Try Whistling This, Neil Finn (EMI/Parlophone)

The Finn brothers have spent their adult lives in the public eye - Neil more so than Tim. And it hasn't stopped yet as Try Whistling This proves. The wait has been a long one since Crowded House called it quits at their farewell Sydney concert in November 1996. But the silence is over and it has been worth the wait for Finn's solo debut. Finn said he initially recorded the album in his home studio in Auckland before taking the unfinished tapes to New York because he felt the project was too introverted and reserved. The final result is quiet and confident. Yes, there has been a lot of talk about fashionable collaborators and experimental recording techniques. But the loops and samples fit perfectly. Everything Finn does is so human, it's verging on organic. He has always been hooked by great melodies and moody character studies. On the title track, one of three co-written with Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie, he has a serious case of the blues, as its sardonic name suggests. The first single, Sinner, sees an odd combination of mellotron and piano combine as Finn calls himself Mr Melancholy. Twisty Bass is all atmospheric, while the guitars rise and crash on a spring wave of emotional chords on King Tide. On She Will Have Her Way he manages to sound like three Beatles at once - and not a bit like Ringo - as he sings "I am heavy and my spirit has died", on the album's bounciest track. Eventually Finn confesses, "I might be old, but I'm somehow new". Finn once described his music as "psychedelic-gothic-Pacific", which proves that like the best of them, Finn is out of time and yet still one step ahead.