Finn Casts Own Hooks In Solo Debut

Neil Finn's catalog is crammed full of some of the strongest pop hooks of the '80s and '90s, ranging from Split Enz's I Got You and One Step Ahead to Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over and Weather With You to the Finn' Only Talking Sense.

Now Finn is on his own after taking a wrecking ball to Crowded House and putting his work with brother Tim Finn on hold. He has cheekily titled his first effort Try Whistling This (Sony Work), an apropos title for an album that relies less on his usual hummable, beguiling melodies and more on rich, dark musical textures.

The songs don't plant their hooks in your head immediately, but your patience is rewarded in the end: Selections such as the opening Last One Standing, the wistful title tune and the slow, slinky Sinner have a way of creeping into your memory banks and making themselves at home.

Finn is playful with new ideas throughout the album: samplers, computers and old keyboards adorn the songs with a strange pastiche of electronic rhythms, blips and gurgles that evoke memories of the left-field experimentation preferred by Split Enz. Yet other songs such as King Tide have a straight ahead pop-rock approach and occasionally boil into a Crowded House-kind of crescendo.

There's also a dark edge to the album that Finn's fans will equate with Crowded House's Temple of Low Men. Songs such as Twisty Bass has an eerie beat and staticky chorus that sounds as though it were barked through a megaphone, while Loose Tongue (one of four songs co-written with Midnight Oil guitarist Jim Moginie) is built around a searing guitar riff that sounds like it was nicked off of an Aerosmith album.

But Finn - who will be at the Paramount Theatre on Aug. 19 - has hardly abandoned the quest for penning the perfect pop song: She Will Have Her Way is his latest gem, built around a gorgeous melody with echoes of Paul McCartney. And by the end of Try Whistling This, Finn proves his melodies will work no matter the context: Split Enz, Crowded House, Finn or on his own.

Grade: B+