Crowded House

By the mid 1980s, ham-fisted production over songcraft had taken its toll on mainstream music. Thankfully, Crowded House came along and saved the day, with a bright debut that matched 1970s power pop hooks and new wave guitar rock with Neil Finn's melancholy – but always melodic -- songwriting. This one took a while to take off but "Don't Dream Its Over," "Something So Strong" and "World Where You Live" finally slipped over from college alternative radio to mainstreet U.S.A. This would be their biggest hit in America but Crowded House would actually get even better after this.

Rarely has any modern music sounded so cheerful and so creepy as some of the off-center
love songs that pop out of the red head of Neil Finn. This young New Zealander may be
remembered as a key member of Split Enz, for which he penned such hits as the classic
romantic paranoid's delight "I Got You." With that group officially dispersed, he's now the
head of the Crowded household, and on his new group's debut album the mood... More >