Customer Reviews

Recurring Dream: The Very Best Of Crowded House

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Beautiful songs, engaging and intelligent lyrics, and melodies you'll find yourself humming hours after hearing the songs. As "greatest hits" collections go, this is one of the best - packed from start to finish with great music.

My wife and I spent two weeks driving through Crowded House's home country of New Zealand a few years back, and for most of the trip, this was THE album we listened to. It just kept finding its way back into the player.

Besides the well known hit songs ("Don't Dream It's Over," "Somthing So Strong), some of the tracks which stand out as brilliant include "Weather With You," "World Where You Live," "Fall at Your Feet," "Private Universe," and "Mean to Me." These just happen to be my favorites. Sure, some of the 19 songs on this CD are "better" than others - but none are sub-par. There are no fillers.

If you're debating whether or not to spend your hard earned $$ on this CD, think of all the albums you've paid ... for - just to get one or maybe two decent songs. With "Recurring Dream," you'll get 19 songs that you'll actually want to listen to again! Not a bad deal.

As other reviewers have stated, Crowded House WAS underrated. The easygoing vocals are reminiscent of Paul Carrack. (Who? He sang "The Living Years" with Mike and The Mechanics.) The music is mellow and varied, but the two main weapons of this band were Neil Finn's lyrics and the harmonies ("Weather With You," case in point). These tunes harken to the lessons of Paul McCartney. They stick in my head not because they're annoying, but because they're GOOD.

Access all the track samples above; it's better than me taking up more space. See what I mean? Nearly all of these songs should have cracked the top 100 on U.S. college radio. (Top 40 was pretty much a mass grave even back then.) The aboriginal groove on "Private Universe" has a "Graceland"-era Paul Simon appeal. In some songs, the words convey a cautionary tale. In others, they're flat-out love letters. In EVERY song, the words tell a satisfying story.

"Something So Strong" and "Mean To Me" prove that the guys could rock; they just did so sparingly. Other tracks betray the influence of the Beatles ("Into Temptation," "Not The Girl You Think You Are," "Four Seasons In One Day," "Everything Is Good For You.")

At least they made a dent with "Don't Dream It's Over." Still, this band stands the test of time. They didn't blaze across the sky, but they've always hung well above the horizon.

`Best-of' compilations are really attempts by record companies to get a few more bucks out of a waning or defunct music act. These albums should be called "the singles of (insert name here) to attract people who enjoyed their songs on radio with some new ones so that diehard fans will buy it too"-a title to rival Fiona Apple's last album.

There are times (albeit few) when a best-of compilation is worth the price. Take Crowded House, for example. They had a huge hit back in the eighties with "Don't Dream It's Over", then were doomed into one-hit wonder land. It's a real shame, considering that Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House is full of nineteen well-crafted (even classic) songs.

The band took an unique approach to Recurring Dream. The song which gave the album its title is no where to be found. The obligatory filler songs ("Not The Girl You Think You Are", "Instinct" and "Everything Is Good For You") are mixed around with sixteen other singles that span the band's career. The album starts out with "Weather With You", a feel-good pop tune featuring the impeccable harmonies of Neil and Tim Finn. Tim Finn, formerly of Split Enz, also contributes his songwriting and harmonizing skills to "Four Seasons In One Day" and "It's Only Natural".

The remainder of the album shows off Neil Finn's incredibly underrated talent as a singer/songwriter. He sings ballads ("Better Be Home Soon"), rocks out ("Mean To Me") and creates songs that will stay in your head for days ("World Where You Live"), just like any other good songwriter would.

For the majority of their career, Crowded House recorded in Los Angeles with producer Mitchell Froom. However, the highlight of Recurring Dream, "Distant Sun", comes from the band's New Zealand sessions with Youth (one producer of The Verve's "Urban Hymns"). The instrumentation, singing and lyrics blend smoothly together to create a perfect pop song.

When you can listen to every song on an album and can't tell when it was made, you know it's a good one. That's what Recurring Dream is like.

Recurring Dream is a satisfying, if slightly cut-and-paste collection of Crowded House's finest moments. It pains me to see no listing for Together Alone in Amazon's lists, the band's most rounded album. It's from this album that the best songs come, the gentle Pineapple Head, the ravishing Private Universe and the heartbreaking Distant Sun...no Nails In My Feet though, a glaring omission. Don't Dream It's Over remains a classic and the cuts from Woodface show off the Finn's songwriting at it's strongest. If you're new to Crowded House this is an excellent starter but seek out Together Alone to make your collection complete.

After repeated listenings, the album lingered hauntingly in my mind, like any great film or book...in fact if I were to take only three CD's to a desert island, this would be one...the other two would be Harrison's Best of Dark Horse and Exitos de Juan Luis Guerra...however, on this exquisite collection, we have "Weather With You" which winds along with great harmonies....another beautiful track is "Fall At Your Feet"...and then there is the hit song"Don't Dream It's Over"...I personaly love "Pineapple Head" which sounds Beatlesque with a Pacific Tropic feel..."Distant Sun" deserves repeated play to apppreciate.....as do many other tunes...there are three tunes here not found on the other Crowded House LP's and also available for fans is the import edition which carries a bonus disc of live materiel well worth the extra bucks....highly recommmended....

