Counting Crows--C/D

I'll refrain from any jokes about Fatty Dread Man and his Gut of Goo.

Greatest hits => Classic

Not so much DUD as, say, STAB.

Sorry what??

I'd rather count sheep.

thank you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38205000/jpg/_38205816_crows_pa_150.jpg http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGPORTRAITS/music/portrait200/drp000/p014/p01479o6a7f.jpg

CLASSSSSSSSIC. I really don't get the hate. I just went through their discography today thinking I'd end up hating my 12-year-old self, but after listening to a number of tracks, I think my CC love was justified. OK, so Hard Candy/August and Everything After are mostly filled with bad Train/Dave Matthews-esque tracks, almost all of their songs on Recovering the Satellites and This Desert Life are brilliant...especially "Chelsea," "High Life," and "I'm Not Sleeping."

So, what's the problem? I see people complaining because they're 'mopey,' but what makes them any more mopey than Joy Division? Do you not believe that Duritz is really that sad? Or is his sadness just not as real? Or have you just heard the singles?

(p.s. - sample lyric for your response: "Some people will cut you 'til you're bleeding/but not me, 'cause I just want to do it to myself")

(and yes, I realize that I probably just nixed the little credibility I had)

Counting Crows can suck the dick off George W.

Considering as I love love love love "Hangin' Around," "Angels of the Silences," and "Long December" it's amazing I've never ever found myself compelled to investigate them beyond that. The dumpy dreads guy is a HUGE turnoff, you could put that guy in any band and I would be too embarassed for my indie cred to go near their records. Maybe when I'm 40 and lose my childish ways.

UGLY DORKS TRADING IN ROCK STAR STATUS FOR GRADE A TRIM Exhibit # 3,481,567
"Duritz has dated actresses Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, who appeared in the music video "Long December", Mary Louise Parker, Monica Potter (the Mrs Potter in "Mrs Potter's Lullaby" from This Desert Life) and Winona Ryder"

Not as good as the Cutting Crew.

The new one isn't half bad, if you're into the mopey, dreaded rock star thing. Certainly the best thing they've done since This Desert Life and almost makes me forgive that atrocious Shrek song and horrid Joni Mitchell cover.

I love "A Long December" so much. It's so sad and pretty. I remember once I was driving around on a gray, snowy day in Minneapolis and I was all bummed out and it came on the radio and it was perfect.

"A Long December" is all I know or need to know. I somehow missed it when it was new, then discovered it while shopping (!) a couple years back. I'm inside my brain looking at my feet in the soup aisle or whatever, and all of a sudden I realize how sad and beautiful the muzak raining down on me is this day, and it was "ALD."

I downloaded a few more tracks that were kind of dopey and sucky, so that was that, but man, I can still listen to "A Long December" five times in a row, no problem. It's one of my favorite songs ever, punches me in the gut and gives me the prettiest heartached every time, and I have no issue saying it either.

A separate discussion might be "was the sheer plaintive melancholic beauty of this song an accident?" and to that colloquy I would have nothing at all to contribute.

Still think they're classic. Something really special about that middle period. Was watching CRUEL INTENTIONS a few weeks ago, and "Colorblind" really hit me. Also, this one:

Counting Crows fans to thread plz

I used to like them and I have a fondness for certain songs, but I find the ballads unbearable, sorry.

ayo these dudes had some jams.

The first record came out when I was at the absolute zenith of my early-teen indie snobbery and yet if I happen to hear a single from that album over the speakers at a bar I get a small whiff of that nostalgic feeling I thought I would be above. Perhaps that makes them slightly superior to their contemporaries, or perhaps it is just the alcohol. A non-mean-spirited dud.

one of my bros is in a minimal-electronica band with the guitarist... sounds NOTHING like CCrows...

the acoustic half of across a wire is really really tight.

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1yts9uZ3m1qc3wjlo1_500.jpg

"Long December" playing in the hotel restaurant where I'm trying to eat breakfast. Truly, this is the worst music of all fucking time.

So this is a pretty glowing review. I've never been into this band, but that write up is very enticing.

Any thoughts?

new record is pretty nice!, he announced to no one

"cover up the sun" really sweetly harnesses the vibes of folksy grateful dead

it's possible this is the least insufferable crows record bc almost none of the lyrics are about how duritz is an abandoned dreadlocked baby no one likes

justifying my continued affection for this band to someone the other day i said "it's a dude who desperately wants to be van morrison fronting a band who desperately wants to be the band and i think these are noble pursuits. it's just unfortunate that frontdude wants to invest the pursuit with his broetry"

and i say that still loving a lot of his lyrics. anyway this is my fifth post in a row in the counting crows c/d thread

I secretly like this band way more than I should

oh good, someone else

been spending a lot of time with the most recent one and it's better than I even gave it credit for at the time (I am weirdly, unnecessarily bet-hedging in this thread idk why)

been preaching to the already-converted for a while that hard candy is their best record if you delete the big yellow taxi cover from every layer of existence

I've always had a soft spot for their tune "Perfect Blue Buildings" as when I was in school I remember being dirty and dead tired washing dishes about 3am in the back of a restaurant/bar alone hearing it on this sad radio that was zip tied up above the 3 sink.

i associate those first albums really strongly with dirty teenage restaurant work, too. that stuff is probably too intertwined with certain memories for me to even really hear what it sounds like.

What I hate about them, much like Rob Thomas, is that Duritz's voice MAKES them MOR. He's like the anti-Fagen, whose voice IMO contrasts/complements nicely with all that Steely Dan sheen.

Duritz, instead, grounds everything in this horrible 'tastefulness' that is completely repellent IMO

I got basically no critical perspective, but whataya mean by tastefulness

I too am wondering

holiday in spain song is hitting me today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJatv7CUhys

its a real damn shame the album didnt end with this song

#1 hit in Holland:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkErDMj1TW8

its a real damn shame the album didnt end with this song

― big city slam (Spottie), Thursday, July 11, 2019 12:27 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

afaic big ol taxi is a bonus track from hell

At least the original bonus track didn't have Vanessa Carlton on it, which always seemed like an odd addition.

afaic big ol taxi is a bonus track from hell

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, July 11, 2019 12:52 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

fair. song really set them back and killed what little reputation they had at that point.

#1 hit in Holland:

― ArchCarrier, Thursday, July 11, 2019 12:38 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

did not know!

At least the original bonus track didn't have Vanessa Carlton on it, which always seemed like an odd addition.

― MarkoP, Thursday, July 11, 2019 1:07 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oooo bop bop bop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eexQVcLZV3Q

attn spottie, new counting crows EP is really awesome imo

yeah! listened to it on Friday. really love that first song. Need to spend more time w it.