Flowers

In aim to really understanding where Icehouse begins..its back to this album and back to when they were originally under known as the Flowers band. Iva Davies really sings brilliant in many songs and his early band mates preformed them very good in many them. These are my choice top favorite songs of the album: Icehouse, We Can Get Together, Walls, Can't Help Myself. For my additional good tracks are i consider "B" teir are: Skin, Sons, Boulevarde, Nothing to Do, Send Somebody, All The Way, Love in Motion. Also, This Special deluxe edition album has a bonus CD which has a full Live concert with most of the album songs preformed on the album plus a good cover John Lennon's Cold Turkey,...and one additional bonus of this deluxe edition is a DVD contain a video featuring Iva Davies interviewed talked early on about how's the band and what's expecting to Icehouse next which would end being the next album called "Primitive Man" ( The First Official Album of music as Icehouse) before leads to some concert footage, select performances from their native Australian Pop Music TV show called Countdown, and a little informative video (via Countdown) to let people know that Flowers band is going underwent a band name change and henceforth known in Australia and worldwide that Iva Davies's band is going be: Icehouse (named for the title song of the debut album as it sounds better and cooler than Flowers IMHO). Overall, in conclusion , do buy Icehouse's debut album its really a 5-star album overall and I offer these suggestions of Icehouse albums in the overall main goal listen to more outstanding music from one of Aussie's most incredibly brilliant singer/songwriters but one of the most brilliantly great Aussie bands ever that everyone need to discover......Primitive Man, Sidewalk, Measure to Measure, Man of Colours, and Code Blue.

The price might be a little bit over the top, but being able to get the live renditions and video recordings of something that I'd never thought I'd find, makes it acceptable.I heard the song "Icehouse" whenever it came out in '81, and was a big fan of that sound from that moment on. Had the cassette and pretty much wore it out before buying the LP version of Icehouse "Icehouse" and rerecording it for my car cassette stereo. Played that all through the '80s and into the early '90s before finding myself without a auto with a cassette stereo. Never forgot about it, as I still played the LP on the home stereo. Even had the LP converted into the MP3 format and burned onto a blank CD. Not sure, but the balance and sound wasn't quiet right.All I wanted was a copy of Icehouse "Icehouse", but during the earlier 2000's was unable to find it...many Icehouse releases, but never "Icehouse". Actually purchased a couple of Icehouse's later releases, but never heard that sound that I loved on the "Icehouse" release.Now I've found the "Icehouse" release as well as this Flowers (original group name before changing it to Icehouse) double disc with a third DVD disc. Seems they took on the job of re-releasing their original and only release 30 years after the group's official name change in '81. As I understand it, the first eleven tracks are how their first release of "Icehouse" was originally sequenced on Regular Records in Australia. Their Chrysalis release of "Icehouse" in '81 was sequenced differently, and since that is how I grew up hearing it, that's how I prefer it. The Chrysalis release also omitted track 10 "Nothing To Do". "Nothing To Do" does have a definitely different feel, maybe that is why they cut it out, but it is a great find in my opinion. It has a Lou Reed touch or feel to it...maybe even a bit of David Bowie once it gets to the instrumental part of the song.The remaining six tracks are bonus tracks from various stages of the Flowers ('77-'81) career and stages of growth. I really enjoyed the music, the new music (to me) and the apparent effort put into this project.Disc 2: Live Flowers. Much better sounding than I probably had Xpected. I think the songs that I already knew from "Icehouse" all sounded reasonably close to their studio versions. There are four tracks here that are not found on Disc 1. The first, Track 2 "Funtime" is down right Punkish in it's feel. There's a bit of the teenage anger felt in this one. I liked it, it wasn't as polished as the studio tracks from the original "Icehouse", but it adds some dimension to their small catalog at this point in their careers. Track 3 "Man Who Dies Every Day" is back to less Punk, but guitar driven New Wave sound. When I think of New Wave, I always think of keyboards and synthesizers, but maybe this was some of that Xperimental growth period the group evolved through. Later in the song, the Keyboards seem to be more prominent. Works for me. Track 5 "Sorry" is a fast paced piece of work. Hearing it took me back to the late 70's early 80's and some of the sounds I was hearing at the tyme. I'm a far cry from Xpert on the New Wave & Punk sounds or attitudes, but "Sorry" seems to have a bit of that. Track 6 "Cold Turkey" is the fourth song that doesn't have a studio version from Disc 1. Again, seems Iva Davies might have been trying to go a bit more in the Punk direction than where they eventually went with "Icehouse" in a more palatable New Wave mode. I liked all four of these new (to me) songs. Wish they had a studio version of each to compare them to.I've yet to view the DVD, so I have no comment other than I think it is cool that they included it.I really loved the "Icehouse" I grew up with, so my opinion here is probably a bit skewed, but I really liked both audio discs on this set. I think anyone who recalls hearing "Icehouse" or "We Can Get Together" back in '81-'82 and liking them would enjoy this release. For anyone unfamiliar with the first Icehouse or Flowers release, then I'm just not sure what to say. I don't think any of Iva Davies later incarnations of his Icehouse group sound like this release. The fact that the Chrysalis and this version were so late in being re-released, or maybe I just didn't look hard enough, but, maybe this isn't what the crowd who follow and buy Icehouse music like. I'm clueless on this as it is one of those 'Desert Island" CDs for me personally.Free Hugs!! &Keep A Rockin' In The Free World!!Changin' The World One Ear At A Tyme!!

