Since 1993's chart-topper August and Everything After, Counting Crows' musical roots have been stuck deep in ock's past; they sounded out of time at the height of grunge and "alternative" rock. Not surprisingly, they still do. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a concept offering divided into halves by title with two producers: Gil Norton on Saturday Nights and Brian Deck on Sunday Mornings. Frontman and chief songwriter Adam Duritz channels his characters on their loneliest night of the week -- Saturday. Driven to distraction by loneliness, they seek connection -- through anonymous, empty sex and intoxication -- but they remain out of reach. Obsessive, urgent drives and self-destructive rage fuel every song on this half. Dirty, kinetic guitars and rim shots blast "1492" out of the gate, offering Duritz a skinny plank and he walks into the heart of oblivion. A victim of Christopher Columbus is roaming lost through the New York of Hubert Selby, Jr. He wails at nervous passersby from dingy, piss-stained doorways and street corners: "I'm a Russian Jew American/Impersonating African Jamaican/I wanna be an Indian/I'm gonna be a cowboy in the end." His companions are champagne-drinking skinny girls; they go down on him amid "railway cars and tranny whores," with the "morning spreading out across the feathered thighs of angels." Atop the glorious din he tells a truth: "Where do we disappear?/Into the silence that surrounds us/And then drowns us in the end?" Duritz is unhinged and exposed, soaring above a band that underlines every vomited bleak poetic utterance. The brooding atmospheric opening in "Hanging Tree" reflects Duritz's false bravado: "I am a child of Fire/I am a lion/I have desires...This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time...."
The second half is a reflective side-long update of Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down." "Washington Square" has hovering pianos, acoustic guitars, banjo, harmonica, upright bass, and brushed drums. It's a brief respite seeing drunkenly the opening of the coming day as a beautiful if desolate moment. But on the country roots ballad "On Almost Any Sunday Morning," it's been transformed into the gaping maw of a self-created hell: Jesus isn't in his soul's empty pit. The tenet of honesty that runs through these songs is informed by a sick, hungover dystopia, where dread becomes horror and feelings are bone-stripped to the marrow. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings' protagonists are lost in existential crisis; they blame vengeful gods, angels, enemies, and even friends, but they know the truth. They are dramatically textured and framed by basic, expertly crafted rock & roll. An example is "You Can't Count on Me." Its lithe piano lines and lushly woven balance of guitars let the protagonist confess he knows he's a creep without a hint of denial or parody -- Dan Vickrey and David Immerglück's guitars push Duritz to sing: "I watch all the same parades/As they pass by on the days you wish you'd stayed/But this pain gets me high/And I get off and you know why...So if you wanted to be free...You can't count on me." These deluded characters acutely feel the separation between individual and community, the Divine, and self-image. The musical framework for these confessions is a painterly, near-perfectly balanced roots-kissed American pop and rock. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the other side of August and Everything After. The rocking final track, "Come Around," is a portrayal of the manic, love-starved kids from the debut who haven't grown up -- the price extracted for wasted time and broken relationships is: pervasive loneliness. Redemption lies not on some obscure horizon -- now knocking at the door -- but in facing a cracked and dirty mirror. Ultimately, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings doesn't despair, but comes dangerously close. The kids may not understand, but they don't have to. Brilliant.
We’re getting a late start this week in The Program, so bendblock and I are just listening to one new album. It’s the new one from Counting Crows.Counting Crows: Saturday Nights And Sunday MorningsCheck back in a week or so, and we will have posted our thoughts on these two albums. If we haven’t, poke us with a sharp stick or something!Wondering what The Program is all about? It's never too
More >
Maybe there’s something to be said for recharging the old batteries. Counting Crows - the MTV-approved, invariably literate neo-folk-rock band (and favorite of sensitive collegiates everywhere) – have made one of the most vibrant, resonant, accessible, articulate albums in the group’s career, six years after their previous release.Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a bountiful assortment o
More >
Dear Trusted MOG Buddies and Other Interested Parties,I enjoyed the new album by folk-rockers Counting Crows – their first in years – so thoroughly that I was compelled to post a review of it (with a live clip attached) yesterday. (You can taste the opening track “1492” by clicking the button above. Could be their most rawkin’ number ever.) Unfortunately, the MOG e-mail alerts were down
More >
I was ashamed to see my mog downgraded to "toasty" the other day. I'd like to say that I've been boycotting the blinding eyesore that this website has become but alas, that is untrue. I've simply been busy with the day-to-day of life and work, as well as with my film projects.MOG isn't alone in its neglect either. I've been unable to write a song for several months, and the band hasn't play...
