Gravity Stairs

The band produced the album with Steven Schram,{{cite magazine|url=https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/crowded-house-announce-eighth-studio-album-gravity-stairs/|title=Crowded House Announce Eighth Studio Album, Gravity Stairs|magazine=Music Feeds|last=Mack|first=Emmy|date=16 February 2024|access-date=24 March 2024}} with frontman Neil Finn stating that the band wanted to maintain a "dreamy quality" on the record yet be more "lyrically direct".{{cite web|url=https://consequence.net/2024/03/crowded-house-gravity-stairs-podcast/|title=Crowded House's Neil Finn on New Album Gravity Stairs and Supporting Charity with "Oh Hi": Podcast|website=Consequence|date=4 March 2024|access-date=24 March 2024}} Lead single "Oh Hi" was inspired by Finn's work for the nonprofit organisation So They Can, which builds schools in remote areas of Kenya and Tanzania. Finn named the album after a stone staircase near a place he vacations, which he compared to his mentality as a musician, calling the title a "metaphor for getting a little older and becoming aware of your own mortality, your own physicality" as there is "more determination needed to get to the top, but there's still the same compulsion to climb".{{cite magazine|url=https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/crowded-house-gravity-stairs-album-announcement-55792/|title=Crowded House Announce Eighth Album Gravity Stairs|magazine=Rolling Stone Australia|last=Lochrie|first=Conor|date=16 February 2024|access-date=24 March 2024}} The cover art is a pastiche of the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver{{cite web|url=https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/crowded-house-gravity-stairs/|title=Crowded House / Gravity Stairs|website=Super Deluxe Edition|last=Sinclair|first=Paul|date=15 February 2024|access-date=24 March 2024}} drawn by Nick Seymour.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgXarIof-So|title=Neil Finn: Crowded House, Gravity Stairs, & Influence of The Beatles|via=YouTube|last=Finn|first=Neil|date=30 May 2024 |access-date=31 May 2024}}

{{Music ratings

| MC = 73/100{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/gravity-stairs/crowded-house|title=Gravity Stairs by Crowded House Reviews and Tracks|website=Metacritic|access-date=6 June 2024}}

| rev1 = Classic Rock

| rev1score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/crowded-house-gravity-stars|title="Pianos play by themselves and dark forces conjure suspicious shadows": Crowded House make for uneasy listening on Gravity Stars|magazine=Classic Rock|via=Loudersound|last=Jones|first=Damian|date=31 May 2024|access-date=5 June 2024}}

| rev2 = Mojo

| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/new-music/crowded-house-gravity-stairs-review/|title=Crowded House Gravity Stairs Review: Neil Finn and co. match up to their mid-90s peak|magazine=Mojo|last=Fyfe|first=Andy|date=31 May 2024|access-date=5 June 2024}}

| rev3 = MusicOMH

| rev3score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/crowded-house-gravity-stairs|title=Crowded House – Gravity Stairs {{!}} Album Reviews|website=MusicOMH|last=Murphy|first=John|date=28 May 2024|access-date=5 June 2024}}

| rev4 = Uncut

| rev4score = 6/10{{cite magazine|title=Crowded House – Gravity Stairs|magazine=Uncut|page=32|date=June 2024}}

}}

Gravity Stairs received a score of 73 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on five reviews, which the website categorised as "generally favorable" reception. Mojo{{'}}s Andy Fyfe called the album "the most Crowded House thing that Crowded House have made in 30 years" as "'Teenage Summer', 'Oh Hi' and particularly 'All That I Can Ever Own' and 'The Howl' effortlessly withstand direct comparison with the band's mid-'90s peak". John Murphy of MusicOMH summarised it as "a welcome reminder that the Finn family are still going strong, with upbeat, breezy numbers set against languid, deliberately paced tracks".

Damian Jones of Classic Rock wrote that "gone (for the most part) are the familiar pop hooks that dominated [the band's] early records, exchanged for more thoughtful, complicated arrangements as frontman Neil Finn contemplates his own mortality". Uncut felt that "Crowded House's eighth studio release ticks all the expected boxes. Pitch-perfect harmonies and inventive chord sequences abound. [...] Where it falls short, perhaps, is the absence of the full-blooded radio-friendly hits of old, although the shuffling 'All That I Can Ever Own' is a close cousin to 1993's 'Distant Sun'".

{{Track listing

| headline = Gravity Stairs track listing

| title1 = Magic Piano

| writer1 = Neil Finn

| length1 = 4:46

| title2 = Teenage Summer

| writer2 = N. Finn

| length2 = 3:47

| title3 = The Howl

| writer3 = Liam Finn

| length3 = 3:26

| title4 = All That I Can Ever Own

| writer4 = N. Finn

| length4 = 3:04

| title5 = Oh Hi

| writer5 = N. Finn

| length5 = 2:59

| title6 = Some Greater Plan (for Claire)

| writer6 = {{hlist|N. Finn|Tim Finn}}

| length6 = 4:10

| title7 = Black Water, White Circle

| writer7 = N. Finn

| length7 = 3:42

| title8 = Blurry Grass

| writer8 = {{hlist|Elroy Finn|N. Finn}}

| length8 = 3:09

| title9 = I Can't Keep Up with You

| writer9 = {{hlist|L. Finn|N. Finn}}

| length9 = 4:01

| title10 = Thirsty

| writer10 = {{hlist|E. Finn|N. Finn}}

| length10 = 3:30

| title11 = Night Song

| writer11 = N. Finn

| length11 = 4:12

| total_length = 40:40

}}

Notes

• On physical editions, "Teenage Summer" is titled "Life's Imitation".{{cite AV media notes|title=Gravity Stairs|author=Crowded House|publisher=Lester/BMG Rights Management}}

Crowded House

• Neil Finn – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, piano, production, bass
• Liam Finn – guitar, vocals, production
• Elroy Finn – drums, guitar, keyboards, vocals, production
• Nick Seymour – bass, keyboards, vocals, production, cover artwork
• Mitchell Froom – keyboards, production

Additional contributors

• Steven Schram – production, mixing, electric guitar on "The Howl" and "I Can't Keep Up with You"
• Bob Ludwig – engineering
• Paul Taylor – percussion
• Sharon Finn – additional vocals on "Magic Piano" and "All That I Can Ever Own"
• Ladyhawke – additional vocals on "Teenage Summer"
• Tim Finn – additional vocals on "Some Greater Plan (for Claire)"
• Antonis Moriatis – bouzouki on "Some Greater Plan (for Claire)"
• Elias Dendias – bouzouki on "Some Greater Plan (for Claire)"
• Nassos Vlachos – guitar on "Some Greater Plan (for Claire)"
• Tryfon Baitsis – guitar on "Some Greater Plan (for Claire)"
• Lauryn Canny – additional backing vocals on "Black Water, White Circle", additional vocals on "Blurry Grass" and "Thirsty"
• Eliza-Jane Barnes – additional vocals on "Thirsty"
• Jimmy Metherell – additional vocals on "Thirsty"
• Zoe Moon – additional vocals on "Night Song"

{{reflist}}

{{Crowded House}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2024 albums

Category:BMG Rights Management albums

Category:Crowded House albums