Something from Crowded House this year?

Such a great band. I'm a little surprised this thread isn't blowing up. I thought around here they'd garner a lot of interest. This would be a good time for anyone who
let them slip by the first time around to devote some time to discovering them this time.

 

It's a shame that the Town & Country Club promo didn't get an official release.

 

I'm told the $30 on the US site includes shipping. Also, the other titles will be added online soon. Time On Earth and Intriguer are each owned by different labels in the US, which complicates the manufacturing and release schedule.

 

These will be available to the US other than the US site, right? It seems that company websites almost always sell at full pop. Any talk of re-releasing the previous fan club live CDs? It'd be great to see a couple of box sets representing some of the earlier tours.
And as a couple of other folks have asked about, I'm all for some hi-Rez stuff and I know it can be a pricey undertaking, but some 5.1 remixes would be glorious.
I appreciate your being here to field questions. Thanks again.
Added: I just did kind a follow up...I went to the US site and put one in my cart and began to check out. In doing so a note came up notifying me that shipping and tax is calculated at check out and also telling me that non US customers will also be charged duties and customs charges.
One other thing, the US bundle at $150 only includes 5 titles. The Aussie bundle includes all 7 and with the exchange rate came in at $120.
You may not know this, but here in the states we don't have access to the Aussie prices or the track listings any longer. When you click on the order button, it takes us away from the CH site and straight to the Universal Store site. Thanks again for putting up with possible annoying questions.

 

They'll certainly be on amazon.com. I assume they'll be in regular US stores too. No talk of re-releasing the fan club CDs but I reckon there's a case for assembling a really good live box set one day with music from 1985 onwards.

The original 2oth anniversary boxset was going to be two CDs of demos/studio stuff and three CDs of live tracks, but then the Farewell to The World album and CD came out, the band reformed and all their US concerts from 2007 and 2010 became available on CD. Add that to the numerous fan club CDs and live B-sides, and that's a lot of live material out there already. For these deluxe editons, we wanted to focus on the unheard demos and studio goodies.

I love surround mixes too. Tried to interest Neil etc but no go at this stage.

 

First in line for this! Those early US club dates for CH are some of my fondest concert memories. I think I saw them four times in 18 months on their different debut album promotional swings through the SF Bay Area. Anyone else at Wolfgang's, for the show that wasn't broadcast live the next night on KFOG?

 

I'm totally loving what it looks like they are. And I'm happy that there isn't that much live stuff, simply because as you mentioned there is so much live stuff out there. I have about a dozen of the early fan club live discs. I was just thinking many don't, plus I'd like a handsome well put together box, because I really like stuff like that.
I can't wait to have these in my hot little hands and can hear your excellent work instead of just reading the track list.

 

I'd LOVE to see surround mixes of the albums. My fan club CDs have seen better days, so I'd love to see those reissued as well even if in a limited box (along with the respective band members autographs of course!).

so far the best price I've found is at Amazon Canada.

 

Is there? Blimey, the exchange rate has changed a lot recently! Wonder why...

 

That is weird about your copy of Woodface. Mine is the original Euro pressing (German I think?) and I think it sounds amazing, brilliant separation of the instruments and all the vocal harmonies. The original UK Together Alone sounds nice, but not as good as Woodface IMO.

The original US of the debut is a great sounding LP. I'm currently waiting on delivery of an original US TOLM, so will see about that shortly. @Paul H can probably tell you about the UK/European debut and TOLM.

 

Well said. It's utterly disappointing when we've waited so many years for a proper release.

 

I can't actually. On your recommendation I picked up US copies of both. And they sound wonderful. I do get some sibilance on TOLM (Into Temptation especially) but other than that, they're lovely-sounding discs. No need to look further.

 

Oh, for some reason I thought you bought UK ones! Ah well, looking forward to my copy of TOLM, will surely sound better than the Aus picture disc I have at the moment.

