Vestigial Remnants Of Great Ex-Band Prove Not So Useless In This B-Sides And Unreleased Other Bits Collection

Three years after Crowded House died, Appendix has been surgically removed from the archival cadaver - by frontman / songwriter Neil Finn, so no suspicious circumstances. Previously unknown yet essential companions to the sublime likes of Don't Dream It's Over and Into Temptation are not revealed, but those matchless yearning semitones do gleam from an eerily sparse demo of Private Universe (the best song on their last studio album, Together Alone), I Love You Dawn (from 1988's Temple Of Low Men sessions), and Anyone Can Tell. Other, less characteristic pleasures include Squeeze-style comical rollick Telly's Gone Bung, Finn's paean to his injured dog Lester which becomes a spoof on guilt-racked self-examination ("I will change if Lester lives"), and Dr Livingstone, a critique of the British Empire as shagmonster ("White spunk covers the jungle"). Appendix is proper Crowded House, but without that heartstring edge that made them great.