Time On Earth

iTunes Review

The 2005 suicide of Crowded House drummer Paul Hester virtually guaranteed that the first new Crowded House studio album in more than a decade would feel the aftershocks, and that songwriter Neil Finn’s senses would be overwhelmed with somber tones and forlorn musings where once a light step and pop twinkle led the way. “She Called Up” and the Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr co-write “Even a Child” maintain an upbeat glow with Finn’s trademark carnivalesque arrangements — aided by producers Ethan Johns and Steve Lillywhite and not the band’s usual studio conspirator Mitchell Froom — but these moments are the exception. Much of the material sports a cautious hesitancy, a haunting sense that things aren’t quite what they seem and that a day of reckoning waits sooner than later. “Nobody Wants To,” “Pour Le Monde,” “Say That Again,” and especially “Silent House,” a co-write with the Dixie Chicks, and “You Are the One to Make Me Cry” brood more like a moody singer-songwriter than an effervescent popsterman, making this group collaboration feel more like a Neil Finn solo album than his actual solo albums: the personal pain is inescapable even if beautifully wrought.