 

Nah, you tempted me into going for US pressings. To be fair, it was an excellent call. I just need to track down a UK Woodface and Recurring Dream, although I suspect they may actually be European rather than UK...

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but Neil and his son Liam (a tremendous and energetic talent in his own right) are doing an album together for release next year, according to Liam. Check this out:

 

Your right it is unusual, I usually find German pressings of that period very good quality as a rule, but have found some uk pressings not so good, will have to give it another spin this week as I've upgraded my cartridge since playing it fully last, part of the issue could also be I'm used to the cd sound as I've had that since the album was released but only got the vinyl this year.

 

Woodface is European, I think. My copy has the cat no. on the back, with a separate cat no. listed for France, and the labels have the GEMA stamp, copyright info in English and German, and the sides listed as "Seite 1" and "Seite 2". And, as a nice period touch, "Made in the E.E.C".

Recurring Dream appears to have been pressed in the UK.

Give it another go. IME it bests the UK CD by a considerable margin. It still has that early 90s high gloss sheen to the production, of course, just much better separation than on the CD.

 

Which is odd, given the length of the album. I expected that the CD would be the superior format for that album.

 

You would think so. Every so often someone manages to seemingly break the rules. Bob Ludwig's cut of the first Rage Against The Machine album is the prime example that comes to mind. Long album, insanely good sounding record.

 

Be really good if a box set of live releases was to follow. Their Rockpalast set would be nice as one of those DVD + 2CD sets that have popped up recently.

 

Much as I love their fan club CDs, it's always struck me as a real shame they were taken from the band's reference DATs. The audience is virtually inaudible, thus making their wondrous live performances sound like they're being greeted by tumbleweed. There are some wonderful radio shows out there that really capture the atmosphere of their gigs and it's a shame that there isn't a way of getting them released officially.

 

Hello, Crowded House superfans. I'm more of a casual observer -- albeit with a ton of respect for the band -- and I have all the original four albums on CD, and the Recurring Dream best-of. Since I only have about half their catalog, these reissues are very tempting to me; the main thing holding me back at the moment is going to be the volume level of the CDs. SuperDeluxeEdition insists that the albums are going to be virtually the same as they originally were, but the first two CDs are much quieter than Woodface, which itself is a bit quieter than Together Alone. I'm certainly not saying I want all the tracks to be crushed, but I hope a serious effort was made to bring all the discs in line, so they have a compatible volume when I have them in a playlist and hit "shuffle." Any thoughts on this?

Really happy for you guys -- these reissues sound pretty great for the hardcore fans!

 

Hi Sean, nice to see you here

It's an interesting question. You're right that Superdeluxeedition doesn't think the mastering choices have been changed (I'm picking my words carefully because the tapes have, apparently, been newly transferred, so they are remasters regardless of EQ choices, etc). If this is the case, I'd be overjoyed: my real concern in all of this is that, in giving us new material to enjoy, they'll also crush the life out of the whole catalogue. If Paul Sinclair is correct, I can rest easy regarding the main albums (you'll find that Afterglow is significantly louder than the first four, and I ignore it in terms of the previously-released B sides that appear on it, preferring to source them from the original singles).

I remain sceptical that the main albums aren't going to be severely compressed because the bonus tracks sound much louder on iTunes than the original albums. I'd be staggered if they've mastered the bonus material noticeably differently to the parent album tracks. We'll see.

I don't know what the US situation is but, at present, Universal are offering a bundle for all 7 albums that offers a significant cost saving over Amazon's current price.

I'm really looking forward to these releases, but I'm also filled with a degree of trepidation. Which is a real shame, and utterly unnecessary.

 

Interesting -- kind of what I expected you to say, based on your comments earlier in the thread. I guess I'll check the iTunes samples and monitor this thread. I was hoping they would boost the first two albums a bit (without too much limiting, like the 2009 Beatles remasters), and tame the louder ones a bit, so that they would all sound consistent. That should be (imo) one of the main objectives of any catalog remastering program.