Perhaps Neil Finn would feel like he was short-changing people if he simply switched on a tape recorder, played some songs into it and released the results.

Such hesitancy would be understandable. After all, thinking of a tune is rarely waht you'd call work - heaven forbid if you just banged them out and that was it. If these are the demons Finn alludes to on a wonderfully troubled new song called "Driving Me Mad", the good news is that gradually, he's learning to keep things simple. Compared to 1998's overadorned "Try Whistling This", Finn's second post-Crowded House album - written in part with Wendy from Wendy and Lisa - is more akin to good home cooking. But then, that's always been true of his best work.

This time around, the toasty watlz-time intimacy of "Last to Know", "Turn and Run" and new single "Wherever You are" number among his very finest. Less successful are the occasional attempts at dissonant clatter, wherein Finn seems to assume that his voice needs to rock because the music does. As "Dont Ask Why" - essentially "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" with an erection - unwittingly shows, some restraint would have been nice. "Hole in the Ice" threatens to go the same way, but bolstered by some magnificent harmonic strangeness, it still sends goosebumps down the spine.

For some reason, Neil Finn still seems unable to accept that his job is easier than he makes it, but as long as he makes his tunes this strong, he'll have to try a lot harder to ruin them.