Five years after their self-titled debut Crowded House released ‘Woodface’ on 8 July 1991.
‘Woodface’ featured a fourth member to the line-up. After the second Crowded House album ‘Temple of Low Men’, Neil Finn started work on a Finn Brothers album with his brother, and former Split Enz member, Tim Finn.
When the sessions for the Finn Brothers album wrapped up, Neil got back together with Crowded House members Nick Seymour and Paul Hester and recorded a third album but it was rejected by Capitol Records. Neil approached Tim to use the songs from the Finn Brothers record for Crowded House. Tim agreed as long as he could join the band.
Eight of the Finn/Finn songs were used plus four Neil songs including ‘Fall At Your Feet’, a Paul Hester track ‘Italian Plastic’ and a track by Neil, Paul and Nick.
The down and dirty ‘Chocolate Cake’ was chosen as the first single. It reached no 20 in Australia. It failed to attract airplay in the USA were the lyrics “excess of fat on your American bones” were considered offensive.
Single two ‘Fall At Your Feet’ peaked at no 31. It has also been covered by James Blunt.
Single three, ‘Its Only Natural’ was the biggest hit off the album reaching no 15. It was also used as the closing credits in the 1992 Catherine O’Hara movie ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’.
‘Weather With You’ reached no 27 in Australia. The song was one of the intended Finn Brothers album songs.
‘Four Seasons In One Day’, the final single peaked at no 47. Neil wrote the song at his home in East St Kilda. The song title is a saying about Melbourne’s unpredictable weather and how everyone prepares for four seasons in one day.
While the album reached no 2 in Australia it stiffed in the United States only reaching no 83. There were no hit singles at all in America either.
England was kinder to Crowded house rewarding the group with Top 40 chart positions with ‘Fall At Your Feet’, ‘Its Only Natural’, ‘Weather With You’ and ‘Four Seasons In One Day’.
Follow Noise11 on Social Media
NEW: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE
You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
