After a number of reasonably successful and commercially acclaimed solo albums, brothers Tim and Neil Finn reunited for a remarkable sophomore Finn Brothers release, Everyone Is Here.

Although Everyone Is Here is ostensibly just their second album, the Finn Brothers are New Zealand’s greatest musical icons and have been since the 70s. Tim led the new wave band Split Enz, which had some worldwide success when younger brother Neil joined as lead guitarist, and Neil’s intelligent pop/rock group Crowded House was a radio favorite in the U.S. in the mid-80s, particularly with the number two hit single “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” As for collaborative efforts, Tim joined Crowded House for 1991’s Woodface, which produced a global top 10 hit (except in America) with the phenomenal “Weather With You”; in 1995 they reunited for the less successful, highly experimental Finn Brothers debut, Finn.

Everyone Is Here, an album written over the past couple years and recorded over a period of several months (as opposed to Finn, written and recorded in about four weeks), is a remarkable feat of mature adult pop/rock, a collection of 12 brilliantly crafted songs that stand easily with the best material either brother has ever recorded. The album grabs hold of a listener’s emotions from the start of the first track, “Won’t Give In,” and doesn’t let go until the closing accordion strains of “Gentle Hum”; in-between is an album that, unlike any prior Finn release, is actually about brotherhood and, more generally, family.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the phenomenal “A Life Between Us,” a touching song in which the Finns, alternating verses, discuss the nature of their lifelong relationship. The chorus provides the greatest insight: “And we’re staring at each other / like the banks of a river, / and we can’t get any closer / but we form a life between us.” It is a passage, and a song, that will resonate with anyone who has ever had that sort of relationship, brotherly or otherwise, and it is difficult not to feel the emotional pull of the metaphorical river when Neil, the younger by six years, asks, “Are you still someone / who’ll watch over me?” “A Life Between Us” is complemented by “Disembodied Voices,” a lulling acoustic guitar song that takes the brothers back to childhood, recalling “talking with my brother when the lights went out / down the hallway 40 years ago.” What the lyrics do literally the music does emotionally, drawing the listener back to that time of innocence, wonder and childhood, a feeling enhanced by a stirring, quiet arrangement that also includes a mandolin and a banjo. Most notable, though, are the gorgeous harmonies that appear not only here but throughout the album; a lifetime of vocal collaboration has resulted in harmonies that are nothing short of perfect.

When the album is not focused on brotherhood, it often takes some interesting approaches to the idea of family. “Won’t Give In,” the immediately accessible single, asks, “What does it mean when you belong to someone, / when you’re born with a name and you carry it on?” “All the Colours,” a tribute to the Finns’ mother, Mary, who passed away a few years ago (and to whom the album is dedicated), is a stirring piece with an incredibly impressive and unexpected bridge. “Nothing Wrong With You,” the product not only of brilliant writing but also the arrangement of producer Mitchell Froom and the strings of Tony Visconti, is a lovely anthem for anyone who has suffered through painful and unfair words and charges.

Everyone Is Here is an album of constant highlights; there are no weak tracks. “Edible Flowers,” making its studio debut after its live appearance on Neil’s 2002 album 7 Worlds Collide, presents the brothers Finn in a darker mood, considering their own mortality: “Everybody wants the same thing, / everybody wants the same thing: / to see another birthday.” The verses are performed by Tim at the very bottom of his range, set to a chilling piano and string arrangement; the chorus, emerging from this, is positively soaring, with Neil’s beautiful vocals transforming the song into a thing of absolute beauty. “Bright lights dissolve,” sings Neil, “like sugar deep inside you now. / It all ends up the same somehow; / I’m hardly here at all.” The Neil-dominated “All God’s Children,” a deliberately ambiguous, philosophical rocker, suggests, “We’re all God’s children, / and God is a woman / but we still don’t know who the father is.” And all of the remaining tracks are powerful in their own way: the wryly amusing “Homesick,” the 6/8 live favorite “Anything Can Happen,” the gorgeous straight-ahead love song “Luckiest Man Alive,” the driving “Part of Me, Part of You” and, of course, the stunning final song, the subtly inspirational “Gentle Hum.”

A tribute to the power of music and craft, Everyone Is Here is instantly accessible, but at the same time it improves dramatically upon repeated listens — and listeners will want to listen repeatedly. Its atmosphere of family and brotherhood is enhanced by the flow of the songs, the way the drums of “Homesick” fade into “Disembodied Voices” or the way the light guitar of “All the Colours” leads into the exuberance of “Part of Me, Part of You.” What makes this album so incredible, besides the quality of the works and the brilliance of the Finns’ harmonies, is that, for 45 minutes, a listener is invited to become a part of that world, a part of the beautiful family atmosphere the album creates. Listeners will find that that world is a pretty fantastic place to be.