Big day yesterday at Casa de Old Pa with the arrival of
Recurring Dream and
Afterglow. CH fans, get your wallets out.
Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House (1996): (non-import) is a CD/DVD set of hits, two unreleased cuts, and all (I believe) of the CH music videos. The compilation of hits sounds remastered (to me) with even higher production quality.
Not The Girl You Think You Are and
Everything Is Good For You are two excellent and previously not released songs (and videos) well worth the price of admission. While not being a big fan of music videos (it's the music, stupid
), I found the CH music videos fairly tolerable as their tastes in video expression center around the band and the music. Some were delightfully weird and some just reminded me of the 80s (now happily gone).
Afterglow (1999): As the liner notes expound, CH never recorded all their songs. This collection, with the exception of a very nice retake on
Private Universe, is all strays and orphans, soundtrack cuts and "compressions". These are the songs the hard core fans called for at concert, and the live cuts and videos showed why CH was so popular as a live act. While all are keepers, the production quality and mastering on several is not up to CH's usual high standards.
That's the short of it: three hours of CH music and videos that delight and roll back the years. Both are highly recommended.