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Cross Blogination 8: Crowded House – Together Alone.

Cross Blogination is a project I’m doing with twitterthon hero Diary Of A Ledger, the idea being every week one of us will recommend to the other one of our all time favourite albums, which we will then both write a review for. This week it's Gray's turn, and he seems to be punishing me for some perceived slight I must have made against him or his Ledger brethren.

The first thing that happened when Gray told me this week's album for review was that the song 'Always Take The Weather With You' popped into my head in the same way that a mad uncle may leap out at you at a wedding, nose all red, his eyes never taking their eyes off your girlfriend's cleavage.

When it came time to get the album, the first thing I did was to scan through the track listing to make sure that 'Weather' wasn't there.  Thankfully it wasn't so I decided to call off the fatwa.  So I start to listen. And it's not bad. As in, it doesn't make me want to permanently perforate my eardrums, which was to be honest the response I was expecting.

Scanning through the album it's quite easy to see the influence it has had, one of those albums where you think, ooh, Pearl Jam nicked that bit, or U2 based an entire album around that one guitar lick.  The brothers Finn took their excellent songwriting skills and let them flourish with a sound that is quite organic, almost half jammed.  It's nice, in a way which is not bothersome.

But that for me is the whole problem with this album. With the exception of 'Locked Out' which I knew from the soundtrack to Reality Bites, I cannot hum the melody to any of the songs on this album, despite the fact that I have listened to it three times today alone, and have been listening to it for three days previous.  It's a thoroughly pleasant but utterly unmemorable album.

If I had to equate this album to any sensation, it's like taking a bogus valium. For the first thirty minutes you think to yourself that you are getting calmer and calmer, relaxing your troubles away. But then after 40 minutes or so it's gone, and you realise that you feel exactly the same as before, and that your troubles are still there waiting for you.

I'm sorry Gray, I know this is an important album to you otherwise you wouldn't have recommend it, but I just fail to see the appeal. It's not that it's boring, it zips by perfectly nicely while you are listening to it, but I just cannot find anything that draws me back. No hook to keep my interest.  Nothing at all.

2/5

Now go over to Gray's place and let him tell you why I am wrong. Send my apologies while you are there!