Farewell to the World

Crowded House's new album is a record of their last live show

The story of this world wide known band goes back to mid 80's when a New Zealand musician and songwriter Neil Finn along with drummer Paul Hester and bassist Nick Seymour formed Crowded House to appear in US charts in 1987. The band's career has been rapidly developing but unfortunately has finally came to its natural end in 1996 when Neil Finn decided to leave in the sake of his solo project. There is no sense in retelling this story and to strive to convince everyone that Crowded House is worthy of at least proper attention, each person who is acquainted with their songs, knows for himself all their advantages. The band's new album Farewell To The World (Live) is not a record of the reunited musicians or a concert of a separate one who decided to taste the fame again. Farewell To The World (Live) is a record of last live show which The band has performed in front of more than 120,000 people at the steps before Sydney Opera House in 1996.

A choir of 120,000 voices sings along with the band

Despite that fact that the band doesn't exist for a long ten years by now, Farewell To The World (Live) is having an official status. This release became their first and the only live album and was timed to the 10th anniversary of that farewell concert to remind about the unforgettable atmosphere of Crowded House's live shows. The album of 110 minutes play time presents 24 best band's songs gathered from all their albums. The reaction of the bubbly crowd is so emotional that at times it seems that this living human mass is close to exploding. There are a lot of grand sing-a-longs moments like Better Be Home Soon or in Hunters and Collectors'Throw Your Arms Around Me. Farewell To The World (Live) will be interesting to meet not only for old devoted fans but for those who only ever knew Crowded House from their hits which had achieved good chart positions in their time. All those familiar favorites are here: Something So Strong from their debut album, Fall At Your Feet, which cracked the UK market in 1991, Four Seasons in One Day, Weather With You. The final track Don't Dream Its Over brings some sad tones to the concert's celebration air. When you hear a lump rising in Neil Finn's throat you suddenly realize that this is truly last song for Crowded House.

Farewell To The World (Live) can challenge the best live albums ever released

It is pretty hard to find a really good and exciting live concert record from a band plying rock music nowadays. At times it seems that the true Live shows of a good quality have gone together with the epoch of Led Zeppelin or The Who. When comparing Farewell To The World (Live) with the exemplary live albums it is worth mentioning that the album lacks a few things concerning mostly technical musical side, there is no that sheer, pure force in playing. But Farewell To The World (Live) can not only challenge but even outdo many masterpieces in how strongly it can excite and deeply affect a listener. Of course one can say that Farewell To The World (Live) speculates in that fact that this is actually the very last Crowded House's album and that it was quite natural for the musicians to give all they have both musically and emotionally. But when you recollect that Crowded House's and Neil Finn's songs are as moving and poetic as any ever written, any doubts in their talent melt away immediately.