Icehouse broke out in Australia with their debut album and continued to be popular all through the eighties making some very good stuff, but probably never outdoing their debut.This album contains the hits walls, we can get together, i cant help myself and icehouse (the name the band-flowers- took on after some international confusion) also the australian fm rotation album tracks fatman and sister.This album has a more indy/alternative sound/feel than their later more pop/mainstream releases.If you like icehouse/flowers then this is an essential album. If you like 80's pop/rock then you will almost certainly like this.

This is a great addition to the Icehouse collection. Since this was the start of it all there are a lot of great songs on this album. I really love the live CD included in this set. This is truly a live performance band. Nothing can touch the quality of their live performances.

The concert CD is by far the best of the set but I love it all. Huge Icehouse fan here.

This ia a must have album for all Flowers/Icehouse fans. Very well done and the remastering is excellent!!! Extremely happy to own it.

a must have

I've always liked the original "Flowers" album titled Icehouse. Soon after the release they changed their name to Icehouse, as another band in the US had the name Flowers - Not a bad name change too! The album has all the 'hits' and a proper mix like the original "We Can Get Together". The original CD releases had a sorely botched intro guitar/keyboard mix that never really sounded right to my ears. It includes the bonus tracks not included on the original vinyl (Send Somebody, All The Way and Paradise Lost), although were on CD releases, with extra bonus tracks Love In Motion, Goodnight Mr Mathews and Can't Help Myself 10" mix.The price tag is worth it alone for the two concerts which features the whole album and a few of their "standard" covers they'd do back in the day (like Cold Turkey and Sorry). The countdown footage is a nice edition, although not new for some. Best thing is, you've got a decent DVD quality of the footage instead of a crappy VHS version! It's good to see the Australian Archives restoring countdown clips as it's a treasure-trove of great clips from bands back in the day when starting out.

I thoroughly advise anyone to buy this Album - it`s a Classic ! .....my advice is this special 30th anniversary edition including 2cds and 1 dvd !! . I first bought this album on cassette way back in NZ Summer of `82 along w/ " Hitwave `82" ....a New Zealand version of " Now, that`s what I......." . This was my very first cassette that I ever bought !!. This collection however is the Brilliant compiling of the original album plus Live tracks and Live and TV footage from `81 shortly after the album burst on the scene. When it comes to music ....the Aussie`s know how to rock and make brilliant music . Iva Davies and Crew created something truly wonderful here. The only sad thing is that they should have put the 10" Extended version of " Can`t help myself " instead of the Edit 10" version on here as a bonus track ......this ...I have to buy on E-bay ( sorry Amazon ) . But Hey !!! .....get this edition anyway ! It`s the Hammer !

I should have believed the other reviews! This was a total and utter disappointment. The songs on it are good choices, but the quality of the sound is so tinny and bad I can't and don't want to listen to it. In this day and age there is no excuse for such poor, virtually non-existent sound quality. Complete waste of money. If you enjoy Icehouse do not buy this CD, it's a total disappointment. But if you do buy it, Amazon will get it to you very quickly.