News 22 Sep 2016

Crowded House to reissue all seven of their albums as 2CD deluxe editions

By Paul Sinclair

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Campaign delivers 100 unreleased bonus tracks

The much loved Aussie/Kiwi band Crowded House are to reissue all their albums at the same time in November, as two-CD deluxe editions with masses of unreleased bonus tracks and enhanced packaging. New album-only vinyl LPs will also be issued.

The band’s 1986 self-titled debut contains Don’t Dream It’s Over, surely Crowded House’s best known song, thanks to its massive success in the US where only Aretha Franklin and George Michael‘s I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) kept it off the number one spot. Curiously, despite it’s status as a ‘classic’, the track stalled at number 27 in the UK.

Don’t Dream It’s Over from Crowded House

Two years later 1988’s Temple Of Low Men drew critical acclaim but didn’t deliver any hits outside of Australia and New Zealand, which almost defies belief when you consider the singles included songs of the calibre of When You Come, Into Temptation, Sister Madly and I Feel Possessed.

Into Temptation from Temple of Low Men

The band’s commercial fortunes in Europe were revived with third studio album Woodface. Neil Finn’s brother Tim was pulled in for some productive writing sessions with the pair co-penning seven tracks on the album including singles Weather With You, It’s Only Natural and Four Seasons in One Day – all top 40 hit singles in Britain, with Weather With You giving the band their first UK top ten hit (#9).

Four Seasons in One Day from Woodface

Together Alone dispensed with Mitchell Froom’s, crisp and direct production style for a more spiritual and emotional aural palette, courtesy of legendary producer Youth. Clothes may have been removed during the making of this remarkable record, which delivered five UK singles – including Distant Sun and Locked Out. All of them were top 30 hits. This period also produced Neil Finn’s best haircut. Together Alone is SDE’s favourite Crowdies album, by some margin.

Distant Sun from Together Alone

By the time the band broke up in 1996 Paul Hester had left, but was back briefly for the emotional Farewell to the World Sydney Opera House concert in November of that same year. It was Paul’s death that in part prompted the 2007 reunion and the Time On Earth album, although the rarities and outtakes compilation Afterglow came in between, having been issued in 1999. That is considered an ‘album’ as far as this reissue campaign goes and gets a bonus disc like all the other ‘proper’ studio albums.

Don’t Stop How from Time On Earth

2010’s Intriguer is the latest studio record from the band and includes the single Saturday Sun.

2016 is the 30th anniversary of the debut self-titled album (and Woodface‘s 25th birthday) and all the two-CD reissues will feature the original album with a bonus disc of rarities, B-Sides & previously unreleased home demos and outtakes. This archival reissue campaign delivers over 100 unreleased tracks.

Each package comes in a rectangular rigid board DVD-style slipcase into which slides a four panel ‘flexitray’ (which holds the discs) and a 36 page booklet with extended notes featuring new interviews with the band & memorabilia from personal and fan archives.

Each album will also be reissued on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl including download card, cut from the original analogue tapes at Abbey Road Studios.

In terms of the audio, the original album is sourced from the highest resolution transfer from the original tapes by Abbey Road, ‎so the original albums appear as they were originally intended. In other words, these have not been remastered with the (sometimes unwanted) changes to EQ and dynamics that that process often delivers.

The extra tracks mastered from a variety of sources: stereo cassettes, 4-track cassettes, ¼” 8-track tapes, ¼” stereo tapes, ½” stereo tapes, 2-inch 24-track tapes, Hi-8 8-track video cassettes, DATs, CD-Rs and digital audio files) by mastering engineer Don Bartley at Benchmark Mastering.

Because there is so much information each album reissue has it’s own post today on SDE, so click below to visit each album page for track listings and pre-order information. I expect all of the two-CD deluxe editions to fall in price to at least £18 on Amazon in the UK (some are £25 right now) but having seen pre-production samples of these sets I can tell you that they look amazing and can understand why they are a little bit pricier than ‘normal’

CROWDED HOUSE (1986)
2CD deluxe Edition and 180g vinyl