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Post by greendemon on Sept 28, 2020 19:06:02 GMT 1
Yes, as much as I love all the others it was kinda hard to inject the suspense I do have some curveballs in the list but this ain't one of 'em.
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Post by greendemon on Sept 30, 2020 15:27:24 GMT 1
Didn't get around to this yesterday, so we're doing 10-7 today...
10. I Walk Away (Crowded House, 1986)
Apologies to any Split Enz fans, most of whom seem to be distinctly unimpressed with this cover of one of the very last songs released by Neil Finn's other band! I have to own up to knowing this version for much longer than the original and taking far too long to realise that this even was a cover. When I did finally check out the Split Enz version, I found I also liked it a lot, and while I do prefer the CH version I'm not sure if I would have still felt that way had I come to the original first! This version was recorded for Crowded House's debut album and, in a bid to attract new audiences, pares back a lot of quirkiness of the original (which is, I think, why Split Enz fans hate it) and basically turns it into something simpler, poppier, but also more cohesive and is, I think, much better for it. But ultimately I happen to think it's a great song recorded by two different, albeit closely related bands.
It's grown on me a lot in recent years: it was on my shortlist for the album track round in Haven Factor, and got a lot of plays around then. Still one of my absolute favourite Crowded House album tracks, though there is one more still to come and there could have been many more in this top 10...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 30, 2020 16:03:49 GMT 1
9. When You Come (Temple of Low Men, 1988)
Crowded House's second album is probably their least well-known, certainly of the four they released while Paul Hester was still alive: it didn't get the positive reception of their debut, at least not in the States or the UK (it didn't even break the top 100 here!), and none of the singles even charted in the UK - which is incredible when you consider the profile one of them now has. This one has always been one of my favourites and I think has to be one of the finest songs Neil Finn has ever written. It's an incredibly powerful and passionate ode to his relationship with his wife, Sharon, that slowly builds in intensity to a climax and yes, while obvious interpretations are obvious, the song contains some of Finn's best lyric-writing, full of imagery that draws on the spiritual, geological and even meteorological to create something much more than just another song about sex: 'I'll know you by the thunderclap / Pouring like a rain of blood to my emotions'. Just wow. I've seen it mentioned that seeing this song played live is akin to 'a religious experience' and I can well believe it.
One more to come from this album; no prizes for guessing which...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 30, 2020 16:21:30 GMT 1
Returning to the debut for the next one, and it's the song that got me eliminated 8. Something So Strong (Crowded House, 1987)This has to be one of the poppiest songs they ever recorded! I think it gets some hate from the fanbase because it's a little cheesy - it really couldn't be more different from 'When You Come' - but you can't argue with a pop-rock song this good. This was one of the first Crowded House songs I already knew when I picked up their debut album for the first time, and I was shocked when I discovered it only made #95 in the UK (though it did reach #7 in the States, making it their second-highest chart peak over there). It's an instant mood-lifter of a song and really should have performed much better here! When putting together my list of songs for Haven Factor 7, I knew this one would do well, so I saved it for the quarter-final slot, but as it turned out I needed something even stronger I don't hold any grudges against it - as I said at the time, I wasn't expecting the competition in that round to be as tough as it was! There is one more song to come from the debut; again, you know what it is...
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Post by greendemon on Sept 30, 2020 16:36:11 GMT 1
Sticking with the poppy side of things... 7. Weather With You (Woodface, 1992)Some people find this one really annoying and I have to say it is, with the possible exception of 'Don't Dream It's Over', the most overplayed Crowded House song by quite some distance. It is definitely the catchiest and most insistent thing they ever recorded, so I can understand the annoyance factor. But I love everything about it: the lyrics, the gorgeous harmonies that run through the verses and that wonderful chorus. It's also one of the most enjoyable Crowded House songs to sing along to! This is, unfortunately, the last we'll be seeing of Woodface in this top 10. It's not that I don't love other songs from the album - I just couldn't fit any more in! And we still haven't had any songs from the album I consider to be my favourite. Woodface does deserve a mention as the first CH album I bought myself, and the one that triggered my interest in their back catalogue beyond Together Alone. (I also bought it when on holiday in Melbourne, which seemed pretty appropriate!) This one does have a video, but I'm sharing the album version as the video edit cuts out one of my favourite verses
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Post by Panda on Sept 30, 2020 17:23:00 GMT 1
I have quite a few favourite Crowded House tracks but none have appeared yet...
