Episode seven of Non-Album Tracks - the series dedicated to songs not found on proper albums, but possessing proper quality nonetheless.
Crowded House – ‘Instinct’
Released on:
Recurring Dream: The Very Best Of Crowded House [Compilation - 1996]
Also available on:
‘Instinct’ [Single - 1996]
The Very Very Best of Crowded House [Compilation - 2010]
“Greatest Hits”/”Best Of” compilations are often looked upon with scorn and/or ridicule as blatantly commercial moves – attempts to cash in on belated success, the announcement of a break-up, or just to fill gaps in release schedules. Artists, of course, will claim that their best-of “album” is some kind of consolidation of their career so far, a chance to take stock before moving on with their career. (Or they’ll go out of their way to point out that the record company is releasing the compilation without their involvement – which is fair enough, I suppose/)
A particular source of derision is the (almost-mandatory) inclusion of one or two new and/or previously unreleased tracks. Artists might claim that these new tracks point towards the future of the band, or something like that. The cynical argument is that their sole purpose is to lure in existing fans who already own the hits on existing releases and get them to shell out for the new release.
The cynics may have their points, but I find it hard to dismiss the existence of best-of compilations. For one, they’re great for casual listeners of a band. And they can serve as an appropriate introduction, leading to further exploration of an artist’s back catalogue. (Who knows where my musical taste would be today, had I not picked up Pixies’ 1997 Death to the Pixies compilation.) And in many cases, they’re simply the most solid releases for some acts. We’ve all waded through plenty of album filler in our times.
And those songs in the “obligatory new one” category are, like EP tracks, b-sides and songs from soundtracks, often superb – worthy additions to the artist’s canon.
My relationship with Crowded House has probably always been in the “casual listener” class. Recurring Dream is still the only audio release of theirs I own (I did also buy their Farewell to the Word video) – I’ve never gone on to listen to any of the studio albums from which its songs emanate. Which is a bit strange, since my relationship with the compilation itself is far from casual. I’ve listened to it literally hundreds of times. I know all of the songs back-to-front. I freaking love it. And still, I haven’t got any of their proper albums. Odd. Perhaps I’ll get them now…
When I did get it – I don’t think it was too long after its release in mid-1996 – I was not at all familiar with the bulk of it. ‘Weather With You’ had been a fairly big track over here (it seemed to be played incessantly – although that could have just been its repetitive chorus…), so I knew that. I also remembered ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ very well, though mostly for its use in the mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, where Molly Ringwald plays it for Parker Lewis.
‘It’s Only Natural’, ‘Fall At Your Feet’ and ‘Locked Out’ had also been familiar to me when I heard them on the CD, but that still left 14 other, “new”, tracks. With that lack of prior knowledge – and, especially, because the track-listing was not chronological – I was unaware of which ones (if any) were actual new ones. Looking at them now, even the liner notes are quite subtle about which songs come from where. This allowed me to digest all this unknown material free from any bias. I couldn’t be cynical about tacked-on new tracks, because I simply didn’t know which ones they were.
Of this trove of unfamiliar material, three songs stood out to me. Two had been singles from their fourth album, Together Alone - the scintillating ‘Private Universe’ and the majestic ‘Distant Sun’. And the third was, interestingly enough, one of the new ones – ‘Instinct’:
Now, the video is terrible. The band themselves acknowledge this and made sure it wasn’t included on the Dreaming DVD compilation. But the song is great. It’s a case of tension and release. The verses are quite subdued and restrained, building up slightly in the final lines. The chorus then erupts, not in volume or aggression – the way a Pixies song would, but instead with a surge up. Neil Finn’s voice jumps up in pitch and additional instruments enter the fray. There is a more traditional eruption around the 1:49 mark, with a single bendy note solo thing. The song then flips, going into a quiet chorus, before heading into a driving, cinematic outro.
Lyrically, I don’t really know what he’s going on about. Something about your instinct not being wrong, no doubt. “Laughing at the stony face of gloom” is a pretty bad line to have at a climactic point, I have to say. On the other hand, “I lit the match” is a fantastic first line for a song.
There were two other new tracks on Recurring Dream, the Beatles-y ‘Not the Girl You Think You Are’ and ‘Everything is Good For You’, neither of which scale the heights of ‘Instinct’ and are probably two of the weakest tracks on the compilation, which doesn’t do much for the reputation of this category of songs.
Nevertheless, ‘Instinct’ proves that those possibly-opportunistic additions to ”Greatest Hits”/”Best Of” compilations cannot be summarily ignored or cast aside.
I think we’ve had pretty similar experiences with Best Ofs; I often think that Death to the Pixies is the best best of I’ve ever bought, it actually plays like an album somehow rather than a random cobbling together of songs (the later compo “Wave of Mutilation,” on the other hand, is just that).
