If'' *

: guitar and vocals on ''Twice If You're Lucky'' *Jim Scott: low piano, tambourine, shaker, sleighbell *Michael McClintock: violin on ''Even If'' *Greg Leisz: pedal steel on ''Elephants''

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intriguer Crowded House albums 2010 albums ARIA Award-winning albums Fantasy Records albums Universal Music Australia albums Albums produced by Jim Scott (producer) Albums recorded at Roundhead Studios