Neil Finn’s post-Split Enz debut kicked off an enduring new chapter. “I’ve been feeling so much older,” Neil Finn sings in passing on Crowded House’s 1986 debut album. While the 28-year-old was coming off a seven-year stint in Split Enz—as well as his recent initiation into fatherhood—this self-titled outing doesn’t scan as world-weary. In fact, it proved to be the fresh-faced start of a musical journey that would nourish Finn for decades. After forming the new band with Split Enz drummer Paul Hester, Finn penned one of the signature songs of his career in “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, an appropriately liminal ballad about uncertain endings that leads with a glistening, slow-burn guitar lick and some of Finn’s most soulful singing. It blossomed into an international hit, reaching No. 2 on the US chart and prompting the follow-up single “Something So Strong” to gain similar traction overseas. The latter was a co-write with producer Mitchell Froom, who would helm several more Crowded House albums and eventually join the band in 2020. (He also played the Procol Harum-esque organ solo on “Don’t Dream It’s Over”.) Musically, Crowded House sprinkles yearning folk and playful funk across Finn’s confident pop-rock songwriting. While there’s still some of Split Enz’s carnivalesque New Wave in tracks like “Hole in the River”, Finn immediately proves his effectiveness as a lead singer with his robust vocal turn on the horn-kicked opener “Mean to Me”. No longer sharing the spotlight with his brother Tim after their tandem roles in Split Enz, here Finn was free to establish (and openly explore) the handsome arrangements, sincere songwriting and sidelong flourishes that became Crowded House hallmarks.