I also love Recurring Dream, have listened to it repeatedly on and off for years, and have never gotten around to looking up any of Crowded House’s albums despite this fact.
There is just one statement you make I have to say I strongly disagree with here. I think “Not the Girl You Think You Are,” is one of the best tracks on the album. It’s maybe not the most obvious contender; it is, as you say, a fairly slight, almost simplistic, Beatlesey number which at first glance seems more restrained than some of their better known songs.
But as I began to really get into the album, about eight years ago when I stole it from my mum, I started to place it in a higher and higher position in relation to the other tracks on the album – it grew on me. NTGYTYA is subtle; what seems like slow restraint actually helps to create – for me at least, a sort of dream-like quality reminiscent of Private Universe, and a tender sadness of tone like that of Fall at Your Feet. This effect is amplified by the use of 3/4 time – a very rare decision for a pop song: NTGYTYA has the floaty rhythm of a waltz.
In fact, much as I said the song seems restrained at first, this dreamiess belies a kind of controlled, almost self-effacing passion in Finn’s voice and in the lyrics – which are, by the way, some of my favourite lyrics of all time. There’s something poetic (at the risk of sounding pretentious, Chekovian) about the way Finn avoids ever clearly saying what it is he’s saying (“don’t leave me for him,”) and instead focuses his attention gently, but critically, on the girl he stands to lose. The repeated refrain, impelling the implied target of the song’s tender despair to “believe you have one/won” is an example of the way Finn cleverly plays with words to lead the listener to an understanding of his true feelings.
The music never builds to a crescendo; Finn barely raises his voice – and yet with changes of pitch and intonation (a few lines are softly spoken, almost, rather than sung) there are real and satisfying peaks of emotion.
Musical taste is a pretty personal thing, and this is a very personal song – it isn’t necessarily going to suit everyone. But I can’t accept that it’s weak, or an unjustified addition to the album. Not The Girl You Think You Are is subtle, simple, and indirect, but for those who enjoy it (I know others who feel much the same way about this song), it’s something of a refined masterpiece.
Cheers for the comment, Mr B.
I think it might have something to do with the nature of best-of compilations – or perhaps my own (unfair?) treatment of them as non-studio-albums: i.e. there’s a certain expectation that every song has the qualities a single has/should have – as, well, all of them are singles!
‘Not The Girl You Think You Are’, for me, is an album track in the traditional sense. It seems almost specifically designed to, as it did on you, grow on the listener. This subtlety works well in a well-constructed album, but incredibly difficult to pull off in the context of a collection consisting otherwise entirely of “hit singles” (whether or not they were actually hits…), songs whose designated role is to stand out almost instantaneously.
As I said in the post, I’ve listened to Recurring Dream many many times – and still I don’t think ‘NTGYTYA’ can do enough to escape the shadow of the others (particularly ‘Private Universe’ and ‘Instinct’ on either side of it).
Again, there’s an element of personal prejudice here, I suppose. I know I said I was unbiased with respect to all those tracks – but, of course, I specifically meant in relation to each other. I did have certain expectations for “hit” qualities. I don’t think anyone would deny that the use of “best of” in these compilation titles is almost always wildly inaccurate. So many artists’ best tracks are album tracks whose very nature would preclude them from being released as singles. R.E.M.’s best track is ‘Leave’ on New Adventures…, but you sure as heck aren’t going to expect to hear its seven-minute siren-blaring awesomeness on an R.E.M. best-of release.
Other than the curveball inclusion of ‘Cecilia Ann’ – as track number one, no less – Death to the Pixies follows the much same pattern. Subtle probably isn’t an appropriate adjective, but more nuanced tracks like ‘No. 13 Baby’ or ‘The Happening’ are never going to be included – and would feel kind of weird if they were – in spite of their superlative quality.
I feel like I’m walking into self-contradiction here. Obviously if ‘The Happening’ were Death to… it wouldn’t make it a weaker track. But to the compilation audience, it might get lost if, say, it were sandwiched between ‘Here Comes Your Man’ and ‘Debaser’. And even multiple listens might not be enough to unlock it.
Especially if it were as subtle as ‘Not The Girl You Think You Are’. As subtle. And also not as strong…
Relistening to ‘NTGYTYA’ now, it just feels so …languid.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it would it hold its own more in the harsh(er) environment of a hits compilation, if it more of a hit.
Or, you know, better!
[Re: lyrics. As I've mentioned in these posts a few times, I'm not a lyrics person at all. As such, words are unlikely to sway me on my feelings for a track. If they did, I don't think it would be possible for me to ever listen to a Smashing Pumpkins song with a straight face...]