Gary SteelCrowded House are to reissue deluxe versions of album catalogue.
KIWIPHILES AND OCKERS alike will be thrilled by the news that the entire Crowded House album catalogue is to be reissued, complete with deluxe presentations, booklets and loads of rarities.
But that’s not all: The reissue campaign will be launched by a reunion concert, scheduled to take place at the site of their famous 1996 ‘Farewell To The World’ concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on Friday November 25 and Saturday November 26.
The Crowded House album reissues – scheduled for November 4 – includes the group’s six studio albums Crowded House, Temple Of Low Men, Woodface, Together Alone, Time On Earth, Intriguer, and the rarities album Afterglow.
The reissues will come out on all formats including 180gm vinyl, and will, according to Neil Finn, “include a rich trove of rarities including writing demos and other unreleased musical curiosities.”
The deluxe packages will also include new artwork by Nick Seymour. The rarities were compiled by Crowded House expert Jeremy Ansell.
Disconcerting for Witchdoctor readers is that nowhere in the blurbs about the upcoming releases is any remastering or tidying up of tapes mentioned. We presume that, having gone to all the trouble with packaging and digging up rarities, they would also have gone back to the original multi-tracks to create new masters that expand on the sound palette of the originals. Sadly, there’s also no mention of the availability of HD versions for those who want to dig a bit deeper into the fabric of sound.
At the very least, these reissues (the first time that Crowded House has been subject to any reissue campaign) will allow fans as well as dispassionate outsiders to reassess the work of one of our most internationally successful groups.
I’ve always felt that Neil Finn’s group lacked the edge of his previous group, Split Enz, verging on the “Dad rock” category decades before the term was even invented. (It would have been termed Adult Oriented Rock, or AOR, back in the late ‘80s). But there’s no denying the traction some of their better songs have gained over time, and like them or not, songs like ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, ‘Better Be Home Soon’, ‘Four Seasons In One Day’ and ‘Into Temptation’ are both memorable and instantly identifiable.
