Posts Tagged ‘7 Worlds Collide’

Vinyl Review: 7 Worlds Collide, “The Sun Came Out”

7 Worlds Collide, spearheaded by Crowded House’s Neil Finn, is a loose collective formed with friends, acquaintances and contemporaries coming together in a studio to hash out some songs. It’s a nice concept, though not an entirely unique one, the most recent comparison (relatively speaking, considering its decades-long gestation) being Peter Gabriel’s Big Blue Ball. Not coincidentally, Tim Finn is a member in good standing of both, but The Sun Came Out trumps Big Blue Ball in one important aspect: consistency. Because of Gabriel, and his Real World label’s world music emphasis, the tracks bounced wildly from a pop tune to a chant, to an African tribal rhythm and back to a pop tune, all good in their own right but incoherent in the record’s preset context.

The Sun Came Out has a rock & roll through-line and, therefore, is an easier listen. The pedigree is outstanding as well, since you’re not just getting more Finns than you can shake a stick at, but you’re getting a chunk of Radiohead, a large part of Wilco, and some Johnny Marr for good measure. One of the early standouts is “Run in the Dust,” a Marr contribution with some nice, moody guitar textures, but the set spans two CDs or four full vinyl sides. By the sheer weight of the thing, the listener instinctively begins to cherry-pick tracks. For the CD or iTunes set, that’s fine. For the vinyl collector, not so much. (more…)

The Popdose Interview: Neil Finn

The new benefit album from Neil Finn’s 7 Worlds Collide collective, The Sun Came Out, doesn’t aspire to the sorts of Grand Gestures that mark so many multi-artist charity compilations. Instead, its charms are subdued and homespun, and its songs (such as “Learn to Crawl”) are intoxicating in their low-key tunefulness. Those same qualities, along with an enormous generosity of spirit, are the ones that have sustained Finn through three decades as a recording artist — perhaps the most underrated artist of his era, as we are prone to suggest frequently here at Popdose.

The album comes by those characteristics naturally. Finn and his family opened their home (and his home studio) in New Zealand for three weeks last Christmastime to most of the crew from the previous 7 Worlds incarnation — Johnny Marr, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway from Radiohead, Sebastian Steinberg, Lisa Germano — as well as newbies including Wilco, KT Tunstall, and down-under singer-songwriters Don McGlashan, Bic Runga, and Glenn Richards. The sessions were, by all accounts, full of frivolity, on-the-spot collaboration, and various forms (this being the holiday season) of good cheer; they also marked a musical reunion for various Finn family members including brother Tim, sons Liam and Elroy, and — singing on record for the first time — Neil’s wife Sharon.

In addition to preparing and publicizing The Sun Came Out (which emerges tomorrow in the U.S.), Finn has been readying a new Crowded House album for release this winter and has recently found time to play a few gigs (with and without his 7 Worlds compatriots) in London and Los Angeles. His interview with Popdose, patched in from New Zealand through his U.S. publicist’s office (thus saving your intrepid interviewer a whopping phone bill), found him answering queries about the minutiae of long-past Crowded House gigs as well as reader questions ranging from the profound to the ridiculous. (Sadly, dear reader who calls himself “maxus,” he had no answer whatsoever for the question, “Imagine if writing songs in flat keys suddenly became a major felony. How would you imagine a day in Neil Finn’s Violent Life of Crime, circa September 2010?”) Here’s a live clip from the first 7 Worlds Collide project: (more…)

Calling All Questions: Neil Finn

Reader questions are becoming almost de rigueur for our higher-profile Popdose Interviews, so we thought some of you might like to be part of our upcoming conversation with one of our very favorite artists, Neil Finn. Submit your questions here before midnight on Monday, and we’ll fit in as many as he can (or is willing to) answer. Feel free to touch on the Split Enz years, the Crowded House era, his solo work, or his many collaborations with Tim, Liam and the whole Finn brood — including the new 7 Worlds Collide album, The Sun Came Out, which itself dawns on September 29 and benefits Oxfam.

Have at it! And we’ll say “Hi” to Neil for ya.

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CD Review: 7 Worlds Collide, “The Sun Came Out”

618P4xqm7zL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]The coolest thing about 7 Worlds Collide’s The Sun Came Out is also its biggest flaw: Namely, that “group” founder Neil Finn brought the whole damn thing together — all two discs and 24 tracks’ worth — in a scant three weeks.

7 Worlds Collide, as the Finn fanatics among you will remember, was the name Finn gave the stupidly awesome live album he released in 2002 — a name derived from the fact that he was joined for its performances by his brother Tim, erstwhile Smith Johnny Marr, Lisa Germano, Radiohead’s Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien, and Eddie Vedder. (And yet it wasn’t a huge hit. Go figure.) Seven years and one Crowded House reunion later, Finn has decided to revive the 7 Worlds banner for something even cooler than a star-studded live compilation: A star-studded charity compilation, assembled to support Oxfam.

For the occasion, Finn re-enlisted his old friends Johnny Marr, Phil Selway, Ed O’Brien, and Lisa Germano, as well as a multitude of Finns (including Tim, Sharon, Elroy, and his son Liam) — and then went further, recruiting Jeff Tweedy, K.T. Tunstall, Bic Runga, Glenn Richards, John Stirratt, Pat Sansone, Don McGlashan, and Sebastian Steinberg to take their own turns in front of the microphone. This sprawling collective (which was actually even bigger — I only named the vocalists) holed up Auckland for a few weeks and emerged with The Sun Came Out. (more…)