Crowded House
Recurring Dream - The Very Best Of Crowded House 
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1. Weather With You

2. World Where You Live

3. Fall At Your Feet

4. Locked Out

5. Don’t Dream It’s Over

6. Into Temptation

7. Pineapple Head

8. When You Come

9. Private Universe

10. Not The Girl You Think You Are

11. Instinct 12. I Feel Possessed

13. Four Seasons In One Day

14. It’s Only Natural

15. Distant Sun

16. Something So Strong

17. Mean To Me

18. Better Be Home Soon

19. Everything Is Good For You

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British humorist Spike Milligan once recalled how he was in the throes of a nervous breakdown. Alone in bed and crying uncontrollably, he noticed his baby daughter walking toward his bed, arms outstretched. In her hand was a glass of water. She wanted to give something. Something to make it alright. This was all she could find. A while ago someone asked me to sum up the music of Crowded House. For some reason, I responded with that tale – perhaps because it’s simultaneously the saddest and most uplifting thing I’ve heard. Like Neil Finn’s voice when he sings. “I don’t pretend to know what you want/But I offer love” on ‘Distant Sun.’ But then I’m sure many of you reading this could point to a different Crowded House song and relate similar testimonies.

When Neil was just a slip of a lad, he and his family would gather round the piano in Te Awamutu. The songs were the kind of singalong fare that gets wheeled out on occasions. But the sheer ecstasy that takes hold when – lost in a room full of voices – you’d swear you’ve never felt this joyful, isn’t something you forget in a hurry. Especially when it’s complicated by an Irish Catholic upbringing and New Zealand’s geothermal uncertainty.

Everything and nothing at all has changed since those days. If you’ve been to a Crowded House gig, you’ll know that the family vibe is still very much intact.

We get together; we sing the words; we laugh like drains; an avalanche of Frank Capra feelings overwhelm us. And once in a while we shed a tear. Because we know too well that this dizzying love of life doesn’t come without an attendant resentment of mortality. Perhaps that’s what Neil means when he sings, “Cause I want you to know…that the world is a tangled up necklace of pearls.”

Like their shows, Crowded House songs possess a defining moment that will stay with you forever. Sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on it, but you certainly know when you’ve heard it. Remember how those otherworldly first chords to ‘Weather Without You’ chime into view, like a postcard from a distant dream? Only to be shot to pieces on the line “Things ain’t cooking in my kitchen’? Ah well, you see, that’s a Crowded House Moment. As indeed, is the chorus of ‘World Where You Live’. That’s why you won’t be able to listen to it without grinning like a goon. Here’s another one. ‘Four Seasons In One Day’, when those ghostly harmonies converge upon Neil’s voice like vultures to a carcass. If you’re new to Crowded House, then I’m sure that in time you’ll find your own Crowded House Moments. It’s a personal thing. But if there’s one thing that delights me more than hearing these songs, it’s the thought that someone somewhere will be playing them for the very first time.

Welcome.

– Peter Paphides.      

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Crowded House are:

Nick Seymour – Bass, Vocals

Neil Finn – Guitars, Vocals

Mark Hart – Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals

All songs written by Neil Finn except: 1, 13, 14 by Neil Finn and Tim Finn and 16 by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom

Tracks 2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 16, 17 and 18 produced by Mitchell Froom

Tracks 3, 13 & 14 produced by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom, recorded by Tchad Blake

Track 1 produced by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom, recorded by Paul Kosky Tracks 4, 7, 9 & 15 produced by Youth, engineered by Greg Hunter, mixed by Bob Clearmountain for Fast Forward Productions Ltd.

Tracks 10, 11 & 12 produced by Mitchell Froom, Tchad Blake and Neil Finn

All songs published by Roundhead Music; except: 1, 13, 14 by Roundhead Music/Rebel Larynx Music; and 16 by Roundhead Music/Wyoming Flesh Music

All tracks performed by Crowded House (Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart) with Paul Hester and (on tracks 1, 13 & 14) Tim Finn. “Not The Girl You Think You Are”, “Instinct” and “Everything Is Good For You” recorded @ York St Studios, Auckland, New Zealand

Produced by Mitchell Froom, Tchad Blake and Neil Finn

Engineered by Tchad Blake

Assistants: Andrew Buckton, Nick Abbott

Equipment: Dugald McAndrew

Thanks To: Karen, Mark, Mike, Martin & Malcolm @ York St, Mike Chunn, Paul Crowther, Sharon & all our families. Love to Peggy. Management: Grant Thomas, Grant Thomas Management

For More Information: Crowded House UK Information P.O. Box 21, London W10 6XA Peter Green, Crowded House Club P.O Box 333, Prahran VIC, 3181 Australia (PLS include an IRC/S.A.E.)

Front Cover Painting by Nick Seymour

Design and Art Direction Stylorouge

Photography by Andy Earl

Inner Sleeve snaps courtesy of Crowded House and Youri Lenquette