Australia's Crowded House is one of the most underrated bands of the late 80's and 90's. They experienced their biggest commercial success with their first, self-titled album. The album contained the superb single, the languid "Don't Dream It's Over" which peaked at number two in 1987. It was followed by the more upbeat, but equally superb "Something So Strong" which also hit the top ten peaking at number seven. The band would never again hit the top forty with a single. Their next album, The Temple Of Low Men, was a 180-degree turn from their first album. It was dark and somber with intensely personal songs that probably turned fans away. The excellent "Into Temptation" is the strongest track and "Better Be Home Soon" also rates highly. Leader Neil Finn starting writing songs with his brother, Tim Finn for a proposed Finn Brothers project. That idea was scraped, Tim joined the band and the songs were included on their third album, Woodface, which is their masterpiece. The strength of the album is the brother's flawless harmonies that a deep richness to the songs. "Weather With You" is the band's best song and was unjustly never the hit it deserved to be. During the Woodface tour, Tim, left the band and he would be replaced on the fourth album by American guitarist, Mark Hart. Together Alone added a heavier guitar sound as well as a Maori influence and features the excellent "Pineapple Head". The band broke up in 1996. Recurring Dreams is a fine overview of the band's music, amply filled out by nineteen tracks, three of which, "Not The Girl You Think You Are", "Instinct" & "Everything Is Good For You" are new. Highly recommended for hardcore fans, is a two-disk set with the second disk being a DVD which includes all the band's videos as well as an interview.

This is a great album to own if you're not a huge fan but want the big Crowded House songs. Most of their big hits are on here but not all. Chocolate Cake is one I would have liked to have seen but you can't have everything.

With both Australia and New Zealand claiming this band as their own, you know they're pretty good. Some songs do sound similar to others but there are 19 of them so even if you don't like them all, there will still be more that you do, than on most albums. If you can find the bonus edition of this album there are another 15 live songs as well although most are the same songs on the non live disc.

My only disappointment was that there are no written lyrics in the CD cover. For those who have never heard of Crowded House their music is basically smooth, slow non heavy rock. You could even go so far as to say it's sort of relaxing music. Excellent CD to have playing in the background while working or to concentrate on and really listen to the music. Either way you'll enjoy this.

I was always turned off by the cultish following Crowded House leader Neil Finn, in all his incarnations, seems to enjoy--kind of like a musical Saturn. And then I finally broke down and bought this, and on first listen I thought, what's the big deal?
And then I listened again, and again, and again. And thought, this Finn guy is GOOD.
I used to think that 'complex' and 'pop music' were mutually exclusive. Not anymore. This is clever, hook-filled music with complexity that only repeated listenings uncovers. Buy it!

I bought this album mainly for the song "Don't dream it's over", as that's all I thought I knew of Crowded House, and I love that song. Imagine my suprise as I started to listen...it was 'Wow, I know that song!' and 'Crowded House did that song?', all the way through. I couldn't believe it that I had heard almost all of the songs...how come I never knew they were by Crowded House? Were they that elusive? They are one of the greatest bands I have ever heard...right up there with U2 and The Beatles, why were'nt they more well known? And now, just as I have 'discovered' them, I find out they are no longer together. Typical! But as least we have this album and their others to live on.

It's taken me a long time to get around to writing this review. Not because I'm lazy, or because this album isn't a favourite which sits at the at the top of my pile (far from it!)..... but because I struggle to find the words which can describe such genius as Neil Finn and the rest of Crowded House.

It was the amazingly perfect pop piece "Weather With You" that stayed in my memory long enough for me to take an interest in Crowded House....

....and how glad I am that it did.

I often dream of situations, and imagine the artists, albums or songs that accompany them perfectly. For instance, if I were to be in a fighter jet - shooting down the enemy - speeding along at 1000 miles per hour, I think that Motorheads Ace of Spades would coincide nicely with the moment. Or if I were strolling through NYC on a hot July day - Jimi Hendrix's Crosstown Traffic fills the funk void quite nicely....

...Ok Ok, I'm rambling. But the point that I am trying to make is that however hard I try to pigeonhole 'Recurring Dream'....I fail. I personally find Crowded House's Greatest Hits album to contain the most perfect 'popular' music that has ever been produced. But I also find that you can't make it fit into one genre.

Although I had convinced myself that songs like "Locked Out" and "Distant Sun" were perfect for cleaning the house to, I also found that "It's Only Natural" was THE shower song, "Weather With You" was THE driving song, "Fall At Your Feet" was THE Love song, "Don't Dream it's Over" was the "pull myself together" song...in fact, "Recurring Dream" is THE album filled to the brim with THE songs. A greatest hits compilation that stands the test of time because you fail to notice a time that these songs belong to. And thats what makes it so perfect.

"Recurring Dream" is an album which confirms all that fans knew, and where newcomers find the genius that is sadly no longer harnessed as a group.

In short "Recurring Dream" is a timeless album, filled with timeless songs that you can listen to with ease and interest at any time... an album that you can take anywhere, put in any situation - and it will still fit...

Perfectly.