More >
Maybe there’s something to be said for recharging the old batteries. Counting Crows - the MTV-approved, invariably literate neo-folk-rock band (and favorite of sensitive collegiates everywhere) – have made one of the most vibrant, resonant, accessible, articulate albums in the group’s career, six years after their previous release.Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a bountiful assortment o
More >
Dear Trusted MOG Buddies and Other Interested Parties,I enjoyed the new album by folk-rockers Counting Crows – their first in years – so thoroughly that I was compelled to post a review of it (with a live clip attached) yesterday. (You can taste the opening track “1492” by clicking the button above. Could be their most rawkin’ number ever.) Unfortunately, the MOG e-mail alerts were down
More >
one of my most anticipated album so far this year. saturday nights & sunday mornings is set to release on march 25 (thanks adam, almost a happy birthday gift to me). adam duritz has this to say about the album:"[it's] about dissolution and disintegration. it's about when saturday night happens and you lose all sense of yourself. and it’s about when you wake up sunday morning and look back at th.
More >
I have been playing this album every day since I downloaded it a couple weeks ago, sometimes a few times each day. This song is my favorite of the many great songs on the album.
More >
We’re getting a late start this week in The Program, so bendblock and I are just listening to one new album. It’s the new one from Counting Crows.Counting Crows: Saturday Nights And Sunday MorningsCheck back in a week or so, and we will have posted our thoughts on these two albums. If we haven’t, poke us with a sharp stick or something!Wondering what The Program is all about? It's never too
More >
Just saw the Counting Crows perform at the Apple Store in SoHo. I gotta say that the main thing that always sticks out to me is the raw honesty that seems to permeate every Crows song. Adam Duritz said himself in an interview for The Aquarian Weekly that a lot of people told him to not release some of the songs on the new album. Songs like 1492 and You Can't Count on Me (both of which i've p...
More >
"This is a list of what I should have been, but I'm not" - Adam DuritzI am conflicted with this post. August and Everything After was amazing. Recovering the Satellites was good too. Maybe, I'm more nostalgic for the era and hoping that they will put out something that appeals to more than the Green Monster crowd. What I have heard sounds promising. Welcome back, Counting Crows. "Saturda...
More >
Woah, more info on the forthcoming Counting Crows record. For starters, the release date according to their website is March 25th!But they've also revealed the album cover and posted 2 free songs for download. "1492" is a rocker (maybe the biggest rocker from them yet), while "When I dream of Michelangelo" is a softer song with some classic Crows' phrases.
More >
I was ashamed to see my mog downgraded to "toasty" the other day. I'd like to say that I've been boycotting the blinding eyesore that this website has become but alas, that is untrue. I've simply been busy with the day-to-day of life and work, as well as with my film projects.MOG isn't alone in its neglect either. I've been unable to write a song for several months, and the band hasn't play...
More >
Check out this new Counting Crows track from their upcoming album.This is the most energetic and exciting the band has ever sounded. I feel like I did the first time I heard "Angels of the Silences" from Recovering the Satellites right before it was released. This sounds like the band I always wanted them to be.Source: http://www.myspace.com/saturdaynightssundaymornings
More >
In honor of the release of their first album in nearly 6 years (which comes out 10 days from tomorrow), I decided to sift through my counting crows collection and make the best 1 CD compilation I could.Please note that this is not a hits collection. Otherwise "Mr Jones" would certainly not be absent. These are merely my favorite tracks from each of the four studio albums. Here they are:1. Angel...
More >
It's not really a departure from their previous work. I have to say the song says more Sunday morning to me than Saturday night. Without having heard anything else from the release, I'm officially undecided about whether or not I like it. You can catch a sample on Stereogum.
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 1492 |
|
|
| 2 Hanging Tree |
|
|
| 3 Los Angeles |
|
|
| 4 Sundays |
|
|
| 5 Insignificant |
|
|
| 6 Cowboys |
|
|
| 7 Washington Square |
|
|
| 8 On Almost Any Sunday Morning |
|
|
| 9 When I Dream of Michelangelo |
|
|
| 10 Anyone But You |
|
|
| 11 You Can't Count on Me |
|
|
| 12 Le Ballet d'Or |
|
|
| 13 On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago |
|
|
| 14 Come Around |
|
|
Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings")
