By the time that Together Alone had received its birth on the 18th of October 1993 the Melbourne band, made up of Neil Finn, Paul Hester and Nick Seymour, were one of Australia and New Zealand’s greatest exports.
By 1993 the success of the Finn brothers and their various music projects was the source of a well known cross Tasman pride.
While Australia has a history of claiming some of New Zealand’s more famous personalities as their own the acquisition of Crowded House as Australian was made a little less dubious by the band’s foundations in Melbourne and the origins of Benalla born Seymour and Melbournite Hester.
Still it’s a band that both countries could make a claim to and aside from Finn’s obvious heritage the location of the recording of Together Alone justifies this sentiment.
In the year of their fourth album’s release both Neil and Tim were invested with an OBE for services to New Zealand music in the 1993 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
“For the first time in the act’s history Finn would utilise his home country as a base for recording with the isolated Karekare Beach chosen as the building grounds for Together Alone.”
Such an honour at this stage of their careers might seem more than a little before its time, but factor in the international success the Finn brothers garnered with Split Enz between 1972 and 1984, Crowded House’s current global presence – with which Tim spent a short time with in the early 90s – and perhaps the timing wasn’t so far fetched.
“It was just a thing. Politicians had just decided that we’d become successful enough that they would recognise us in some way,” noted Finn in an American TV interview with Much Music.
Yet behind the Crowded House singer’s nonchalance towards the honour were three albums with his latest band that had all charted internationally and received admirable reviews.
Although maybe Finn was wary of the fact that the world had yet to fully appreciate the band’s latest and strongest album.
With Together Alone Crowded House installed Mark Hart as a full time band member for the first time. Hart had previously played on Woodface as a session musician in 1991 and joined the band as touring member to fill Tim Finn’s shoes after his departure.
The band also opted for another change in deciding not to work with the producer of their previous releases in Mitchell Froom and instead calling up on Youth.
“He’d come in and say ‘when you get to the end there Paul just freak out,’” says Hester of their new producer in the album’s 12 minute long promo video
The drummer quips shortly after “we want that one, we want the one that’s not like a producer!”
The album fielded more than just personnel changes for the band. For the first time in the act’s history Finn would utilize his home country as a base for recording with the isolated Karekare Beach chosen as the building grounds for Together Alone.
“Between Los Angeles and Melbourne we’ve done all our previous records,” says Finn to Much Music, “and it was a desire for total change really that took us to a West Coast beach in New Zealand”.
In the promo video for the album Finn further explains the allure of Karekare Beach.
“We were very attracted to Karekare because it was about as far away from the music industry as you can get.
‘In My Command’
‘Fingers Of Love’
“We wanted to isolate ourselves so we were only thinking about the music really and not any other considerations,” remarks Finn.
“It wasn’t so much the idea of getting really relaxed and beachy, it was the idea of being caught up in the elements.”
At this point the man on the drums chimes in rationilising the affect of Karekare on Together Alone.
“It did affect the music directly,” says Hester. “There were days when you were looking out and there would be this mist rolling in from the sea and it would change the valley, it would go from sunny to sort of dark and misty.”
Bassist Seymour has similar thoughts on the how their surroundings affected the record.
“Looking at the clouds rolling by and the proportion to the landscape and you’d get a lump in your throat.”
“It added perspective to the whole thing that’s for sure,” says Finn.
For the singer recording at Karekare was not only an amazing experience but unlike the album’s predecessors this time around it wasn’t just about the ‘job’ involved in making an album.
“It will be more special for us than whatever ends up happening to the record will mean,” explains Finn.
‘Pineapple Head’
‘Private Universe’
“This time is etched into us, etched into our souls,” he concludes with a potent amount of sentimentality.
Once the recording was finished Together Alone would be mixed in Melbourne, yet another change with the band traditionally mixing their records overseas.
On their fourth album personnel and location shifts along with the experimentation that comes with the ageing of a band would all culminate in Crowded House’s most ambitious album to date.
While their status as an ‘easy listening band’ is never seriously challenged on Together Alone the four-piece take steps to add a few slightly more caustic elements throughout the record which is in stark contrast to 1991’s Woodface.
The electric jam of ‘In My Command’ is home to a set of heavy keys and fierce vocal tones in the chorus from Finn where he almost screeches, “you’re about to be a victim of a holyisitation”.
‘Black & White’ is similarly upbeat with heavy guitar chords while ‘Locked Out’ combines such elements with pop hooks of earworm tendencies.
