CROWDED HOUSE RETURN WITH NEW ALBUM GRAVITY STAIRS

Everybody’s favourite Kiwis are back with the announcement of new album Gravity Stairs, accompanied by the video for first single ‘Oh Hi’.

After the surprise release of giddy single 'Oh Hi', New Zealand legends Crowded House have revealed a new album is on the way. Gravity Stairs is the band's eighth long player and comes after Crowded House secured a deal for the album's release through BMG. "We’re delighted to work with the good people at BMG who we already know love music and hold us in high regard", Neil Finn said in a press release promoting the album. "It feels like a new beginning".

Produced by Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Gravity Stairs was recorded by the current Crowded House line-up of Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn’s sons Elroy and Liam. The first single taken from the record is the feel good 'Oh Hi', a quintessential Crowded House tune accompanied by a charming music video featuring Finn's face superimposed on a child who is dancing around various locations in New York, including the subway and a grocery store. 

"I love the way kids dance; I wish I could move like that", Finn said when discussing the music clip. "This fanciful video by Frank and Beans Pictures is about as close as I'll ever get." You can watch the music video below.

The title of the 11-track album is inspired by a heavy stone staircase close to where Finn vacations that got him thinking about his time left on the earth. "It’s a metaphor for getting a little older and becoming aware of your own mortality, your own physicality", Finn explained. "Things are getting a little harder, and there’s more determination needed to get to the top, but there’s still the same compulsion to climb them".

This is Crowded House’s first LP since dropping the critically acclaimed Dreamers Are Waiting in 2021. That album made it all the way to number two on the ARIA charts and finished as the 44th best selling album in Australia. Fingers crossed Gravity Stairs hits those same heights. 

Gravity Stairs will be released on Friday, May 2. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.