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Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House, usually abbreviated to Recurring Dream, is a compilation album by rock group Crowded House, released in 1996. It includes most of their singles, as well as three new songs, "Not the Girl You Think You Are", "Instinct", and "Everything Is Good for You".Sakamoto, John Jam! Canoe – 24 June 1996
The collection was released in June 1996 and features four songs from each of the group's four studio albums, as well as the three new songs. Hester returned to play on these songs, but despite this he is not credited as a full band member on the album sleeve, which reads, "Performed by Crowded House (Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart) with Paul Hester." The new photos on the album sleeve only show Neil Finn, Seymour and Hart, although Hester and Tim Finn both appear several times in a collage of old band photos. The wording on the album implies that Hart played on all 19 tracks. In fact he only became a full band member on their fourth album Together Alone, although he did receive an 'additional keyboards' credit for unspecified tracks on the album Woodface. Hester may not appear on the song "Weather with You", because Ricky Fataar is credited with drums on that track on the Woodface sleeve.
The album's title Recurring Dream, is also the name of a song written in 1985, when the group were still known as 'The Mullanes', by Finn, Hester, Seymour and the band's then guitarist Craig Hooper. The song "Recurring Dream" was not included on this compilation, but was later featured on Afterglow, Crowded House's 1999 rarities collection. At the 1997 ARIA Music Awards, Recurring Dream won in the 'Highest Selling Album' category. "History > Winners by Artist > Crowded House" ariaawards.com.au The award was presented by Dave Graney who joked in his presentation speech that it's, "Sometimes just about the money!"
The album's cover was painted by bassist Nick Seymour. Like Together Alone and Temple of Low Men it features a red car. The cover also shows an electric fan, an item which appeared on the sleeve of their debut album. The bare chested man on the album cover appears to be Seymour himself.
Of "Instinct" he said, "I did a demo of it at home. It's just built on a bass riff...I put down a drum track, put a bass track to it and had it around for about a month. The lyrics are, as it turns out, extremely appropriate for the time: Nearly time to flick the switch/Hanging by a single stitch/Laughing at the stony face of gloom. I mean, in a way it was an instinctive decision for me to discontinue working with the band. My stomach told me to do it, so that's what the song is about: recognizing those moments and having the desire to follow it through."
Of "Not the Girl You Think You Are" he said, "I wrote that with the assistance of an Optigan, which is a weird old antique from the '60s, a trashy antique. It's a machine that reads optical discs, the most primitive form of sampling from the '60s. I had found piano loops on it that I just put a sequence together from and I wrote the song in 10 minutes on top of it."
Due to this compilation being superseded by The Very Very Best of Crowded House in 2010 and "Everything Is Good for You" being omitted from that album, all three tracks were included on the 2016 deluxe edition of Afterglow.
Five of the live album's songs are from the same concert, at The Civic Theatre in Newcastle, Australia. Other songs from this performance have appeared as B-sides, including "Chocolate Cake" on the "Instinct" single. The recording of "Fingers of Love" comes from Paul Hester's final show, in Atlanta, before he quit the band.
The album is performed by Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Paul Hester and Mark Hart, apart from tracks 7, 8, 9 and 10 which feature Tim Finn rather than Hart.
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All songs were written by Neil Finn, except where noted.
Special Edition Live Album
Recurring Dream was also released as a two-disc version, the second disc being titled Special Edition Live Album. The songs were selected by Split Enz bassist Nigel Griggs, who was asked to do the job by Neil Finn, according to the album's sleeve notes. Just days after he accepted the job, hundreds of cassettes of Crowded House performances arrived for him to evaluate. The recordings he chose were not remixed or adjusted in any way before they were put on the album. Only four of the tracks from the main album had their live versions included on the second disc.
Track listing
1 "There Goes God" N. Finn, T. Finn The Civic Theater, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia 20 March 1992 5:37 2 "Newcastle Jam" N. Finn, P. Hester, N. Seymour, M. Hart The Civic Theater, Newcastle, Australia 20 March 1992 2:43 3 "Love You Till the Day I Die" N. Finn The Civic Theater, Newcastle, Australia 20 March 1992 4:47 4 "Hole in the River"Contains the last bars of the traditional Irish song The Parting Glass N. Finn, Eddie Rayner The Civic Theater, Newcastle, Australia 20 March 1992 8:55 5 "Private Universe" N. Finn Aston Arena, Birmingham, England 18 November 1993 4:55 6 "Pineapple Head" N. Finn The Apollo, Manchester, England 22 November 1993 3:26 7 "How Will You Go" N. Finn, T. Finn Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, Scotland 12 July 1992 3:23 8 "Left Hand" N. Finn Vooruit Concertzaal, Ghent, Belgium 18 October 1991 3:14 9 "Whispers and Moans" N. Finn Tower Theater, Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. 3 October 1991 4:43 10 "Kill Eye" N. Finn Tower Theater, Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. 3 October 1991 3:19 11 "Fingers of Love" N. Finn Roxy Theatre, Atlanta, U.S. 14 April 1994 5:02 12 "Don't Dream It's Over" N. Finn Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge, England 6 March 1992 4:03 13 "When You Come" N. Finn The Civic Theater, Newcastle, Australia 20 March 1992 7:26 14 "Sister Madly" N. Finn Portsmouth Guildhall, Portsmouth, England 23 November 1993 6:45 15 "In My Command" N. Finn Panzerhalle, Munich, Germany 12 December 1993 4:22
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Australia (ARIA Charts) 6 Australia (ARIA Charts) 22 Australia (ARIA Charts) 97
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