Woodface Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoodfaceDuring a break from Crowded House following the Canadian leg of the tour in support of their second album, Temple of Low Men, band-leader Neil Finn began recording songs with his older brother and former Split Enz band mate Tim Finn. These songs were originally intended for a Finn Brothers album. Once these sessions were complete, Neil teamed back up with Nick Seymour and Paul Hester to write and record Crowded House's third album. Capitol Records rejected most of the new Crowded House songs, so Neil asked Tim if the band could use some of the new Finn Brothers songs. Tim agreed, on condition that he would join the band, although he has since indicated he meant this as a joke. Whatever the truth of that claim, the group that returned to the studio included Tim as a full band member.
The album was titled Woodface and was released in July 1991. It was co-produced by Mitchell Froom and Neil Finn, and mixed by Bob Clearmountain. Eight tracks were co-written by Neil and Tim Finn and mainly feature the brothers harmonising on lead vocals, although Neil takes the lead on "Four Seasons In One Day" and Tim sings "All I Ask", which later featured in AIDS awareness commercials in Australia. Five other tracks were solo compositions by Neil Finn and the remaining two were written by Paul Hester, including "I'm Still Here", a hidden track. Former Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar is credited on three of the Finn Brothers songs, "All I Ask", "There Goes God" and "Weather With You".
During the UK leg of the Woodface tour, Tim left the band. Multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart, who had played some keyboards on Woodface, was recruited to replace Tim for the remaining dates. The final date of this tour at The Town & Country Club in London was recorded and given a limited release in Australia, while individual tracks were used as B-sides for the album's singles in other countries.
The following songs were recorded by Crowded House for Woodface before Tim Finn became involved but were not included on the album. Seven appeared on the 1999 rarities collection Afterglow. "Fields Are Full of Your Kind" remains unreleased and "My Legs Are Gone" features on the fanclub only disc "I Like It Rare".
"Anyone Can Tell"
"Left Hand"
"Dr. Livingstone"
"Sacred Cow"
"I Love You Dawn"
"My Telly's Gone Bung"
"Time Immemorial"
"Fields Are Full of Your Kind"
"My Legs Are Gone"