Gravity Stairs Crowded House

• 1 Magic Piano 04:46
• 2 Teenage Summer 03:39
• 3 The Howl 03:26
• 4 All That I Can Ever Own 03:04
• 5 Oh Hi 02:59
• 6 Some Greater Plan (for Claire) 04:10
• 7 Black Water, White Circle 03:42
• 8 Blurry Grass 03:09
• 9 I Can't Keep Up With You 04:01
• 10 Thirsty 03:30
• 11 Night Song 04:12
• Total Runtime 40:38

Info for Gravity Stairs

After the surprise release of giddy single 'Oh Hi', New Zealand legends Crowded House have revealed a new album is on the way. Gravity Stairs is the band's eighth long player and comes after Crowded House secured a deal for the album's release through BMG. "We’re delighted to work with the good people at BMG who we already know love music and hold us in high regard", Neil Finn said in a press release promoting the album. "It feels like a new beginning".

Produced by Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Gravity Stairs was recorded by the current Crowded House line-up of Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn’s sons Elroy and Liam. The first single taken from the record is the feel good 'Oh Hi', a quintessential Crowded House tune accompanied by a charming music video featuring Finn's face superimposed on a child who is dancing around various locations in New York, including the subway and a grocery store.

The title of the 11-track album is inspired by a heavy stone staircase close to where Finn vacations that got him thinking about his time left on the earth. "It’s a metaphor for getting a little older and becoming aware of your own mortality, your own physicality", Finn explained. "Things are getting a little harder, and there’s more determination needed to get to the top, but there’s still the same compulsion to climb them".

This is Crowded House’s first album since dropping the critically acclaimed Dreamers Are Waiting in 2021. That album made it all the way to number two on the ARIA charts and finished as the 44th best selling album in Australia. Fingers crossed Gravity Stairs hits those same heights.

Crowded House

Crowded House
After the break up of Split Enz in 1984, one of its major songwriters, Neil Finn (b. 27 May 1958, Te Awamutu, New Zealand; guitar), along with Split Enz drummer Paul Hester plus Craig Hooper (guitar) and Nick Seymour (bass) formed Crowded House in 1986, after originally calling themselves the Mullanes.

Signed to Capitol Records, the group resided in Los Angeles (where they were given their new name after the group's cramped living conditions), and worked with producer Mitchell Froom. With the group by now reduced to a trio with the departure of Hooper, Crowded House's debut album was released to little fanfare, but two singles lifted from it became enormously successful giving the group US chart hits with 'Don't Dream It's Over' (number 2) and 'Something So Strong' (number 7) in 1987. The album had one of the longest ascents up the charts ever noted, eventually peaking at number 12.

A subdued reaction to the second album failed to consolidate the group's reputation in the singles chart despite reaching the US Top 40. Paul Young gave the group some welcome publicity in the UK by singing 'Don't Dream It's Over' at the Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley Stadium in June 1988. Neil's reconciliation with brother Tim Finn led to Crowded House strengthening the line-up when he joined in February 1991. The Finn brothers subsequently cracked the UK market with the Top 20 hit 'Fall At Your Feet' (1991) and the Top 10 with 'Weather With You' (1992). The much acclaimed album Woodface also reached the Top 10 in the UK Crowded House's standing in their adopted home of Melbourne, Australia is such that the Melbourne Museum For Performing Arts displays a Crowded House exhibition, containing assorted memorabilia of the group.

In November 1991, while the band were enjoying world-wide success, Tim Finn decided to leave the line-up and continue with his solo career. Both brothers were awarded the OBE in June 1993 for their contribution to music of New Zealand. In June 1996 they announced their farewell, bowing out with an excellent compilation package featuring three new songs. Their emotional final performance was in Sydney on 24 November 1996. Neil Finn moved on to a solo career, releasing his debut album in June 1998.

This album contains no booklet.