Crowded House Album and Tour in July

The internationally acclaimed group begins a nationwide tour of the U.S. and Canada in support of the new album on Monday, July 12th.

Also available that day will be the 2-disc Intriguer Deluxe Edition, featuring a special bonus live DVD.

Produced by Jim Scott (Wilco), Intriguer once again brings together singer/guitarist and chief songwriter Neil Finn with original Crowded House bassist Nick Seymour and keyboardist/guitarist Mark Hart, who'd been with the band from 1989 until its last days. Also on board is drummer Mark Sherrod, the relative newcomer to the family, having joined the band
for the making of the aforementioned Time On Earth.

Recorded at Roundhead Studios in Auckland, New Zealand, in the spring and summer of 2009, the album includes songs that "have been worked over on the road and transformed a few times, some all the way back to square one," says Finn. "It's a good place to return to from time to time."

Intriguer opens with "Saturday Sun," a track whose straightforward backbeat calls to mind the best elements of '60s pop. The follow-up track, "Archer's Arrows," takes a more ominous turn with the help of some carefully layered vocals and the violin work of Lisa Germano (who later reappears on the pensive "Even If").

"Falling Dove" is both melancholy and defiant, while "Isolation" derives its dreamlike sensibility from a heavy dose of guitar tremolo and the dreamlike vocals of Finn's wife, Sharon Dawn Johnson. Both of these tracks, positioned back-to-back in the sequence, benefit from the psychedelic guitar work of Liam Finn, Neil's son and longtime collaborator in the studio and onstage.

"Twice If You're Lucky" is a prime example of the aforementioned evolutionary process that left its mark on most of the songs on Intriguer. "We played an alternative version, more complex and mysterious on tour, then deconstructed back to the original, simple form in the last week of recording," Finn explains. "I am inclined to circle songs, looking for any bit of advantage I can find � a verse, a chord or a word to change."

"Elephants" is the wistful closer, driven by lush piano harmonies that seek to linger a while and take in the fleeting moment before the story comes to close.

"Intriguer is exotic in parts, traditional in origin," says Finn. "Through many a twist and turn we fashioned some drama and intrigue. You will find some threads that go back through all that history and some new discoveries as well that will need to be followed up. Its part of the continuum and it may just be the best thing we've done�until the next one."