Album Review by EDF
Here’s an album of odds ‘n’ sods from a group that split up in 1996. Must not be any good if they haven’t released these tracks while they were still together, right? Wrong. The reason why some of these tracks were not released before is that some did not sit well for whatever album they were recorded for. Others appeared on soundtrack albums plus we get a stripped down version of PRIVATE UNIVERSE that brings out its beauty.
While Neil Finn has always penned most of the songs, Crowded House as a unit was a special kind of beast. Tracks like I AM IN LOVE, HELP IS COMING and MY TELLY’S GONE BUNG shows off the range they had. Paul McCartney could easily have written I LOVE YOU DAWN on a good day. ANYONE CAN TELL and SACRED COW were each originally two sets of songs stuck together, of which Neil Finn is still unsure to what the lyrics for both tracks are trying to say. At least they sound good. LESTER is a simple home demo about when his dog got knocked down by a jeep. Don’t worry, the dog survived.
While most groups odds ‘n’ sods can be a bit embarrassing even to the fans, a casual record buyer buying this would think that this was a regular Crowded House album. There has always been a quality to their songs and this set is of no exception. The only downside is that, for what it is, this will more than likely be ignored by most, which is a shame. One point deducted for breaking up.
