Crowded House: Mark Hart (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Neil Finn (vocals, guitar); Nick Seymour (vocals, bass).
Additional personnel: Paul Hester, Tim Finn.
Producers: Neil Finn, Mitchell Froom; Tchad Blake, Youth.
Engineers: Paul Kosky, Tchad Blake, Greg Hunter.
Includes liner notes by Peter Paphides.
When Crowded House said goodbye to the world from the Sydney Opera House in November 1996, 120,000 people turned up to sing along, cry, and wave goodbye to the band that for many produced some the most inspiring music they'd ever heard.
RECURRING DREAM, made up of four songs from each of the Crowded House releases plus three additional tracks, is a best-of worthy of the name. The strength of the songwriting, the beauty of the harmonies, the intelligence of the lyrics--all Crowded House givens by this point--are evident on song after song. Old favorites "Don't Dream It's Over," "Better Be Home Soon," and "I Feel Possessed" demonstrate that Neil Finn wrote great songs right from the band's inception. After working with producer Mitchell Froom for seven years, Crowded House changed direction and hired former Killing Joke member Youth, a move that brought about more of a world-music flavor. The swirling "Pineapple Head," haunting "Private Universe," and "Distant Sun," the group's last single, are three of the beneficiaries of this later partnership. Including a bonus DVD, RECURRING DREAM is a must-buy for anyone who ever loved a great pop song.
What the critics say…
Entertainment Weekly (8/2/96, pp.58-59) - "…[Neil] Finn's genius for pure songcraft is recapped handily enough in the scaled-down, classics-crowded U.S. edition." - Rating: A-
Q (7/96, p.136) - 5 Stars - Indispensable - "…it almost goes without saying…that Finn is a great songwriter, up there with the very best….The meat is in the old songs….Finn's union of literacy and melody seems a small thing perhaps, but it's wretchedly difficult to pull off with such grace…"
Melody Maker (6/22/96, p.50) - Recommended - "…it is, on final analysis, a pop/Maori/mountain/harmony/Catholic/lust thing of gut-bursting, heart-popping, eye-watering, trouser-smouldering brilliance…"
NME (Magazine) (6/22/96, p.53) - 8 (out of 10) - "…History will witness…songs timeless enough to be worthy of The Beatles….for all their impeccable whistleability, these are no middlebrow ditties. There's serious dirt being dug behind the harmonic sheen…"
