Product Description

Following fast on the heels of the band's debut, CROWDED HOUSE, TEMPLE OF LOW MEN was one of the most critically acclaimed yet commercially neglected releases of the late '80s. Opening with the gorgeous "I Feel Possessed", this stunner of an album is an expression of the thrills and dangers of fameand success. From "Into Temptation", where Finn comes so close to adultery that you can almost feel it to "Better Be Home Soon", where his opportunity for redemption lies, the emotion is palpable in every line. Finn is always a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to creative ways of describing coital bliss, and this collection contains the debut of the firstof many paeans to the orgasm, the not-so-subtly titled "When You Come". Short and sweet, TEMPLE OF LOW MEN is a superb follow-up to CROWDED HOUSE.

Track Listing

1. I Feel Possessed
2. Kill Eye
3. Into Temptation
4. Mansion In The Slums
5. When You Come
6. Never Be The Same
7. Love This Life
8. Sister Madly
9. In The Lowlands
10. Better Be Home Soon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11657 in Music
• Released on: 1993-08-16
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The temple of low men is slang, of course, for a woman's lower sexual regions--and if it shocks you that safe old MOR Crowded House would call their album after such a thing, then you haven't been listening to safe old MOR Crowded House: all Neil Finn's songs are about guilt and obsession, the way mortality makes every great moment bittersweet, and sex. "When You Come" isn't about his wife returning from the shops--you don't have harmonies so hard and desperate where a simple "Hello" would suffice. And when Mrs. Finn first heard "Into Temptation," she was convinced Neil was having an affair. Of course, there's those classic cartwheeling West Coast Crowdies songs you expect: "Love This Life" is as blithe as a child on Easter morning and "Better Be Home Soon" is a lantern for the heart when the days get dark. But there's always electric storm-clouds in the distance. --Caitlan Moran

Customer Reviews

A FORGOTTEN MASTERPIECE
This was the album that brought me to Crowded House,and it's brilliance hasn't dimmed with time.The music is darker than people expect,but is much better for it.It contains alot of their best music,such as Into Temptation,Love This Life and the under-rated Mansion In The Slums.
Having seen them at Wembley recently,i don't think there's any reason why they won't reach these heights again.
I think Together Alone and Time On Earth are great albums,with tracks as good as what appear on Temple Of Low Men,but this is just perfect.
So if you have to pick a Crowded House CD this is where to start.

Temple of great songs but no hits
I remember hearing Better Be Home Soon, the first single, the first time many years ago. It was a very nice song but surely not a contender of being a major hit. There had to be other songs lined up being hit singles, this one being merely an introduction to their new album? The reality was, however, that Temple Of Low Men barely has a single radio friendly song. The song closest to it, Never Be The Same got some airplay on Rock oriented radio stations but was mysteriously never released as a single.

Unlike their first self titled album, which was full of catchy pop tunes and a glossy production, Temple Of Low Men consist mainly of darker tunes. This is not to say that they are not catchy, they simply do not provide necessary radio fodder to sell. Not being an established major act, the album thus became a major commercial flop. Artistically, however, Temple was a break through proving that Don't Dream It's Over was not simply some sort of luck. I Feel Possessed starts the album and signals a much richer production than before, with Neil Finn content of showing a dark side in a similar fashion of Sting's Every Breathe You Take. The rest of Temple is in a similar vein, thoughtful lyrics, catchy tunes and an imaginative production, very clean but yet mostly without the glossy 80s feel that ruined many recordings of that era.

Temple may not be the most joyful records around but it is a fantastic grower that is still worth listening to today. With hindsight, this was a hint of what lay around the corner with Woodface, which combined the best qualities of Crowded House's first two releases and later Together Alone, creating an alchemy of what they had previously done, taking that one step further by making a masterpiece.

Interesting follow-up
'Temple of low men' seems sometimes to be a reaction to the global success of their self-titled first album. Because of this, Neil Finn's material seems to go into a lot of dark (but beautiful), places. Take 'Into Temptation' for example, possibly one of the finest CH songs ever, is fairly self-explanatory but full of all kinds of interesting imagery ('the cradle is soft and warm', 'into the wide open arms of hell'). There's also interesting commentary on working yourself into the ground on 'Mansion in the slums' ('You laugh at yourself while he's breathing down your neck').
However all this doesn't mean Neil Finn somehow forgot to write the same kind of soaring anthems as 'Don't Dream it's Over'. Opener 'I feel possessed' is delicately funky and funny, while 'Love this Life' is an unabashed celebration of making the most of what you got, and is all the better for the interesting bits of melancholy that are shot through it. 'Never be the same' is also in a similar vein ('And we might still survive, and rise above the flame'), while 'Sister Madly' expels the obvious influence the beatles have had on Neil as a songwriter. Closer 'Better Be Home Soon' is one of CH's simplest songs, but also one of their best and a great closing track.
Overall this was an interesting follow up to Crowded House's first album, that rewards a bit of exploration that might not appear on first listens. Definitely a grower.