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Post by Whitneyfan on Sept 30, 2020 17:55:17 GMT 1
Of the 4 top 40 singles they had from 'Woodface', 'Weather With You' is easily my least favourite, although I do like it. I think it's just overplayed. 'Fall At Your Feet' is my favourite, followed by 'Four Seasons In One Day' and 'It's Only Natural'.
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Sept 30, 2020 18:45:26 GMT 1
Weather With You 7th!
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Post by greendemon on Sept 30, 2020 19:21:09 GMT 1
Of the 4 top 40 singles they had from 'Woodface', 'Weather With You' is easily my least favourite, although I do like it. I think it's just overplayed. 'Fall At Your Feet' is my favourite, followed by 'Four Seasons In One Day' and 'It's Only Natural'. 'Fall At Your Feet' is probably my next favourite from Woodface. It was on my shortlist but didn't quite make the cut! I make no apologies for 'Weather With You'; it's gorgeous! Overplayed yes, but it deserved its success. Of the 6 remaining I'd say 3 are probably all pretty popular choices and the other three may be slightly controversial (although I hope not that much!)
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Post by Whitneyfan on Sept 30, 2020 19:34:51 GMT 1
Of the 4 top 40 singles they had from 'Woodface', 'Weather With You' is easily my least favourite, although I do like it. I think it's just overplayed. 'Fall At Your Feet' is my favourite, followed by 'Four Seasons In One Day' and 'It's Only Natural'. 'Fall At Your Feet' is probably my next favourite from Woodface. It was on my shortlist but didn't quite make the cut! I make no apologies for 'Weather With You'; it's gorgeous! Overplayed yes, but it deserved its success. Of the 6 remaining I'd say 3 are probably all pretty popular choices and the other three may be slightly controversial (although I hope not that much!) You shouldn't ever apologise for your opinions anyway! We like what we like
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Post by Smurfie on Sept 30, 2020 19:39:37 GMT 1
Four Seasons In One Day is definitely brilliant - but I have a strongly favourite Crowded House favourite that I hope appears soon.
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Post by greendemon on Oct 1, 2020 11:06:10 GMT 1
Finally we get to an entry from my very favourite Crowded House album...
6. Nails In My Feet (Together Alone, 1993)
When I was a kid, my parents loved driving holidays (my mum still does, thinking about it) and so much of my earliest exposure to music came from whatever was in the cassette player of my dad's car. Quite a lot of the time, it was Together Alone, which came out when I was about 6. Both my parents were big fans: tracks on this album became the soundtrack to many long hours in the car, and I got to know them all pretty well. I had my own favourites, too: 'Black and White Boy', 'Pineapple Head', 'Distant Sun' and, for some reason, 'Catherine Wheels' (which I don't think I realised was about domestic violence...) I'm probably biased, having grown up with it, but I'd still say Together Alone is the band's masterpiece - almost every song is a knockout, but even better taken as a whole - and one of my favourite records by any artist.
'Nails In My Feet' was the second single from Together Alone. It wasn't actually one of my favourites for quite a lot time: it didn't really jump out at me until much later, once I'd uncovered a bit more of Crowded House's back catalogue. I can see why: it's very understated compared to much of the rest of the album, and I think I might have dismissed it as a little dull. The lyrics are interesting, again drawing on multiple inspirations and sources (the 'savage review' that 'left him gasping' is said to be about a backstage fight between Neil Finn and Paul Hester, while the 'nails in my feet' sound obviously religious but are supposedly referring to Finn's gardening shoes...!), but lack the cohesiveness to be truly affecting. I've never really found an interpretation for the whole thing that I'm entirely happy with - I think it really is just about lots of things at once.
