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Recurring Dream
Greatest hits album by Crowded House
Released	24 June 1996
Genre	Rock, pop rock, jangle pop, alternative rock
Length	70:11
Label	Capitol
Producer	Mitchell Froom, Neil Finn and Tchad Blake
Crowded House chronology
Together Alone (1993) Recurring Dream (1996) Afterglow (1999)
Singles from Recurring Dream
"Everything Is Good for You" Released: 1996 "Instinct" Released: 10 June 1996 "Not the Girl You Think You Are" Released: November 1996

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	A−
The Guardian
NME	8/10
The Village Voice

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".

Background

Crowded House were touring in support of their album Together Alone, when after a concert in Atlanta on 14 April 1994, drummer Paul Hester decided to leave the band. He was eventually replaced by Peter Jones. The band completed the tour and returned to Australia where bandleader Neil Finn began writing songs for their next album, provisionally titled Help Is Coming. During this time he also wrote and recorded the album Finn with his brother Tim Finn. At a press conference in 1996, at which the release of Recurring Dream was announced, Neil Finn revealed that Crowded House were to split up. The June concerts in Europe and Canada would be their final shows.

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. 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.

New songs

Three new tracks were recorded specially for Recurring Dream by Finn, Seymour, Hart and Hester. "Everything Is Good for You", "Instinct" and "Not the Girl You Think You Are" were recorded at York Street Studios in Auckland, New Zealand and were produced by Finn, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. In a 2006 interview, Neil Finn said of "Everything Is Good for You", "The philosophy of the song is slightly obscure in the verses, but really it's about not allowing regrets to rule your life. But it's also got a sense of humour. There's a wryness to it. It's not a message song particularly."

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 keyboard, 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.

Track listing

All songs were written by Neil Finn, except where noted.

Special Edition Live Album

Special Edition Live Album
Live album by Crowded House
Released	October 1996
Genre	Pop rock, jangle pop
Length	72:43
Label	Capitol
Producer	Neil Finn
Compiler	Nigel Griggs

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.

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.

Track listing

1. Contains the last bars of the traditional Irish song The Parting Glass

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.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

See also

• List of best-selling albums in Australia

Further reading

• Bourke, Chris (1997). Crowded House: Something So Strong. South Melbourne, Victoria: Macmillan. ISBN 0-7329-0886-8.

References

General

• McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for Crowded House". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 6 April 2004.
• Bourke, Chris (1997). Crowded House: Something So Strong. South Melbourne, Victoria: Macmillan. ISBN 0-7329-0886-8.

Specific

1. "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 8 June 1996. p. 35.
2. Woodstra, Chris. "Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
3. Klein, Joshua (11 July 1996). "Crowded House Recurring Dream: The Very Best Of (Capitol)/Finn Brothers Finn Brothers (Discovery)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
4. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958.
5. Willman, Chris (2 August 1996). "Recurring Dream". Entertainment Weekly.
6. Sullivan, Caroline (28 June 1996). "This week's pop cd releases". The Guardian. p. T.022.
7. Cigarettes, Johnny (22 June 1996). "Crowded House - Recurring Dream (The Best of Crowded House)". NME. p. 53. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000.
8. Christgau, Robert (17 September 1996). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice.
9. ^ Sakamoto, John "Crowded House members head for the door" Jam! Canoe – 24 June 1996
10. McFarlane, 1999
11. ^ "Crowded House" Archived 27 July 2012 at pandora.nla.gov.au (Error: unknown archive URL) Howlspace
12. Bourke, 1997
13. "History > Winners by Artist > Crowded House" ariaawards.com.au
14. "Australiancharts.com – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
15. "Austriancharts.at – Crowded House – Recurring Dream" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
16. "RPM Top Albums/CDs – Volume 63, No. 24, 29 July 1996" Library and Archives Canada
17. "Chartverfolgung / Crowded House / Longplay" musicline.de
18. "Dutchcharts.nl – Crowded House – Recurring Dream" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
19. "Charts.nz – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
20. "Norwegiancharts.com – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
21. "Swedishcharts.com – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
22. "Swisscharts.com – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
23. "Official Albums Chart Top 100 - Official Charts Company". Official Charts Company.
24. ^ "2019 ARIA End of Decade Albums Chart". January 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
25. "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2012 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association.
26. "Ultratop − Goud en Platina – albums 1996". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
27. "Canadian album certifications – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Music Canada.
28. "Dutch album certifications – Crowded House – Recurring Dream" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Retrieved 16 July 2022. Enter Recurring Dream in the "Artiest of titel" box. Select 1998 in the drop-down menu saying "Alle jaargangen".
29. "New Zealand album certifications – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
30. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. p. 942. ISBN 84-8048-639-2. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
31. "British album certifications – Crowded House – Recurring Dream". British Phonographic Industry.
32. "IFPI Platinum Europe Awards – 2000". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 18 July 2022.

External links

• Crowded House official website

• 1996 greatest hits albums
• 1996 live albums
• Crowded House albums
• Capitol Records compilation albums
• Albums produced by Tchad Blake
• Albums produced by Mitchell Froom
• ARIA Award–winning albums
• Compilation albums by Australian artists