Track Listing

1. 1492
2. Hanging Tree
3. 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. Ballet d'Or
13. On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago
14. Come Around

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #939 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
With over 20 million albums sold worldwide, eight Top 5 singles, and three records that have broken the Top 5 on the Billboard 200, COUNTING CROWS are set to release their long awaited new album SATURDAY NIGHTS & SUNDAY MORNINGS. The record is the Crows' first studio album in almost 5 years, since the release of Hard Candy in 2002.

Counting Crows Photos

More from Counting Crows

August and Everything After [DELUXE EDITION]

New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Films About Ghosts: The Best Of...

Hard Candy

This Desert Life

Across A Wire: Live In New York City

Recovering the Satellites

August and Everything After

Amazon.com
Given the churning tides of fashion and fate, six years can often feel more like an eternity in pop music. Yet Counting Crows' first studio album since 2002 bristles with an urgent energy that makes their creative restlessness almost palpable. The Crows haven't so much reinvented their roots-conscious ethos here, as shrewdly divided it along the album title's thematic lines: "Saturday night is when you sin," explains singer Adam Durwitz "and Sunday is when you regret. Sinning is often done very loudly, angrily, bitterly, violently." Thus, the band indulges itself in a raucously loose-limbed opening half that freewheels from the snarling Gil Norton/Steve Lillywhite produced blast at betrayal "1492," through a Stones-y, left-handed country-rock ode to "Los Angeles," and the irony of "Sundays"' no less pop-savvy angst. That mood shifts dramatically with the opening acoustic guitar notes of the lovely "Washington Square," heralding a mood of reflective redemption that characterizes the album's closing chapter that showcases the band's potent folk sensibility via the earthy studio aura of Modest Mouse/Iron & Wine producer Brian Deck. If it's only half the long-rumored "unplugged" album so many Crows' fans have anticipated, Durwitz's ever soulful lyrical intrigues, the songs' far-ranging moods and adventurous sonic textures - which encompass the spare, haunting beauty of "Le Ballet d'Or," and even a little of Brian Wilson's harmonic glories on the close of "Anyone But You" - deliver so much more. --Jerry McCulley

From the Artist
"Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the story of what happens when all the bright lights start to burn instead of glitter and you become more of a part of the shadow they cast behind you than the person you are in front. Produced in two parts by Gil Norton & Brian Deck, it's about a flood of sin and liquor and dissolution and insanity and it's about trying to rebuild the life you wrecked in the wake of that flood. It's about the way it feels. It's about me.

It's a Counting Crows album. We're back. We were only ever as far gone as you can go."

- Adam Duritz, Counting Crows

Customer Reviews

Counting Crows Are Back, and What a Return!
Counting Crows were somewhat written off after 2002's Hard Candy. Adam Duritz and the rest of the band, in that CD, put out a self-consciously pop CD, without a lot of meat on it. Then you had the infamous Coke commercial, and Shrek 2, which earned them an Oscar nomination but no accolades for credibility.

Well, on Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, Counting Crows proves that they're not out of ideas, and haven't lost their drive. This is a fantastic CD that basically melds the folk sounds of August and Everything After with the harder edge and pathos of Recovering the Satellites.

If you're reading this review, you probably know by now the basic concept of the album: It's divided into a Saturday Nights portion and a Sunday Mornings portion. Saturday nights is when you sin, loudly and angrily. This "side" contains mostly electric guitar anger and bitterness, as the protagonist (i.e., Adam Duritz) slides deeper and deeper into depression and loss of self. The Sunday Mornings "side" contains songs of recovery, of trying to put your life back together. (The emphasis is on *trying*. Only in the final song, "Come Around", is there any kind of faint glimmer of hope on this CD.)

Here's how the songs pan out:

Saturday Nights:

1) 1492 -- This is a song about losing yourself in the party scene. It's about the meaninglessness of casual (if not anonymous) sex with Italian models and careening through the underbelly of night life like a drunken Arthur Rimbaud. And it's about all the "people who impersonate our friends" you meet along the way. You can download this as part of a "digital 45" from their site, so I won't bother describing it for you. 7/10.

2) Hanging Tree -- This is one of the best songs on the CD. It's basically about not being able to connect with anyone: "You open windows, and you wait for someone warm to come inside, and then you freeze to death alone." This is really a guitar-driven tour de force. 9/10

3) Los Angeles -- On this one, Counting Crows basically channel the Rolling Stones. Here, Adam gets a little self-indulgent, with lyrics like,

If you see that movie star and me
If you should see my picture in a magazine
Or if you fall asleep while you're watching TV
Well, honey, I'm just trying to make some sense
Out of me.