I'll be honest: there is one reason the song is this high, and it is that beautiful coda that starts 'Total surrender'. It's just glorious! A recurring dream theme that will come up again in this A-Z is that I have a weakness for songs with powerful endings (in fact, there will be one pretty high up in the D artist's top 10...)
Two more from Together Alone...
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Post by greendemon on Oct 1, 2020 13:04:03 GMT 1
No Crowded House top 10 is complete without... 5. Better Be Home Soon (Temple of Low Men, 1988)I'm going to take the unusual step here of referring you to a post by raliverpool , who I know is partial to this one (and would probably be a bit miffed it's so low!) He's said all I possibly could on the background of 'Better Be Home Soon', its connection to the mountaineers George Mallory and Edmund Hillary, and its having been 'borrowed' by Richard Ashcroft for 'The Drugs Don't Work'! 'Better Be Home Soon' was the lead single from Temple of Low Men and, to me, this simple, but gorgeous ballad is understated Crowded House at their finest. The lyrics are, as bassist Nick Seymour has said, about 'how it's better being home', but there's a darker subtext here: there are references to something that's coming between them, 'lies and deception' that have to be 'stripped back', and the promise in the final verse that sounds almost defiant: ' I could start again / You can depend on it'. Like all of Finn's best lyrics, it's open to multiple interpretations. It has always had a slightly haunting quality to me - which makes sense in the context of its having been written after Finn watched a documentary about Mallory, whose wife signed off her letters to him with 'be home soon'. That quality has, of course, only intensified after the untimely death of original drummer, Paul Hester, who committed suicide in 2005 In what must have been an incredibly moving moment to experience, Finn performed the song at the 2005 ARIA Awards, days after Hester's death. The video raliverpool posted in the Haven Factor thread has been taken down, so I've supplied a new one below. Worth watching the whole thing but the bit at the end when the crowd sings the final line back to him is just so moving.
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Post by greendemon on Oct 1, 2020 13:10:12 GMT 1
It's Haven's favourite Crowded House song, but it hasn't quite made my top 3... 4. Don't Dream It's Over (Crowded House, 1987)Again, there was no way I could possibly leave this one out. The only reason it's not higher is because I am always going to be a bit skewed towards Together Alone because of my long history with that record. But it is an absolutely timeless classic, their biggest hit and, without a doubt, the one song Crowded House will be remembered for. I'll admit that this one still makes me cringe a little bit after Haven Factor 7. When putting together my shortlist of entries, I knew this was my ultimate ace. I was hoping to save it for one of the final rounds for that reason, but panicked when I unexpectedly found myself in a sing-off relatively early and so blew it a bit too early (no disrespect to Chris de Burgh but I could probably have beaten him with other songs!) Not long after, my partner and I were watching the excellent TV series The Americans about Soviet spies living undercover in 1980s America, which made frequent use of 80s music - and this was one of the songs they used. On hearing it, my partner, who isn't especially into Crowded House, said it was pretty great and why hadn't I saved it for later... which was so helpful to hear Recently I stumbled across this great little interview on YouTube in which Neil Finn discusses the origins of the song, the changes made from the original demo, the many various cover versions and the nod to John Lennon and 'Across The Universe' in the line about catching a deluge with a paper cup. Well worth a watch if you have a spare 15 minutes That's it for today - top 3 tomorrow, including 2 more from Together Alone and one from an album not yet mentioned...
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Post by Panda on Oct 1, 2020 16:24:54 GMT 1
None of my 4 favourites mentioned yet, which means at least one has missed out completely...
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Post by greendemon on Oct 1, 2020 16:59:56 GMT 1
None of my 4 favourites mentioned yet, which means at least one has missed out completely... I think only one of the remaining ones is likely to be in anyone else's top 10 on here, maybe two but one of them is not that well-known.
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Post by greendemon on Oct 3, 2020 12:35:23 GMT 1
Didn't get around to finishing this yesterday, so without further ado...
