As for the debut album of Crowded House, this is a classic album which feature two of their well-known songs and made the world discover the band’s music for the very first time. “Crowded House (Deluxe Edition)” is recommended!
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BAND: Crowded House
ALBUM: Crowded House (Deluxe Edition)
DURATION: 28 Songs (1 Hour, 32 Minutes)
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: August 1986
DELUXE EDITION RELEASE DATE: August 18, 2016
Disc 1 (Original album)
*All tracks are written by Neil Finn, except where noted.
No. Title Length
1. “Mean to Me” 3:15
2. “World Where You Live” 3:07
3. “Now We’re Getting Somewhere” 4:09
4. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” 3:56
5. “Love You ‘Til the Day I Die” 3:31
6. “Something So Strong” (Finn, Mitchell Froom) 2:51
7. “Hole in the River” (Finn, Eddie Rayner) 4:02
8. “Can’t Carry On” 3:57
9. “I Walk Away*” 3:31
10. “Tombstone” 3:30
11. “That’s What I Call Love” (Finn, Paul Hester) 3:39
Disc 2 (Unreleased and rare material)
1. “Something So Strong (Home Demo)” (Finn, Mitchell Froom) 1:22
2. “Hole in the River (Studio Demo)” (Finn, Eddie Rayner, Paul Hester) 4:06
3. “Love You ’til the Day I Die (Home Demo)” 0:54
4. “That’s What I Call Love (Studio Demo)” (Hester, Finn) 3:35
5. “Can’t Carry On (Studio Demo)” 3:35
6. “Walking on the Pier (Studio Demo)” 3:20
7. “Does Anyone Here Understand my Girlfriend (Studio Demo)” (Hester) 3:23
8. “Oblivion (Studio Demo)” 3:36
9. “Walking on the Spot (Studio Demo)” 3:44
10. “Something So Strong (Studio Demo)” (Finn, Froom) 2:12
11. “Now We’re Getting Somewhere (Studio Demo)” 4:32
12. “Stranger Underneath Your Skin (Home Demo)” 2:49
13. “Don’t Dream It’s Over (Home Demo)” 3:15
14. “Left Hand (Live)” 4:23
15. “Grabbing by the Handful (Live)” (Finn, Hester, Craig Hooper, Nick Seymour) 3:33
16. “World Where You Live (writing demo)” 1:17
17. “Recurring Dream (original version) *” (Finn, Hester, Hooper, Seymour)
When it comes to Australian bands that have had a hit or multiple hits in the US, many people are familiar with bands such as INXS, AC/DC, Jet, Pseudo Echo, Bee Gees, Midnight Oil, Men at Work, 5 Seconds of Summer and Air Supply, to name a few.
But a handful of bands have had multiple hits that have made it into the Billboard single or album charts and one of the bands I will be reviewing had achieved success and that is Crowded House.
Formed in 1985, the band consists of leader Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, songwriter) from New Zealand and from Australia, drummer Paul Hester, bassist Nick Seymour and accompanied by numerous musicians throughout the years.
Both Finn and Hester were from the band Split Enz and when the group took part in their farewell tour, and Finn and Hester were planning to start a new band, Seymour approached them to try out for the new band which at the time were known as The Mullanes.
But the name was rejected by Capital Records and when the trio traveled to Los Angeles, they were provided a cramped apartment and the name “Crowded House” became the name of the band.
The band released their first self-titled album in 1986 and debuted no. 1 in Australia, while in the US they debuted at no. 12 on the US Billboard 200.
The band released their first three singles off the album “Mean to Me”:, “World Where You Live” and “Now We’re Getting Somewhere” and the three singles did OK, with “Mean to Me” being the better ranking single at no. 26.
But it’s the fourth and fifth singles that the band would gain worldwide attention.
In October 20, 1986, the band released their fourth single “Don’t Dream It’s Over” which debuted no. 2 in the US and no. 1 in New Zealand and Canada and no. 8 in Australia, while reaching no. 27 on the UK Charts. The song was so successful that it would be covered by numerous bands years/decades later and it was no. 2 in the APRA “Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time” and no. 7 in the “Top 100 Australian Songs of All Time”.
And they followed up with that success with their fifth single “Something So Strong” which debuted at no. 7 in the US, no. 3 in New Zealand and no. 18 in the Australian charts.
Needless to say, the 1986 album would be a shining moment in the history of the band, who broke up in 1996. But with the death of Paul Hester by suicide in 2005, it didn’t seem a reunion would be possible without the original three. But the band would reunite with the original two, with drummer Matt Sherrod taking over the drums and are now joined by keyboardist Mitchell Froom and the band has become a family band with the inclusion of Finns’s sons Liam and Elroy.
In 2016, deluxe editions were released for all six of the Crowded House albums.
And with the original eleven tracks featured on the original “Crowded House” album, a total of 28 tracks would be featured in the Deluxe Edition.
Now the question that many would ask is if the Deluxe Edition is worth owning if you own the previous album?
For me, deluxe editions are always worth it, if they come with a great number of extra tracks and are not too expensive. And the deluxe edition (Digital Version) is quite inexpensive for the six Crowded House albums which are under $17.
And for this album alone, it’s definitely worth it because when you listen to the home demo or the studio demo versions of the songs, you can hear the early incarnations of the songs, which for some tracks are even better than the original.
Usually when you hear a demo song, there is not a huge difference from the final track. But when you listen to the demo’s, some songs are very much different.
For example, “Something So Strong” (Home Demo) is an acoustic guitar song but it’s well sung, but yet so different from the finalized version. Especially how the “Something So Strong” is sung. There is also a studio demo which is getting closer to the finalized version in terms of how the song sounds.
While “Hole in the River (Studio Demo)” which resembles a song sung by a new wave post-punk group with the haunting melodies and the group doing a screaming out. It’s a very cool version and I actually prefer this version’s way being sung versus the finalized version.
“Love You ‘Til the Day I Die” has the funky sound that actually songs very mid-80s but when you hear the band’s demo, it’s an acoustic track and almost in a folk/rock style.
“Now We’re Getting Somewhere (Studio Demo)” also sounds a bit different but you’ll instantly notice the guitar and bass differences between this and the finalized version.
The songs that sound similarly to the finalized versions are “That’s What I Call Love”.
But you also get tracks that are not on the album that didn’t make the cut for the debut album but you get the Studio Demos included in the album such as “Walking on the Pier”, “Does Anyone Here Understand My Girlfriend”, “Oblivion”, “Walking on the Spot” and “Stranger Underneath Your Skin”.
And you get a writing demo of “World Where You Live” and hear Finn’s approach to creating the song.
And you get live versions of “Left Hand” and “Grabbing by the Handful”. And last, you get a new track titled “Recurring Dream”, which is interesting because I wonder if this was meant to be used in their 1996 compilation album of the same title.
But this is just one of the deluxe editions of a Crowded House album and the fact that you are getting these home demo’s, it’s almost like hearing an entirely different song. And you get songs that didn’t make the cut and you wonder to yourself, I wish it did.
It was part of the ’80s and trying to fit things in vinyl and cassette, so many songs that bands created on albums, didn’t make the final cut and that’s why in the last decade, we are starting to see a lot of unreleased songs now finally getting heard for the first time.
As for the debut album of Crowded House, this is a classic album which feature two of their well-known songs and made the world discover the band’s music for the very first time.
And when you think about it, it was during a peak of Australian bands pushing to get airplay or recognized on the worldwide stage and Crowded House was one of those bands that was successful in achieving that.
“Crowded House (Deluxe Edition)” is recommended!
