 The Sun Came Out, the second release by the nebulous entity called 7 Worlds Collide, is the musical equivalent of vacation snapshots. Crowded House resident Neil Finn invited a supergroup's worth of artists from the UK and America to convene over the Christmas holidays at his New Zealand studio and record an album for charity. Members of Wilco and Radiohead made the trip, along with KT Tunstall, Lisa Germano, Johnny Marr, and a handful of Australian and New Zealand artists. They had three weeks to complete as much as possible, and while that may seem like a long sojourn, it's a fast turn-around when there are 20 musicians coming in and out, some of them bringing finished songs to record but most of them writing as they go. Finn, however, kept it low-key by promising proceeds to Oxfam and by inviting the artists' families along. He even included his own musical brood: his wife Sharon, sons Liam and Elroy, and brother Tim all played on the album. Even Spencer Tweedy, Jeff's teenage son, gets a credit.
This isn't the first time Neil Finn has played cruise director. In 2001, he assembled some of the same personnel for a series of concerts and a live double album benefiting Doctors Without Borders. Eight years later, he's grown even more ambitious, and what might have been a slapdash studio effort instead comes across as polished, professional, and cohesive. Of course, like almost every double album, The Sun Came Out would work better at half the length, weeding out the meandering instrumental "3 Worlds Collide" along with some of the less effective folk-pop iterations, such as "Duxton Blues" by Augie March singer Glenn Richards and Bic Runga's "Change of Heart". Jeff Tweedy's "You Never Know" was re-recorded for Wilco (The Album), and this version forgoes the George Harrison guitar fireworks but retains the Sly Stone ooh-sha-sha rhythms, losing some of its rock-historical humor and authority in the process. His other contribution, "What Could Have Been", fits better on this album, with his measured vocal and Finn's sensitive guitarwork....full text |
| Last Christmas, Neil “Crowded House” Finn bolstered his reputation as music’s host with the most by convening another glorious musical summit at his beachside Auckland home. In 2002, his gaggle of international musos played a series of fundraising concerts; this time, they recorded an album, with proceeds going to Oxfam. Joining 7 Worlds stalwarts such as Johnny Marr, Radiohead drummer Phil Selway and various Finns were new additions including members of folk-rock visionaries Wilco and a mid-honeymoon KT Tunstall. They had only three weeks in which to record but that imbues this collection of harmonic indie and campfire folk with an elemental spontaneity. Marr and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy make a mighty melodic pairing on Too Blue; elsewhere, less heralded souls shine, from New Zealand’s Don McGlashan on the falsetto jewel Girl Make Your Own Mind Up to Selway, making a delicate vocal debut on starlit lullaby The Witching Hour. Like most double albums, it should have been a single, but, given that 20 songwriters are involved, there’s a convivial coherence here that’s hard to fake....full text |
In April 2001, New Zealand songwriter Neil Finn convened various stars together under the project name 7 Worlds Collide (after a line from Crowded House's song Distant Sun) in aid of Médicins Sans Frontières. In December 2008 many of the same folk gathered in Auckland for a two-week group hug-cum-charity bash, this time to create original studio work in aid of Oxfam. The result is this sprawling, but always amiable, collection of campfire sing-alongs and fruitful jamming.
The Sun Came Out's predecessor was a live album of Finn Brothers classics, but Neil’s older sibling Tim is absent this time. But while devotees of Split Enz and Crowded House may be disappointed, there are still treats aplenty as contributors include most of Wilco (sans Nels Cline), as well as old friends like Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway, Lisa Germano, Johnny Marr and Finn's two sons, Liam and Elroy....full text |
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