It sounds like a song designed to say, "Hey, I'm just trying to enjoy myself here. Cut me some slack." Like I said, a little self indulgent. 6/10

4) Sundays -- This one was a surprise. After 3 hard-driving songs, this one is more laid back. It's got nice music, but I don't really understand it, other than he's expressing a lack of faith. 6/10

5) Insignificant -- Here, it's all about a search for meaning. The protagonist (this time not explicitly Adam) stands on the ledge of a building, looking out over the crowd, believing he can fly -- *needing* to believe he can fly, to find some significance in his life. It's really a different way of expressing "Mr. Jones": He wants to be seen, to be noticed, and to mean something in the world. He also wants to be special, without feeling "different" because he's in some celebrity bubble. Great music, decent concept. 8/10

6) Cowboys -- Here, the protagonist is so desperate to be feel something, to mean something in the world, that he becomes a serial killer. The climax of the song is, "Oh, I will MAKE you look at me!". If it wasn't over 5 minutes long, this would be the perfect single. It's hard driving, wonderful, twisted lyrics (the protagonist is a paranoid schizophrenic), and every part of the music builds to the devastating, crumbling climax. 9/10

Sunday Mornings

7) Washington Square -- This is a song about picking yourself up and getting yourself together to go out and live your life again. Quiet, introspective music, and Adam is at his pensive best here. 9/10.

8) On Almost Any Sunday Morning -- Here, the protagonist has taken the wrong woman home, just because he doesn't want to be alone. But he wakes up, and he's alone anyway. He also talks about taking lithium here (to control his depression, apparently). By the end of the song, he vows to find someone real to be with, and not to settle for the one-night stands:

"You dig yourself a dream
That we won't be coming home alone
Not this time..."

This is really a brilliant song. It's the one that reminds me most of the sound of August and Everything After (and even more specifically "Round Here"). 10/10

9) When I Dream of Michaelangelo -- If you've ever wondered what the line "I dream of Michaelangelo when I'm lying in my bed", from "Angels of the Silences" means, this is the song for you. This song has been puttering around in Adam Duritz's head since at least Recovering the Satellites. It's a beautiful ballad about being so close to someone, yet never being able to touch who they really are. "Well I know, she is not my friend, 'cause there she goes, walking on my skin again and again". 8/10

10) Anyone But You -- The best way to describe this song is, the protagonist is in a relationship, and he can't handle it. His eye is on the door. He's not together enough for a relationship.

"I'm almost ready.
Yeah, it's almost true.
For almost anyone but you."

It's got a real 70's feel to it. Not my favorite song, but not unpleasant. 6/10.

11) You Can't Count On Me -- Adam has said he's got 4 albums describing why women should stay as far away from him as possible. This song basically sums it up. He's not Mr. Reliable. Again, not my favorite, but serviceable. 7/10

12) Le Ballet D'Or -- Think of this one as philosophically akin to Eagles' "Wasted Time". The protagonist is tired of being mired in self-loathing and self-pity, and wants to get out and live: "So come on now, let's go dance to the siren's song...". It marks a turning point in the CD, because it's the point where the protagonist realizes, finally, that although he's screwed up his life with the wrong turns he took, that he still has a life to live. A very beautiful, lilting song. 9/10.

13) On A Tuesday In Amsterdam Long Ago -- The protagonist remembers an old love, and laments her. It's the closest they've come to "Raining in Baltimore" for quite some time. I'm not a fan of "Raining in Baltimore", though. The song is too long and repetitious. (For fun, count how many times he says, "Come back to me..."). 2/10

14) Come Around -- This is, by far, the most hopeful song on the CD, and my favorite. By this time, the protagonist's fog has cleared. Things aren't great, but he sees the hope in life. His girlfriend just dumped him, but that's okay. The song ends:

"And one of the million lies she said
Is 'All of the things you loved are dead.',
But I've seen what she thinks is love
And it leaves me laughing
So we'll (meaning the band, I guess) still come around."


Overall, this is their best work since Recovering the Satellites, by a wide margin. If you lost faith after Hard Candy, give this a try. it won't disappoint you!

Good things come to those who wait...
We've waited 15 years for this! Finally, an album that has more of an "August and Everything After" feel! That is that Counting Crows freshman release that we all fell in love with. For Gen Xer's like myself, AAEA was a soundtrack to our awkward transitional years and will always hold a special place in our music loving hearts!

This album will replace "Recovering the Satellites" for those of you who ranked it as second best in your CC collection!

Good stuff
I've had a soft spot for Counting Crows, despite being a music snob (according to my wife, anyway). There's just something perfectly enjoyable about the music and lyrics. I've always felt Duritz was a great lyricist, even though he seems to come across as self-obsessed (his songs never seem to embody characters and so many of them are are about "looking at me" that it's hard to see any identities in the songs); his biggest weakness as a writer/singer is his proclivity to repeat certain phrases too many times. "American Girls" suffers from this a lot; on this album "Hanging Tree" has some annoying repetition. But his use of place and strange strings of imagery are always satisfying.

I've always held their first two albums as my favorites (both have different strengths). Saturday Nights... is quite strong, though it's not necessarily anything new or exciting. I think 1492, Insignificant, and Cowboys would make it onto any Crows mix I make from now on. "When I Dream of Michaelangelo" is a great call back to "Angels of the Silences" on album 2. "Sundays" moves from chipper to a more emotional chorus. And the band doesn't lose a chance to rock out when necessary.