Crowded House, “Gravity Stairs.”

Almost 40 years after their self-titled debut, New Zealand rockers Crowded House are still adding rooms to their musical mansion. Gravity Stairs, the band’s fourth album since the turn of the century, continues the sophisticated Beatlesque pop the band’s lead songwriter, Neil Finn, has been known for since his earlier band, Split Enz, picked up instruments.

After more than a half of a century, Finn is still a songwriter of the highest caliber. In 2018, he and Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell joined Fleetwood Mac to complete their tour after the band’s split with Lindsey Buckingham.

Crowded House reformed in 2019 with Finn collaborating with his longtime producer Mitchell Froom and his sons Elroy and Liam. The band released Dreamers are Waiting in 2021, and toured the States in 2023. The new album takes up where the others left off, somewhere between dad rock and yacht rock. The new album evokes comparisons to Crosby, Stills and Nash with its folky guitar playing, to Wilco with its refined lyricism, and to the gentle transgression of mid-period Beatles.

“Some Greater Plan (for Claire),” an understated masterpiece, sneaks up on listeners near the album’s halfway point. The ballad to which you might slow dance with your dream date at a high school sock hop if such things went on forever, sways romantically with a simmering intensity.

“We gave up on the world somehow/ Now we better start believing,” Finn sings, putting his finger on the crisis of the present moment. “If all we can do is fill the room/ With this song of love/ I’m there if you want/ To feel a part of some greater plan/ Do you want to heal the heart of this broken man?”

It’s OK, you can take a minute if you need one. It’s a testament to the power of Finn’s songwriting that a single verse can perform that kind of open heart surgery.

The album’s opener, “Magic Piano,” sets the mood with lush vocal harmonies, tubby bass fills and minor-chord mysticism, simultaneously imparting the gauzy magic of The Beatles and America’s “Horse with No Name.” “Words matter but they get in the way/ When you got some stories to tell/ Let the melody reign/ Oh yeah,” Finn sings.

A more prominent rhythm section propels “Blurry Grass” and “Oh Hi” into the realm of uptempo rock and roll. “Oh Hi” could be a collaboration between dad-rock legends Wilco and Foster The People.

Elsewhere, the music is sparser. “Thirsty” sounds a bit like John Lennon’s acoustic ballads with delicate guitar lines and the occasional sonic embellishment of slide guitar. “When love comes early/ Handsome, burly/ Looks you in the eye/ I saw a sea burning/ And the earth linger/ In a timeless dream/ How come some people never get thirsty?” Finn asks.

While I might skip a few of the songs while the album is in heavy rotation — the melodic monotony of “Black Water, White Circle,” for instance — Gravity Stairs is the kind of album that rewards repeated listening. Finn’s songwriting opens like flower, and the band’s musical choices complement his genius at every turn. The album’s silver-haired vibe is probably a hard sell for the TikTok generation, but those attempting to grow old gracefully will find sophisticated comfort and relief from the troubles of the world.