Crows and Crowes

I figured that it was high time I reviewed the new albums by my favourite avian-influenced bands, not to mention two bands that critics love to hate. So here goes:

Counting Crows—Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings: I have been promising to review this album since I bought it and have hinted in previous posts that I love it and think it's brilliant. My opinion has not changed throughout subsequent listens. The first six songs ("Saturday Nights") are hard-charging rockers that talk of the loneliness of Saturday nights, the party scene, and the need for connection at all costs. They are dark and disturbing, with protagonists hell-bent on self-destruction. The remainder of the album ("Sunday Mornings") speaks of regret and is reflective in tone, not to mention mostly acoustic and very rootsy. Accordions, mandolins, piano, and other acoustic instrumentation underscore the majority of these nine songs. As always with a Counting Crows album, the interplay between musicians is stunning, especially between guitarists Vickery, Bryson, and Immergluck. These guys always play the perfect part for each song and their solos are lyrical and concise--this is the kind of playing that inspires me far more than the Van Halen school of musical self-gratification. Dreadlocked Adam Duritz is in fine lyrical form, as usual, with his normal angst on full display. There are no weak tracks on the album, in my opinion, but my favourite has to be “Hanging Tree”, with its sweet chorus hook and the finale, where the drums cut out and then crash back in unexpectedly. I believe this to be the finest album of the Crows’ career and more than a match for August and Everything After, their biggest commercial success.

The Black Crowes—Warpaint: This album was infamous before it was even released when Maxim magazine reviewed the entire album based on the release of one single (“Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution”) and panned the album, giving it 2.5 out of 5 stars (if you get your music reviews from Maxim, you’re more of a numbnuts than the reviewer was!). I will preface this by saying that I love the Crowes, even their less successful albums, and as a live act, they are absolutely phenomenal. That being said, this album didn’t grab me immediately. However, upon repeated listens, it is starting to bear fruit. Many Crowes trademarks are still here and they haven’t completely revolutionized their sound or anything approaching that. However, the songs are stronger than any since Amorica (one of their two classic albums) and despite no longer having Marc Ford (one of my all-time favourite guitarists), Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars contributes burning slide work that gels beautifully with Rich Robinson’s always-excellent riffing. New keyboardist Adam McDougall cannot not match departed member Ed Harsch’s inventiveness, but does an admirable job of attempting to fill his shoes on his first try. The ballads on the album are great, especially the aching “Oh Josephine” and the mandolin-driven “Locust Street”. The southern sludge of “Walk Believer Walk” and “Evergreen” show of the big bloozy guitars and trademark wail of Chris Robinson. Is the album as good as The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion or Amorica? No. However, as many other reviews have said, it is the sound of a legendary rock and roll band aging gracefully and refusing to sit on their laurels and trot out their greatest hits (like the Stones). These songs should be fun to hear live, along with their classics, and it should be a freakin’ great rock and roll show when they barnstorm the Royal Theatre in September!