‘Skin Feeling’ is rhythmically enthralling with Finn singing with much less tenderness and far more intent. ‘Private Universe’ shares the same percussive brilliance although this time in a tamer atmosphere.
While ‘Nails In My Feet’ is the uplifting mid pace burner that is often emblematic of the band’s sound it too is home to an almost haunting electric guitar solo.
But Together Alone isn’t typically a heavier turn for Crowded House. Where it sets itself apart from its predecessors is in the beguiling twang of opener ‘Kare Kare’, the sprawling electric ballad of ‘Fingers Of Love’ and the accordion tinges in ‘Walking On The Spot’.
Far from drastic tactics of experimentation these little tweaks helped Crowded House push themselves into the next stage of their evolution without forgetting what had gotten them this far in the first place.
Their ace in the hole though comes in the form of the closing title track. It is a gorgeous masterstroke, which, much like the opener, pays homage to the lands that significantly inspired the record.
“Together Alone is one of the few albums that has an important place in the cross Tasman psyche of Australia and New Zealand.”
The track features a 30-piece Māori brass band and choir, which the song was written especially for.
“It was an incredibly emotional day,” says Hester of the song’s recording in the album’s promo video. “The choir just cut loose and started singing a whole lot of songs for the occasion and they bought their family and children and there were about 200 people at the studio.”
Just like the Seymour and Margo Chase designed artwork, which features Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed sharing a cab the song’s theme details a relationship where both parties have that isolation in common.
The songwriting prowess of Finn here is as relatable and as beautiful as it has always been under the Crowded House banner.
Among the developments in sound there were safer songs amongst the mix that provide a gateway into the record for unrelenting fans.
Unsurprisingly the pleasant and infectious additions of ‘Distant Sun’ and ‘Pineapple Head’ would be two of the album’s singles.
The former would peak at #19 in the UK charts, in Australia it hit #21 while New Zealand remained the band’s biggest chart supporters installing it at number #5.
The response to the album in America much like Woodface, which reached #83 wouldn’t match the Top 20 heights of their debut with Together Alone coming in at #73 on the Billboard Charts.
Although the inclusion of ‘Locked Out’ on the soundtrack to US film Reality Bites would push the sales of the song around the world.
Still a top spot in New Zealand, #2 in Australia and a #4 peak in the UK on the album charts is nothing to snuff at even if it didn’t reach the commercial popularity of its predecessors.
20 years old and those figures are largely irrelevant except when determining its commercial impact at the time. But to this day Together Alone is Crowded House’s masterpiece.
The musicians themselves agree.
‘Kare Kare’
‘Distant Sun’
“I think Together Alone didn’t get as much attention as it should have,” tells Finn to Bullz-Eye before declaring it as his favourite Crowded House album.
Seymour agrees confirming to Distinctly Smart Wax that it was the “first record that really showcased the band and their chemistry”.
However the album also defines a difficult era for the four-piece.
Paul Hester would quit Crowded House– three hours before a gig – in April of 1994 midway through their US tour in time for the birth of his first child.
But as Hester discusses in an interview with Andrew Denton perhaps there were more reasons behind his leaving than just to spend time with his family.
“It was very emotional and a big outpouring, a few tears,” details Hester on how his bandmates took the decision.
Yet only after some pushing from Denton would the drummer reveal the drawbacks of touring.
“When you’re in that sort of perpetual motion it’s like an illusion.”
“Everyone just tells you how great you’re all the time and you don’t get to get off that and have something happen that’s real,” explains Hester.
‘Locked Out’
‘Walking On The Spot’
It would be the drummer’s last involvement on a full length Crowded House record with Hester tragically taking his own life in 2005.
The album became even more significant when the band disbanded on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in November 1996 with the last new recordings coming in the form of a few new tracks on the greatest hits compilation Recurring Dream.
While the band would reform in 2006 with former Beck sticksman Matt Sherrod taking on drumming duties for the release of Don’t Stop Now, Together Alone capped off an era of music that will forever have an omnipresence in the lives of Australians and New Zealanders.
Don’t believe it? It is almost impossible to walk into a supermarket or retail store without hearing a cover or an original of the band.
Regardless of whether the covers are from the He Will Have His Way or the She Will Have Her Way compilation records or in the form of some other imitation, these tributes have ensured that Crowded House have been handed onto the next generation of young Australian and New Zealand listeners.
There are few bands that can outlast their prime, but Crowded House have done just that and while their reunion and 2009 release Intriguer prolongs their relevancy Together Alone is one of the few albums that has an important place in the cross Tasman psyche of our two countries.
In that regard Australia and New Zealand are together alone.
