Music review: Dizzy Heights, Neil Finn

This album stays relevant and is as good as it gets.

Neil Finn deserves "full credit", as the cliche goes, for being devoted to remaining relevant to today's music audience, which is far removed from early 1980s with Split Enz or Crowded House, the Australasian band he formed in 1985. Remarkably, that's almost 20 years ago, and Finn's Dizzy Heights is every bit 2014 as any album you can nominate.

The good news is that not only is this a contemporary pop release, but the common denominator with Finn's earlier incarnations is his unique talent for writing meaningful lyrics wrapped in captivating melodies.

For Dizzy Heights, only his third solo album, and 13 years down the track from One Nil, Finn enlisted producer Dave Fridmann, whose approach in a way revisits 1960s psychedelia but in a very modern context.

The soundscapes are vibrant and range from out-there to wistful and melancholy. Not only is Finn more than capable of making the most of Fridmann's direction, but he excels.

Ably supported by the next generation of Finns, sons Liam and Elroy, and wife Sharon, and with his own Auckland studio, Roundhouse, at his beck and call the gestation period for Dizzy Heights has been pressured only inside the mind of the man himself.

The title track is as good as it gets, bookmark too White Lies and Alibis and Recluse, and drool over Finn's solo piano and solitary approach on Lights of New York. Don't doubt for a minute that Finn has reinforced his mojo and, at 55, has delivered a new album anyone could be proud of.