Counting Crows: 'Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings'
Andrew Senter
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Cadenza
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Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Rating: 4.5/5
Tracks to download: "Hanging Tree," "Los Angeles," "Indifferent," "Washington Square," "You Can't Count on Me"
"Honey, I'm just trying to make some sense of me," Adam Duritz sings on "Los Angeles." The Counting Crows explore that theme in their powerful and emotive new album "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings."
Six years after their last studio album, the Counting Crows have returned in force. Adam Duritz sings with conviction and his new set of songs are, for the most part, spectacular. His lyrics are raw and emotive, and the band provides a fantastic musical accompaniment. Even though the album at times does not feel completely cohesive, the strength of the new songs makes for a great new addition to the Counting Crows discography.
"Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" is actually two concept albums with two different producers. The first is "Saturday Nights," which is produced by Gil Norton. The second half of the album is entitled "Sunday Mornings," and as any college student may know, these can be filled with reflection and self-searching (and sometimes a massive headache).
One of Duritz's most striking moves on this album is taking the theme of "Saturday Night" and completely revamping it. Yes, he does sing about getting drunk and wandering the city streets.
But, instead of falling into a formulaic pattern, he explores the self-inspection and sometimes loneliness that propel our Saturday nights. As he sings in the song "Hanging Tree", "I am a child of Fire/ I am a lion/ I have desires/ And I was born inside the sun this morning/ This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time." It is not just the lyrics that are powerful on "Saturday Nights," it is also the music.
Duritz has composed a set of songs that allow his voice to soar. In "Indifferent," Duritz 's voice is able to pleadingly wail over the rest of the band, "I don't want to feel so different/ I don't want to be insignificant/I don't know how to see the same things different now."
The overall strength and energy of the "Saturday Night" concept album turn into a melancholy and reflective affair in "Sunday Mornings." This is Duritz and the Counting Crows at their most revealed. Tracks such as "Washington Square" express a sense of searching and longing that is both undeniably painful and human. Honesty and a careful inspection of life also seem to be major themes on "Sunday Mornings."
Tracks such as "Anyone But You" and the catchy "You Can't Count on Me" are so truthful and raw that it is impossible not to see how they are in many ways capturing the singer's true feelings. These tracks make many of the bands that feign emotion on "heartfelt" tracks seem cheap and insincere.
The album's biggest flaw is in combining two concept albums into a single disc, making it feel a bit disjointed. The careful and melancholy introspection of "Sunday Mornings" clashes with the more upbeat, though still reflective, songs of "Saturday Nights." This is probably what makes this a 4 ½ star album.
But it does not detract from the fact that this is another stellar album produced by the Counting Crows and their charismatic frontman Adam Duritz.
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