Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
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Free Music Notes for Temple of Low Men
Free Music Review: Crowded House
Hit: 5 Stars
Great album, great service. Nothing more to say.
Youse guys are da best!
Bill
Free Music Review: Start your journey in the 'Temple'
Hit: 4 Stars
For years this was my favorite Crowded House {CH} album. Like most of the other reviewers, I'm a huge fan of Neil Finn and all things Finn in general, but this album stood out as the diamond among all their other precious gems. It was quirky, instantly accessible, it sounded great and Neil Finn really came into his own as a writer and a vocalist in a way he hadn't (in my opinion) yet on `Crowded House', the first CH album which only made the 35-40 minute LP length because they included a cover of one of his older Split Enz songs ("Can't Carry On" from Split Enz' 'See You Around' CD). In fact, while their first album has the big radio hits we still hear (albeit in supermarkets), Temple of Low Men seems more consistent in tone and flavor. The songs are quirkier perhaps, but with the possible exception of 'Kill Eye' there isn't a dodgy track on the disc.
Why only 4 stars? Because I'm grading on a Crowded House curve and this album suffers a bit from when it was produced and a bit in comparison with its soul mate 'Together Alone'. Like their self-titled debut, 'Temple of Low Men' was recorded for vinyl and is therefore mastered at a lower level (not always a bad thing) and has fewer songs than most modern releases. The saving grace is that the production still mostly holds up and doesn't sound particularly dated or '80's-ish. Their last CD 'Together Alone' takes up where 'Temple of Low Men' leaves off and breaks new ground not only for the band, but for the rest of us as well and it's in comparison with that strength that 'Temple' seems to suffer. But that's grading on a curve.
Should you start with 'Temple of Low Men' to see if Crowded House is for you? I did and in a sense it gave me a truer expectation and better appreciation of the rest of Neil Finn's work than I think either 'Woodface (co-written with his brilliant brother Tim Finn)' or 'Crowded House' would have done.
There is NO good reason not to buy this CD. In all honesty, all their albums are great (or nearly great in the case of their debut) and you can't really make a bad choice. Best of all, once you've assimilated the Crowded House catalog you can check out the stunning solo careers of both Neil and Tim Finn, their collaborations together and the whole Split Enz discography.
These guys are the best.
Welcome.
Free Music Review: Temple an underrated treasure but inconsistent
Hit: 4 Stars
The Leonard/McCartney (misspelling and pun quite intentional)of pop rock returns. Although I agree with many of the accolades here, I find Temple to be less consistent than the other CH albums. Certainly Neil Finn is at his best when he's less sunny, but the songwriting here borders on the morbid. Although Together Alone is equally as dark, the songwriting and performances are less monochromatic and more consistent than the band's second album.
Temple seems as less a progression than a reaction to the sunny power pop than made them international stars. The darker tone benefits many of the best songs on here but undermines the weaker material (the obivious Kill Eye and Into The Lowlands amoung them.
Finn includes a clutch of his characteristic ballads (Better Be Home Soon, Love This Life among them)and many of them hold their own with his best material. Temple probably lacked the immediate appeal of the band's self titled debut and, perhaps, that undermined its popularity in the US. With Woodface the band regained lost ground and created a masterpiece of post-Beatles melodic power pop. Is it better than Temple? Well that all depends on when you think CH and Finn peaked. Many fans do prefer the Temple but I suspect it's because it's dark horse in their catalog.
Still, Temple seems more of a transitional album. When CH expanded back to a four piece (they lost their fourth member prior to the recording of their debut)there seemed to be a more balanced character to the band (and Neil's songwriting still continued to have bite but not at the expense of his more melodic, optimistic side). Temple shouldn't be where neophytes investigate CH. I'd still suggest Woodface, Together Alone and their debut over Temple. Temple is best appreciated by the fans that can forgive the flaws of this underappreciated diamond while still marveling at it's raw beauty.
Free Music Review: Temple of great songs but no hits
Hit: 4 Stars
I remember hearing Better Be Home Soon, the first single, the first time many years ago. It was a very nice song but surely not a contender of being a major hit. There had to be other songs lined up being hit singles, this one being merely an introduction to their new album? The reality was, however, that Temple Of Low Men barely has a single radio friendly song. The song closest to it, Never Be The Same got some airplay on Rock oriented radio stations but was mysteriously never released as a single.
Unlike their first self titled album, which was full of catchy pop tunes and a glossy production, Temple Of Low Men consist mainly of darker tunes. This is not to say that they are not catchy, they simply do not provide necessary radio fodder to sell. Not being an established major act, the album thus became a major commercial flop. Artistically, however, Temple was a break through proving that Don't Dream It's Over was not simply some sort of luck. I Feel Possessed starts the album and signals a much richer production than before, with Neil Finn content of showing a dark side in a similar fashion of Sting's Every Breathe You Take. The rest of Temple is in a similar vein, thoughtful lyrics, catchy tunes and an imaginative production, very clean but yet mostly without the glossy 80s feel that ruined many recordings of that era.
Temple may not be the most joyful records around but it is a fantastic grower that is still worth listening to today. With hindsight, this was a hint of what lay around the corner with Woodface, which combined the best qualities of Crowded House's first two releases and later Together Alone, creating an alchemy of what they had previously done, taking that one step further by making a masterpiece.
Free Music Review: The band's most fully realized effort
Hit: 4 Stars
Read a fairly big sample of the reviews here and you'll see that there's far from concensus on what CH's finest effort is but I'm going to make my plug for this album. While the peaks on this (except perhaps the stellar ballads "Into Temptation" and "Better Be Home Soon") don't rise as high as "Something So Strong" or "Don't Dream It's Over", the album feels like a darn near seamless whole. The first four songs are a flat-out sonic wallop from the off-kilter love song "I Feel Possessed" through the angular "Kill Eye", subtle strings of tortured love song "Into Temptation" ("Into temptation/Safe in the wide open arms of hell..") and average guy manifesto "Mansion in the Slums" (whose best bit is when writer Neil Finn spins around the usual lyric "I'd much rather have a caravan in the hills than a mansion in the slums" to admit "I'd much rather have a mansion in the hills...What I mean is, would you mind if I had it all..I'll take it when it comes"). The tracks in the middle are a bit ho-hum but the disc rebounds with "Sister Madly", a sing-along pop ditty if there ever was one, and the understated "Better Be Home Soon".
BOTTOM LINE:
A truly wonderful pop album that probably was the victim of the choice of singles ("Better Be Home Soon" is great but American pop radio, at least, usually likes an up-tempo hit to lead off a disc on the airwaves. Had they started with "I Feel Possessed" and "Sister Madly" the band might be more than a 3 hit outfit Stateside.) It's my favourite listen overall from the group.