Crowded House announce their first new album in a decade, share single ‘To The Island’

Crowded House have announced their first new album in a decade, ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’, set for release on June 4.

The record is set to include last year’s single, ‘Whatever You Want’, the video clip for which featured Mac DeMarco. The track marked the band’s first new music of any kind since their 2010 album ‘Intriguer’.

Today, they’ve shared the record’s second single, ‘To The Island’, a creeping, psychedelic, slow-pop burn that continues the surprisingly contemporary bent of Crowded House’s new material.

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The track’s music video channels that uncanny feeling, by seeing the band members make a rugged cross-country jaunt to a secret island bandroom – watch it below.

The single also gives its name to their upcoming New Zealand arena tour, kicking off in March. The Crowded House lineup on ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ and the tour are founding members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, as well as returning producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, singer-guitarist Liam Finn and drummer Elroy Finn.

Crowded House - 'Dreamers Are Waiting'
Crowded House – ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ album cover.

Neil Finn released a statement, detailing the recording of the new album amidst the pandemic.

“We were fortunate to be recording in the studio right before lockdown and so began this album with band tracks recorded live in a room, all brimming with character and energy,” he said.

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“We then spent our strangest year, 2020, at distance from each other but connecting daily, swapping files and making those tracks complete. We’re so excited and grateful to be back in one room together now, rehearsing, first to play live in front of audiences in NZ and soon we hope for the rest of the world.”






Finn also spoke about the direction of the new material: “I’ve always been afraid of just repeating the same formulas, and somehow this feels like a fresh and authentic way to reapproach Crowded House today with an awareness of all our history and where, how and why it began in the first place,” he said.

The band recently shared two archival live albums from the early ’90s to raise money for Australian music crisis charity Support Act.

The tracklist for ‘Dreamers Are Waiting’ is:

1. ‘Bad Times Good’
2. ‘Playing With Fire’
3. ‘To The Island’
4. ‘Sweet Tooth’
5. ‘Whatever You Want’
6. ‘Show Me The Way’
7. ‘Goodnight Everyone’
8. ‘Start Of Something’
9. ‘Too Good For This World’
10. ‘Real Life Woman’
11. ‘Love Isn’t Hard At All’
12. ‘Deeper Down’