The Quad

Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Entertainment

Counting Crows, a popular band, formed in California's Bay area in 1991, originally contained the duo of vocalist Adam Duritz and guitar player Dave Bryson. The pair performed several acoustic performances in coffeehouses around San Francisco while also writing songs together. By 1993, Counting Crows had included bassist Matt Malley, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham and drummer Steve Bowman. After distributing their demo, "The Flying Demo," around to local labels, the band was soon signed by Geffen Records.

On March 25, 2008, Geffen Records released "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings," the fifth studio album by Counting Crows.

This album is filled with complete emotion and feeling. This album begins on a very slow beat tempo and then is immediately increased to a fast paced tempo filled with emotion in each and every note that is played on the guitar.

The loud rock guitar fills the fans with the sound of rock that they know and love. On the other hand, the album ends with soft acoustic guitars and pianos to create a more soothing and enjoyable sound.

As it has never been done before, this particular album by Counting Crows receives its name from each half of the album being produced by two different producers.

The first six tracks (Saturday Nights) were produced by Gil Norton, who also worked on the Crows' most hard rocking album, "Recovering the Satellites." The first half is reminiscent of that album.

The second half of the album was produced by Brian Deck.

Considering all the songs of the album, I found "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago" to be extremely soothing to the ears. The particular track, although very heartfelt and somewhat depressing, the melodies play on a note that it very easy to relate to and are extremely calming. Another song that I would recommend is "Hanging Tree" that is the second track on the album. This song is enjoyable because the track starts off slowly for a few seconds and then turns into a loud rock tune that almost sounds more pop than it does rock.

Also, the lyrics to "Hanging Tree" seem to be something that many individuals can relate to because everyone has moments in their life where it is just not going in the direction that they would have wanted to go.

Excluding the first two tracks, the rest of the album was only alright. Nothing else really stood out on its own, however, I do think the concept of creating an album with two different producers is intriguing and very original.

Continued...

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