3. Recurring Dream (Afterglow, 1999)
My highest-placed Crowded House album track is something of an obscurity, but might be familiar to anyone who took part in Haven Factor 7, where this was my entry for the album track round. Originally recorded in 1985, it is one of the band's very oldest songs: so old, in fact, that it dates from the very brief period when Craig Hooper was still a member and they were known as The Mullanes! The fact that Hooper contributed to the writing of the song meant that it was excluded from the debut album, and was also, annoyingly, missing from the 1996 greatest hits compilation that shares its name. Before Afterglow came out, the song could only be found on the soundtracks of two films: 'Rikky and Pete' and 'Tequila Sunrise', neither of which I have seen. Interestingly, though both came out in 1988, the soundtracks use two slightly different versions of the song (the 'Rikky and Pete' version, linked above, is a little less produced and sounds a bit clearer, but is missing one verse before the chorus). I'm most familiar with the 'Tequila Sunrise' recording (the same version that made it onto Afterglow), but I'm actually not sure which one I prefer. Either way, it's an utterly gorgeous song with those cascading, jangly guitars and definitely one of my favourites.
The 'Tequila Sunrise'/Afterglow version, which was also the one I used in HF7:
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Post by greendemon on Oct 3, 2020 13:02:02 GMT 1
Smurfie , from memory I think this might be the one you were waiting for? 2. Distant Sun (Together Alone, 1993)Reaching the top #20 in the UK, this was the lead single from the band's fourth album and one of their biggest hits. It's also one of the first songs I remember really loving, by any artist, and I still think of it as the song that made me a Crowded House fan. Even though I liked the whole album, I used to sit in the car listening to the tape waiting for this one to come on - particularly because of the one-two with 'Catherine Wheels' which I also really liked, despite not understanding the dark theme. I can also remember trying to convert friends to the band using this song - it didn't usually work, but if there was one song from Together Alone they liked, it was probably going to be this one. It is very instantly appealing - melodic, hooky and very sing-along-able - but it wasn't until I was older that I realised quite how great it is. There aren't many songs I've known for that long that I still listen to and adore even now but this is one of them. I don't know if Neil Finn has ever written a more perfect pop-rock song. This was my number 1 for literal decades but it's now been eclipsed by another track from the same album...
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Post by greendemon on Oct 3, 2020 13:44:06 GMT 1
1. Private Universe (Together Alone, 1994)
This was the sixth and final single from Together Alone. It also has one of their most bizarre videos! I'm actually not a fan, so I've linked the album track version, which is also longer and keeps the full outro!
Although I've known it for years, this is one of several songs from Together Alone that I wasn't that keen on as a child. It doesn't have the same sort of instant appeal that 'Distant Sun' or even 'Pineapple Head' has. As I got older, though, I gradually fell in love with it, I think partly motivated by the memories I had tied up in it. Like several tracks on the album, it bears influences from Māori music, with the log drummers who also appear in the title track along with the choir. It is a beautifully atmospheric and evocative song with a hint of the ethereal that to me is one of the best examples of the transportative quality of really great music. Listening to it always makes me think of warm, dusky summer evenings, when the sky changes colour and the landscape starts to lose its definition. An absolutely gorgeous song that I can't see being replaced as my favourite any time soon.
Songs that missed out coming up shortly...
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Post by greendemon on Oct 3, 2020 13:54:20 GMT 1
I could easily have made a top 10 just with songs from Together Alone!
Black and White Boy (Together Alone, 1993) One of my absolute favourite album tracks and I think one of their more successful experiments into rockier territory.
Pineapple Head (Together Alone, 1994) Beautifully melodic single and another longstanding favourite.
Kare Kare (Together Alone, 1993) Another album track that's slowly been going up in my estimations over the years. A brilliant album opener.
Locked Out (Together Alone, 1994) This one got me in a sing-off but I love it! One of their best-performing singles and another great pop-rock track.
Fall At Your Feet (Woodface, 1991) I did say at the time I didn't think this would make my top 10 and so it proved - a great single nonetheless.
Hole In The River (Crowded House, 1986) An incredibly dark and moving album track with some of Finn's darkest lyrics. I wasn't brave enough to consider it for HF7 but it's great.
Into Temptation (Temple of Low Men, 1988) A beautiful, haunting ballad; another one I really wanted to feature in Haven Factor but ran out of rounds.
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