After Glow

With the best part of a decade of excellence behind them, including four outstanding studio albums and a best-selling compilation, it was inevitable that Crowded House would leave behind a clutch of songs which failed to reach the widest possible audience.

Now, with a decent period having elapsed since the release of Neil Finn's underrated Try Whistling This, there couldn't really have been a better time to release an odds'n'sods collection. Except that this being a band with one of the strictest quality control systems of recent years there may well be one or two items contained here which qualify as 'odd', but most definitely none which fall into the latter category.

Of the thirteen tracks, only 'Private Universe' will be readily familiar, but the demo version which appears here is in many ways superior to that on Together Alone, the sparse instrumentation (two acoustic guitars) and echoed vocals reflecting the darkness at the song's core and placing it in similar territory to Brian Wilson's disturbingly beautiful 'In My Room'. Apart from that you get songs which never made the final cut for Woodface and the aforementioned Together Alone, most of which prove the point that Crowded House were utterly incapable of constructing songs devoid of structure and melody.

The opening 'I Am In Love' should

definitely have been heard before now, while 'Anyone Can Tell' and 'Sacred Cow' were both patched together from different songs at the suggestion of producer Mitchell Froom and I defy you to spot the join.

Discounting the relatively lightweight 'Lester' (a song written by Finn after his pet dog was hit by a car) and 'My Telly's Gone Bung' (complete with references to Kylie'n'Jason), you're still left with an album which holds together remarkably well. Anything but a cheap cash-in, After Glow is a thoroughly tasteful testament to one of the finest bands ever to have surfed pop's mainstream.