Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

The Counting Crows released their newest album entitled "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" this past Tuesday. I picked it up yesterday and have been spending some time with it over the past 24hrs +...

I must admit from the very beginning I am not a huge Counting Crows fan. I really like their album "Films About Ghosts" but am so-so at best about their others. I did have the opportunity to see them live last summer "headlining" a show with Collective Soul and +Live+ (who by the way, completely rocked that show out) and must admit that their showing was quite poor and boring to say the least. So, this is the baggage that I am carrying as I give their latest debut a spin.

If you are a big Counting Crows fan I have no doubt that you will love this album. With a total of 14 tracks you certainly get your money's worth of music. I feel like the album starts out strong and even somewhat rockin' as far as Counting Crows go but around track 7 it dips into a mellow rut that lasts for the next few tracks. I guess I was looking for this newest album to be mostly upbeat leaving me with the image of Adam Duritz's dreadlocks flailing all over the place but not so much. The more mellow songs showcase his distinct voice quite well but overall I think the album is somewhat lyrically weak. My favorite song on the album without question is track 2 entitled "Hanging Tree". When I first heard it I was hoping the rest of the album would be similar to this and began wondering if this would be the album to bring me around as a fan but I'm not quite "Round Here" yet.