Disco de Crowded House: “Classic Masters”

Thoughtful collection of songs, which mostly avoids duplicating tracks from the 1996 retrospective Recurring Dream, The Very Best of Crowded House. Of those 19 selections, only 4 are duplicated here, version to version (the band's most popular tunes "Something So Strong", "Weather With You", "Don't Dream It's Over" and "It's Only Natural" aptly appear on both collections). While Classic Masters features two elusive live tracks, "When You Come" (from Newcastle, Au 3/3/92) and "Sister Madly" (from London, England 11/12/93, edited), the true gold of this release is found is the rich, digital remastering of the band's earlier catalog, particularly the tracks from the first two albums -- Crowded House, Temple of Low Men -- where the improvements are most striking. The depth and full range of frequency finally return to these recordings, a quality sorely missing from many 80s CDs which were poorly mastered to disc in the mid-80s to early '90s. This collection corrects that mistake magnificently. Highlights here include the stirring bass line of "Never Be The Same" (from Temple of Low Men) and the moody Split Enz-inspired instrumentation of "Hole in the River" (from the first album). Sadly, the only pitfall of this collection is technical. Track 10, Distant Sun (remix), has a bad glitch that carelessly causes the line "drawn to the flame" at the end of the second verse to repeat.

It's probably going to be difficult to discourage anyone reading this to purchase another title, due to the low price this disc is being sold at.

However, if you care about audio quality, and you're interested in having some better-sounding Crowded House, look to

and/or

(the two make an excellent CH remastered collection), rather than this disc. Why?

While the two alternates were remastered with the original dynamic range of the recordings intact, this "Classic" disc was not. All the channels on the Classic mastering were max'd out, and the vocals are often buried in the over-amp'd loudness of the instruments.

This "remastering" approach may sound great on an iPod and earbuds, but on a home or car stereo, it very quickly promotes listening fatigue, as the ear is over-powered by the increased volumes.

I agree with the other reviewer that the first three CH CD's were just LP-EQ'd masters transfered to CD, and sounded terrible. However, the Classic mastering job goes clear to the opposite end of the spectrum.

There are few tracks on Classic disc that do not appear on my two suggested alternates. However, those two discs are eminently more listenable than this CD.

Just bought this last night - what an awesome find! It is worth every single penny alone just to hear a live version of "When You Come"! Neil Finn is THE master of pop music! This album nicely complements ones already existing Crowded House/Neil Finn/Tim Finn collection. "Chocolate Cake" & "Nails in my Feet" are strong fan favorites and are a nice find on a compilation album. I cannot even begin to recommend enough to everyone all Crowded House & Finn endeavors!

(Keep your eyes peeled for the future Finn Brothers album!)

Being one of the biggest Crowded House fans ever, I purchased this album from Amazon the day it was released, not even knowing what songs were included on the CD. This is a great collection and reasonably priced. This CD includes of some of CH's best work, even if it is only 12 songs in length. I was pleasantly surprised to see "Fingers of Love" and "Nails in my Feet" were added to this collection. These are 2 of the best CH songs ever, and SHOULD have been included on the Recurring Dream/Best of album but weren't. I'm sure it was difficult to pick only 12 of CH's best songs, since every one of them was a classic in my opinion. The 2 live songs on the album are good quality, but don't do the band justice. I've had the privilege of seeing them play live a few times and they were absolutely amazing. Here is the track listing since it's not on Amazon yet:

1. Something So Strong

If you already have Recurring Dream, I still reccomend this CD, it has a few different songs as well as some fun live jams too!