Woodface

Background

During a break from Crowded House following the Canadian leg of the tour in support of their second album, Temple of Low Men, band-leader Neil Finn began recording songs with his older brother and former Split Enz band mate Tim Finn. These songs were originally intended for a Finn Brothers album. Once these sessions were complete, Neil teamed back up with Nick Seymour and Paul Hester to write and record Crowded House's third album. Capitol Records rejected most of the new Crowded House songs, so Neil asked Tim if the band could use some of the new Finn Brothers songs. Tim agreed, on condition that he would join the band, although he has since indicated he meant this as a joke. Whatever the truth of that claim, the group that returned to the studio included Tim as a full band member.

The album was titled Woodface and was released in July 1991. It was co-produced by Mitchell Froom and Neil Finn, and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Eight tracks were co-written by Neil and Tim Finn and mainly feature the brothers harmonising on lead vocals, although Neil takes the lead on "Four Seasons In One Day" and Tim sings "All I Ask", which later featured in AIDS awareness commercials in Australia. Five other tracks were solo compositions by Neil Finn and the remaining two were written by Paul Hester, including "I'm Still Here", a hidden track. Former Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar is credited on three of the Finn Brothers songs, "All I Ask", "There Goes God" and "Weather With You".

During the UK leg of the Woodface tour, Tim left the band. The band were due to perform at King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut in Glasgow, but Tim failed to appear on stage. After performing several songs, the crowd began chanting "where's Tim?", to which Neil replied "he's left the band". Tim Finn later discussed in an interview that he had gone out for a walk in Glasgow in the afternoon and made the decision, which he announced to the band when he returned to their hotel. Multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart, who had played some keyboards on Woodface, was recruited to replace Tim for the remaining dates. The final date of this tour at The Town & Country Club in London was recorded and given a limited release in Australia, while individual tracks were used as B-sides for the album's singles in other countries.

Track listing

All tracks written by Neil Finn, Tim Finn, except where noted.

"I'm Still Here" follows "How Will You Go" in track 14 as a hidden track at 3:37 after 30 seconds silence. The version released as a hidden track in 1991 is an excerpt containing the first minute of the full track, which appears on the 2016 deluxe edition of the album.

The following songs were recorded by Crowded House for Woodface before Tim Finn became involved but were not included on the album. Seven appeared on the 1999 rarities collection Afterglow; "Fields Are Full of Your Kind" and "My Legs Are Gone" appeared on the bonus disc to the deluxe edition. "My Legs are Gone" had previously been released on I Like it Rare, a rarities compilation available through Frenz of the Enz, the official Crowded House fan club. "Fields are Full of Your Kind" remained unreleased until the deluxe edition of Woodface.

2016 reissue

Includes the original album for the first disc.

All tracks written by Neil Finn, except where noted.

Notes

Personnel

Crowded House

Additional musicians

Production

Album

Sales of Woodface indicated that Crowded House remained hugely popular in Australasia. Their continued diminishing success in the US was countered by increased sales in Europe where the album reached several national charts, including a top 10 hit in the UK. The album was certified platinum in Australia, New Zealand (x4), Canada and the UK.

Singles

The first single, "Chocolate Cake", was a humorous comment on American excess, which perhaps unsurprisingly failed to make the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It did, however, peak at #2 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. Although the second single, "Fall at Your Feet", entered the lower reaches of the Hot 100 and "It's Only Natural" peaked at #5 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, the poor performance of the singles from Woodface in the US reflected the band's declining popularity there. Outside the US, the singles from Woodface were more successful, especially in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, where all five singles from the album charted.