I've never really spent much time on this site talking about music videos, and yet many, many years ago, it was one of my favorite mediums. Back before Michael Jackson and John Landis introduced the music biz to the idea that you could throw millions of dollars at the video for one song. Back when Crowded House was still together.

I've gone on about Crowded House a lot in my SongBook music reviews of their albums, but not about their videos, and that's because they really are two separate things. I don't like bringing videos up in music reviews because I think it's all about the songs, and the videos should be an afterthought. But this new DVD, put together somewhat on the cheap by EMI/Capitol Records' video wing, finally gives me an opportunity to crow about Crowded House's underrated visual performances.

The disc kicks off with the arty and slightly amateurish Mean To Me, followed by Now We're Getting Somewhere, both of which are early clips predating the band's big success. By the time Don't Dream It's Over was ready to go before the cameras, Capitol was ready to budget for it, and the resulting video is one of those things that sticks out in my mind as a defining moment for MTV in the 80s - the images of a china plate crashing superimposed over a never-ending left-to-right pan following the band members through various locales somehow fit the song perfectly. (It's worth noting that director Alex Proyas, who had already cut his teeth on videos for other acts from Down Under like INXS, later went on to direct The Crow and Dark City.) Something So Strong comes across as a little too wholesome and white-bread, while World Where You Live is another favorite of mine, a lower-budget piece which doesn't address the video's lyrics directly and yet perfectly complements them (complete with a bizarre rotating set built by Noel Crombie of Split Enz).

The videos from Crowded House's second album, Temple of Low Men, smack of a somewhat higher budget. After Don't Dream It's Over hit #2 in the US in 1987, everyone expected the group's next album to be huge, but paradoxically it wasn't. Better Be Home Soon sounded more than just a little bit like a stylistic reprise of Don't Dream, and as such the video is similar too, right down to the tumbling chairs superimposed near the end of the song. Sister Madly (Live at the State Theatre) is a glimpse of the band's legendary live act, in one of the songs that made their early years so very distinctive - Paul Hester takes to the front of the stage playing one snare drum and one cymbal with nothing but brushes, and holds his own with all the other noise being generated at center stage. When You Come shows the group playing the song at various locales in Japan (not unlike the video for U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, only in a different part of the world). Into Temptation is a tame band-in-rehearsal video, whereas I Feel Possessed, which I hadn't seen before this DVD's release, is a faux performance video. Both Sister Madly and I Feel Possessed offer a rare glimpse of ex-Split Enz keyboard whiz Eddie Rayner, who backed up Crowded House on early tours.

With the inclusion of Tim Finn in the band, 1991's Woodface represented an infusion of new energy. It's Only Natural is a typical hijinks-on-location clip, but the real gems from this period are the kooky Chocolate Cake (with dancing cockroaches, a melting ice sculpture of the Empire State Building, and drummer Paul Hester in drag) and the moody, largely black & white video for Fall At Your Feet. Weather With You is almost a home movie from someone's vacation, while the artsy Four Seasons In One Day provides a surprisingly colorful, high-concept take on one of the album's darkest songs.

From 1993's Together Alone, Distant Sun is a clear sign of the post-Losing My Religion era in music video, with the clip shot on a finer grain of film in more sedate settings, abundant open-the-camera-iris-wide flash transitions, and glimpses of images (a spinning globe, a spinning top, a foil-wrapped apple, and what looks like a toy "molecule") that would seem to have some kind of significance to the proceedings. Nails In My Feet is the first video notable for the absence of drummer Paul Hester, who quit the band during the tour for Together Alone, and it too has a glossier, colorful-but-subdued look (if that isn't too much of an oxymoron). Locked Out is exhausting to watch since the band is running throughout the entire length of the song, and Private Universe - a moody, atmospheric song with strange and symbolic lyrics - gets a downright bizarre visual treatment, filmed on Kare Kare beach (where the album was recorded) and featuring some truly mind-bending visuals; it's almost a sequel to Four Seasons.

And finally, more videos I had never seen before this release, these accompanying two of the three newly-recorded songs included on Recurring Dream: The Very Best of Crowded House: Not The Girl You Think You Are gets a very interesting visual treatment which crosses film noir with a glossier, big-budget look. By comparison, Everything Is Good For You is a home movie, right down to the inclusion of Finn's "black & white boy" dog Lester.

Overall, the DVD quality is acceptable - it's not like the videos have gone through any kind of radical remastering process - but considering that before this, the only Crowded House video collection was a PAL VHS tape called I Like To Watch which ended at Four Seasons In One Day (and my own copy of that tape was getting quite well worn by the time this DVD saw the light of day), I'm happy to have this DVD. Add to that the fact that I Like To Watch interspersed 1992 concert footage with the videos (occasionally overlapping and running into them, which ruined the intro to Don't Dream It's Over), having a DVD with a simple song menu is a joy to behold. (Additionally, I Like To Watch was missing some earlier material, excluding Sister Madly and I Feel Possessed.) I will give the earlier VHS release points in one regard, though: it at least sported some original Nick Seymour artwork that echoed each of the three album covers that had been released at that time; Dreaming features a Together Alone publicity photo in which Finn, Seymour, Hester and Mark Hart appear to be sleeping on their feet. It may fit the title (or maybe it inspired it), but it doesn't really fit the character of Crowded House.

The president of the Split Enz/Crowded House/Finn fan club has been working hard on a definitive Split Enz video collection on DVD, and while I appreciate his efforts on that front (and I'll certainly ramble on at great length about that DVD when it's available), he's occasionally downplayed this release's stark simplicity in comparison, which isn't entirely fair. Yes, it's a budget release. Yes, it's almost feature-free (an interview, which reprises huge chunks of the videos that we've already seen on the rest of the disc, is the only extra). And yes, Capitol Records is just milking its rights to the Crowded House catalogue one more time. (And I'm sure that Neil Finn, whose publishing rights to the songs assure him of his cut of the money, thanks them.) But for those of us who'd just like the videos in a medium that won't wear out after repeated viewings, and those of us who missed most of these videos in the first place because they just didn't get rotation on US music video outlets, Dreaming is just the ticket. Book me for another viewing.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster / editor-in-chief