I’m identifying the best three albums by my fifty favorite rock bands of all time. This blog is for, #19- Crowded House, another awesome Australian band.

Criteria for selecting the best three albums

First, Greatest Hits albums are allowed. You will see one today. Second, no live albums are permitted. I will note that Crowded House has released several live albums including a particularly good one recorded in the Sydney Opera House. Third for the top 25 bands I’m including an honorable mention album.

Crowded House albums ranked by ChatGPT

Let’s take a look at what artificial intelligence has to say about this list. According to the latest version of ChatGPT (I upgraded recently), here are the top three albums by Crowded House. Basically, it’s their first three records although they are not ranked in chronological order.

1. Debut record (1986): This is their debut album, featuring the major hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” The album catapulted the band to international fame with its blend of pop-rock, catchy melodies, and thoughtful lyrics, demonstrating Neil Finn’s impressive songwriting and vocal abilities.
2. Woodface (1991): The band’s third studio album, Woodface, is often seen as one of their best works. Marked by the return of Tim Finn, it boasts hits like “Weather With You” and “It’s Only Natural.” Woodface blends rock, pop, and folk, earning widespread acclaim for its exceptional songwriting.
3. Temple of Low Men (1988): Crowded House’s second studio album features a darker, more introspective tone in songs like “Better Be Home Soon.” Although it didn’t initially achieve the commercial success of its debut, it was well-received by critics and has since become a standout.

Spotify popular releases for this band

I mentioned in the last video that ChatGPT has a bias problem in that it doesn’t deal well with recent releases by bands. Therefore I’m going to pull a different dataset from Spotify. In this case, the most popular albums for this band. Below are the top five starting their debut album their early stuff along with the live album I mentioned. I’m good with this list. The reason, Crowded House continues to release music. I will simply say their most recent albums are not nearly as strong as the early stuff.

The third-best album by this band is Woodface

The third-best album by Crowded House is called Woodface. It includes one of my favorite album covers. It is just plain ugly. Despite that, it is an excellent album and it includes my favorite song by this band “Weather with You” as well as “Four Seasons in One Day”.

The second-best album by Crowded House

The second-best album by Crowded House is a greatest hit collection called The Very Very Best of Crowded House. They have more than one Greatest Hits so it’s important to grab the correct one. It’s a double LP I recommend getting it on vinyl. It contains so much good music.

Honorable mention album for this band

Here is the honorable mention album for Crowded House, their second record Temple of Low Men. The only reason it did get more attention is because of their excellent debut record. Temple of Low Men includes the hit song “Better Be Home Soon” as well as several other excellent songs.

The best album by Crowded House

The best album by Crowded House is their debut record. When it was released it made the band hugely popular right away, especially with several accompanying videos on MTV. It is their best-selling album and includes the mega-hit song “Don’t Dream It’s Over” as well several other really good songs.

There you have it – the three best Crowded House albums. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I am Doug Keating and this is my letter to my sons.