Crowded House

[CRAZY-HORSE]

CROWDED HOUSE "together alone" 1993.

like most artists who have an album that works on all levels, the followup release is generally regarded as a disapointment, and this was no exception. it only reached a miserly #3 here in Australia,their lowest charting album ever and none of the five singles made the top 10...
that does not mean this is a bad album, far from it, it is still a very good one in fact...just underated back in the day.
once again, brother Tim has left the fold to concentrate on his own projects,the band are still coming off the high of the success of "woodface", Neil is starting to get itchy feet to do his own solo projects, Neil admits that at this time there was bitter in fighting which led to several bouts of punches being thrown in the studio(but the reason for this has always been kept in house...no public discord to tarnish the band or its image). but reading between the lines i suspect it was of a proffessional nature rather than personal reasons.
although the music is quite 'full on' at times it still comes across as being very atmospheric and emotive...sort of a cross between the sounds of "temple of low men" and "woodface"...therefore there are a lot of things to hear in the tracks...here i go again...although not as eclectic as the Beatles "white album" every track is different and has something to get your teeth into, but it is not immediate, just like "temple..." it takes several listens to hear the true genius in the songs. "kare Kare" was recorded on a New Zealand beach, so all the sounds of seagulls, waves crashing etc is as was recorded at the time. and Neil seems to 'rock out' one one track on each album, this time it is "locked out", the lyrics of which seem to reflect the in house problems facing the band at the time.
five tracks were lifted as singles off this one, they did get a lot of airplay but failed to sell in large quantities, id say this is due to bad timing as U2 were riding high with Achtung Baby and REM also had their "automatic for the people" album out at the same time which coincided with huge world tours and CH succumb to that hype.

I LOVE THIS ALBUM

tracks:

1. kare kare**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlrDxECYsnU live
2. in my command**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-HH6tKGu...re=related live
3. nails in my feet***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f75O3j5S02o live
4. black and white boy**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-czDG-LoeCo audio
5. fingers of love***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siOKxJhC_J8 live
6. pineapple head***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlkVic-v2Go audio
7. locked out***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9oP8jfhOes live
8. private universe***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1REjiWWXK8 live
9. walking on the spot**
10.distant sun***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRf9a98BMRc live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1pyvnw9Sko video
11.catherine wheel**
12.skin feeling**
13.together alone**

3s=6
2s=7
1s=0

rating: 2.4