Counting Crows Miraculously Stop Time
THE Counting Crows debuted with a bang in 1993. Their first album, “August and Everything After” (read here the review) managed to sell over seven million copies. That album remained the greatest success of the Californian band led by Adam Duritzwhich is celebrating its birthday today. The group has released eight studio albums to date. The latest of these, “Butter Miracle, Suite One”released in 2021, consisting of only four songs. While waiting for a “Butter Miracle, Suite Two”here for your attention is the review and the four songs from that ‘mini-album’.
A small miracle, “Brigadoon” style: in the historic film of the 50s a Scottish village appears once every hundred years, and it’s a party. The Counting Crows take a little less, fortunately, even if their record productions have become much more sparse over the years. But when they come back it’s a feast for the ears. “Butter miracle” is their first release after 7 years, and it’s not even an album: a suite of 4 songs. But it’s a miracle how they manage to stop time every time.
It’s not clear what the butter has to do with it: Adam Duritz, when we interviewed him, didn’t want to explain, it’s a sort of mystery, he told us. And he also told us that the absence simply happened: no writer’s block. That’s how he works: he writes in one go, and stops, then starts again.
It goes without saying, but the wait was worth it, even if it’s only 4 songs: in 18 minutes, Counting Crows manage to recreate everything we love them for.
The initial “Tall grass” is an intimate and emotional story, in the line of the most intense and painful songs of the band, with that repeated refrain “And I don’t know why” that breaks you in two. “Elevator Boots” is a mid-tempo dedicated to the love for rock ‘n’ roll and for being in a band, in which Duritz switches from the first to the third person, from talking about himself to telling Bobby’s story. “Angel of 14th street” is a song that moves faster, between California (where Duritz and CC were born and raised) and New York (where Duritz has lived for almost 20 years). In “Bobby and the Rat Kings” there is the most evident homage to glam rock and Bobby’s band returns as the backdrop to a story in San Francisco in the 80s.
A few minutes? No, because they fly by and the repeat starts: to be listened to strictly in a form that does not separate the songs from each other (on the platforms it is also available as an 18-minute “single”, look for that version. Or preferably on vinyl, where there is a surprise on the B-side: one of the most beautiful things ever written and recorded by the group: “August and everything after”, the title track of the debut album, recorded only in 2019 with a 70-piece orchestra and previously released only on Amazon. 10 minutes of pure pleasure.
Counting Crows remain one of the best American bands of the last 30 years and Duritz a truly unique pen/voice, emotional, deep and never banal. Welcome back.