The unreleased residue of popular recording careers is typically the stuff of box-set "extra" discs and sometimes suspicious reissue "bonus tracks." Even the Beatles' vaunted Anthology series argued that serving up leftovers as a main course is a risky proposition at best. Afterglow, a collection of 13 surplus tracks from New Zealand popmeisters Crowded House, fares better than most such efforts, if only because of the old-fashioned dedication to songcraft that Neil Finn and company displayed throughout their career. Stretching from the band's pre-signing days ("Recurring Dream" and "Left Hand"), through no fewer than seven outtakes from the band's 1991 standout, Woodface (including some outstanding harmony work between Neil Finn and elder brother and fellow Split Enz mainstay Tim) to sparely produced tracks for an unfinished fifth album, Afterglow possesses a surprising cohesiveness as an album. While there's no stellar pop hits like "Don't Dream It's Over" lurking in this scrapyard, there's enough solid B+ material to perk the interest of Crowded House devotees. --Jerry McCulley