Still Counting on the Crows

After years of silence - 5 1/2 to be exact - Counting Crows is making some noise. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is dropping March 25.

The band's last effort, Hard Candy, debuted back in July 2002, back when I was still in grad school, and I remember walking across the sizzling hot Best Buy parking lot to get the album after work. It was uneven, fluffy and poppy in all the wrong places. A couple of gems emerged like "Holiday in Spain" and "Goodnight L.A." but others like "New Frontier" were utter disaster. The band had brought Immy (Dave Immergluck) on and Ben Mize, the band's second drummer was clearly on the way out - he departed the band shortly after the Candy tour. I saw the Crows on their swing to promote this album, and the show was just as uneven and disappointing as the album.

When Dreams About Ghosts came out, I snapped it up in hopes that the two new tracks amidst the greatest hits would be worth it. But they were lukewarm at best, and I hardly ever pick up that album.

The new album's cover is reminiscent of Live Across the Wire, which is such a great mash up of their work in acoustic and rock format. And the two songs being previewed are as different as the red disc/blue disc of LATW. "1492" is all guitars and drums layered and clanging against one another - and has a Recovering the Satellites feel. And "When I Dream of Michaelangelo" is obviously a sequel to "Angels of the Silences" (from which the title comes) but it hearkens to the acoustic version.

I liked both songs first listen, but I have to say the Crows have let me down a little with their last couple of offerings. But maybe I'm just feeling slightly miffed after recounting to The Rockstar that Adam Duritz wouldn't hug me when I met him at 17. The Rockstar found this unacceptable.

I'll still pick up Saturday...& Sunday... - for old time's sake. And in the hopes that the threads of "Rain King" and "Omaha" that were in the undertones of "Michaelangelo" will be elsewhere on the album...and I can pretend to be 14 again and feel like he's singing to just me.