“If you’ve never stared off into the distance then
\nyour life is a shame.” – Adam Duritz<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
One of the first things you learn about poets is that precious
\nfew ever make a living at it. The ones well-off enough to afford to
\ntreat it as more than an after-hours discipline rarely have the
\nempathy or subtlety or obsessive drive to create that’s required to
\nexcel at it. The ones who have those traits but lack financial
\nbacking and\/or a gift for self-promotion generally starve in
\nobscurity.<\/p>\n
So right there, without even touching the music, we can
\nestablish that Adam Duritz is something special.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“Beginning to believe in the disappearing nature of
\nthe people we have been.”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
One of the big questions heading into studio album number three
\nfor Counting Crows was: is this really a band, or is it just Adam
\nDuritz and Those Other Guys Playing the Instruments? He’s written
\nthe lyrics to every song they’ve released, and written or
\nco-written the music to every one as well — even the band’s name
\nis a quote from his lyrics.<\/p>\n
The answer to this question lies in looking at the musical
\nprogression evident in the band’s trio of albums to date. The first
\nalbum featured amazing lyrics, but sometimes suffered from
\nunderdeveloped arrangements and a sense of self-imposed pressure to
\nmake each song feel “important.”<\/p>\n
Their sophomore try, 1997’s
\nRecovering The Satellites<\/i>, had a fuller, richer sound thanks
\nmostly to the contributions of founding keyboard player Charlie
\nGillingham, added guitarist Dan Vickery and new drummer Ben Mize.
\nStill, the primary focus remained on Duritz’s words and instantly
\nrecognizable vocal style.<\/p>\n
With
\nThis Desert Life<\/i>, Counting Crows has now officially become a
\nband, in the sense of a fully collaborative musical unit. Yes,
\nDuritz supplies the voice, and his poetry is as potent as ever, but
\nthe band, individually and collectively, plays a significantly
\nlarger role here than on
\nAugust<\/i>. The complex arrangements of songs like “All My
\nFriends” and “High Life” are opened up by the band’s loose,
\nconfident approach to them. If Duritz alone carried echoes of a
\nyoung Dylan, with this third album, Counting Crows carries echoes
\nof Dylan in his heyday with The Band.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“I’m going down to Hollywood<\/p>\n
They’re going to make a movie from the things that
\nthey find crawling round my brain”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The songs continue Duritz’s review of existence as seen through
\nthe eyes of a series of dreamers and misfits, loners and slackers
\nliving on the fringes, sorting through the debris of their lives
\nlooking for some meaningful spark they can cling to. The
\nautobiographical references are clear in songs like “High Life” and
\n“Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby,” but more and more often Duritz appears to
\nbe cataloguing a state of mind rather than his own life. This tends
\nto make the narratives a little less searing but more universal
\nthan on the band’s first two discs.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“I am covered in skin<\/p>\n
No one gets to come in<\/p>\n
Pull me out from inside<\/p>\n
I am folded and unfolded and unfolding”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The music builds off of the band’s classic rock roots more
\nskillfully than ever, thanks particularly to Gillingham’s very
\neffective use of the Hammond B-3 and mellotron. For spice, they
\nthrow in sitar on “Amy Hits The Atmosphere” and well-arranged
\nstrings on three or four tracks.<\/p>\n
The key, though, it that the band has learned to work so much
\nbetter as an ensemble. The precise playing on the closing “St.
\nRobinson And His Cadillac Dream” is almost ear candy, every note is
\nso dead-on, yet it’s miles away from being “pop.” Mandolin, keys
\nand a keening electric guitar play off each other, the rhythm
\nsection holds a beat here and there to punctuate specific lines,
\nthe harmonies layer nicely in the right places\u2026 yet it all
\nfeels organic, as if it was recorded live on the first take.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“Carrie’s down in her basement all toes shoes and
\ntwinned<\/p>\n
With the girl in the mirror who spins when she
\nspins<\/p>\n
From where you think you’ll end up to the state that
\nyou’re in<\/p>\n
Your reflection approaches and then recedes
\nagain”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
It’s like champagne and caviar, or ketchup and fries\u2026 a
\nnatural, potent match\u2026 Duritz’s intense lyrical flights,
\ngrounded in skillfully down-to-earth music.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“There’s a hole in the ceiling through which I
\nfell<\/p>\n
There’s a girl in the basement coming out of her
\nshell<\/p>\n
And there are people who will say that they knew me
\nso well\u2026<\/p>\n
I may not go to heaven<\/p>\n
I hope you go to hell”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
The songs are rarely easy to listen to. The melodies on tunes
\nlike “Hanginaround,” “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby” and the
\nByrds-influenced “Four Days” are stronger than ever, but the lyrics
\nare often dense and dark, full of damaged people searching for
\npaths that will take them closer to some faraway light. Taken as a
\nwhole it’s a lot like Faulkner, really — not exactly “light
\nreading,” but you finish feeling like it’s been time well spent on
\na worthy piece of art.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
“If dreams are like movies, then memories are films
\nabout ghosts”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Finally, the hidden bonus track is a welcome break from this
\nheaviness, a bunch of in-studio goofiness wrapped around a tasty
\nfour-minute track (probably titled “Kid Thing”) that captures the
\nmusical flavor of early ’70s Stones at least as well as Mick and
\ncompany have in the last 25 years. It reminds you forcefully that,
\nthough its voice is the voice of a poet, this is a rock and roll
\nband – and, now more than ever, a damned good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":25178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5864],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36383","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-counting-crows","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36383"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36383"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}