Yesterday afternoon I was leafing through my albums, looking for the right record to lift my mood. I settled on Crowded House's eponymous debut from 1986, the one with their biggest U.S. hit "Don't Dream It's Over".
I know every single word to this record, and being able to sing along to it was part of the reason why I put it on. It's also a fantastic record from start to finish, and it began my love affair with Neil Finn's voice and songwriting skills.
What occurred to me for the first time yesterday is how morbid the lyrics are across the entire album. Here is a sampling of the dark topics found on this melodic and upbeat(-sounding) pop masterpiece:
Mean To Me:
"now her parents are divorced
and her friend's committing suicide...
I was thinking of a padded cell"
World Where You Live:
"friends come round
you might remember and be sad
behind their eyes is unfamiliar"
Hole in the River:
"Theres a hole in the river where my auntie lies
From the land of the living to the air and sky
Left her car by the river left her shoes beside...
We were touched by a cold wind, my father and I
The sound of desperate breathing her fear inside us all
She was coming to see him but something changed her mind
Drove her down to the river
There is no return"
I Walk Away:
"Reveal whatever you desire
To you it may be death defying
Black day
In the coldness of winter
Black words
Slipping off my tongue
I say forget it - its over
As a dark cloud covered up the sun"
That's What I Call Love:
"Feeling devastated
Thats what I call
Hangin on and fallin over
Thats what I call
Tired and deflated
Thats what I call
Love...
I got a little room
The air's still pretty bad
I die tonight"
I would love to know what Neil was going through when he wrote these songs. As a lyricist he consistently valued creativity over cliche, but I don't recall many of his other albums being quite this dark. If you just listen to the music and his buoyant voice, you'd never know he wasn't going along, feeling just fine.
Let's watch some Crowded House videos from this era.
A live version of "Mean To Me" from '87:
Surely you've seen this video for "Don't Dream It's Over". Speaking of his creativity as a lyricist, I love the thought of millions of people singing along to lines like "try to catch the deluge in a paper cup..." This is such a beautiful song:
Uno mas. The video for "World Where You Live" is pretty great. This song describes a whole genre of people I've known in my life:
"Tell me, I don't know where you go. Do you climb into space? To the world where you live."
Crowded House is a must-own album.