Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
A Review of the Counting Crows' Fifth Studio Album
This CD has all the elements of an essential Counting Crows album. The melodies, the introspective lyrics and the added thematic concept of indulgence and regret.
The first thing that becomes evident when listening to Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is that the Counting Crows have once again become credible. Their last studio album, Hard Candy, was pure pop saturation. While it gave them mass commercial success with the song "Accidentally in Love" which also appeared on the Shrek 2 Soundtrack and received an Academy Award nomination, it lost some of the appeal that Crows' fans covet. Rest assured, the Crows have given us a great musical offering this time around with song depth and lyrical genius that is on par with Recovering the Satellites.
Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings gives listeners 14 new songs in a double album concept. While the concept is not something most modern music fans are used to, it works well for the Counting Crows, who are able to hold their own on every track with the finesse of their early catalog.
Saturday Nights: The First Six Songs
The first half of the CD reflects the theme of Saturday Nights. In a July 2007 interview with the Orange County Register, Adam Duritz, singer and lyricist explained the double theme of the new CD, "Saturday night is when you sin and Sunday is when you regret. Sinning is often done very loudly, angrily, bitterly, violently." The loudness coupled with the angry, bitter lyrics are evident in songs such as "1492", "Hanging Tree" and "Cowboys". This side's songs are upbeat with almost surprisingly electric guitar riffs abound. So much so, that one wishes this side lasted a little bit longer, even at the expense of the second half of the album.
Sunday Mornings: The Last Eight Songs
The second half of the CD encompasses the Sunday Mornings theme. This is the folk-acoustic side of the album containing the down tempo songs. This is the side with the heartfelt lyrics and slightly more Adam-centric narcissism (which is not a necessarily bad thing, just one of the "givens" of a Counting Crows album). It takes slightly more time to come around to this portion of the album, however it does get better with every listen. Standouts on this half include "Anyone But You", "Come Around" and the first single from the album, "You Can't Count on Me".
This CD is a stellar work that, while it is slightly uneven, is everything Crows fans have been waiting six long years for. If you love the Crows' older music (August and Everything After and Recovering the Satellites) Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings will once again draw listeners in with the melodic, introspection that was missing from the last two studio albums. This one will make listeners a believer in Adam Duritz's ability to single-handedly reshape the lyrical content of rock music today.
