This dizzy life is just a hanging tree.

Well, I was out of town all weekend, kayaking with some friends and generally just hanging out someplace that wasn't here. It is always refreshing and inspiring. After a full Saturday, I spent the night at my friend's apartment and woke up to a big breakfast and good conversation, then hit the road to come back home. Often, you need to just get away from the general normalcy of your day-to-day to experience some other place, some other city, some other friends. It gives you a better perspective for when you come back and feel like you're falling back into the drudgery and monotony of life.

For me, that was waking up early this morning after a rough night of sleep to go all the way across campus to my biometrics lab. I wish I could still be floating along the slow current, rowing when it feels necessary, relaxing when it doesn't, and simply listening to the wind brush the trees against each other and the birds sing their songs in response. So it is fitting to come back from a good escape of a weekend with an album called "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings."

In March of this year, Counting Crows recorded and released their first new album since 2002, following a greatest hits collection in 2003 (which is a wonderful sampling of their hits up to this point for anyone just starting to listen to Adam Duritz and the gang) and a live album tossed in there too.


The new album "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" seems to be hitting the spot for me as of late. In a sense, it is two shorter records, aptly titled "Saturday Nights" and... drum roll please... "Sunday Mornings"! Each was recorded with a different producer and subsequently has a different feel, "Nights" covering the rock and pop palette, with songs for any longtime lover of the band, and "Mornings" allowing them to delve into a country folk side that is as stylish as it is enjoyable to listen to. I'm not much for country music (and "Mornings" is certainly not country as the radio defines it today!) but it does make the folk genre seem all the more accessible.

Without going into the details about each individual track, it is hard to discuss this album as a whole except to say that it is catchy where it needs to be ("Hanging Tree"), boisterously fun at points, clean polished and yet with that Counting Crows grit that I love. There is plenty of driving keys, classic rock guitar riffs, satisfying harmonica ("On Almost Any Sunday Morning"), all overlaid with beautiful introspective lyrics that draw you in with curiosity, wit, and occasionally some clever sarcasm (check the end of "Los Angeles"). It even takes several jabs at the current socio-questionable state of America as we try to define our age and generation ("Cowboys"). And what Counting Crows albums is complete without the stripped-down ballad with Duritz's quivering vocals crooning over an epic piano piece? (None.) "On A Tuesday In Amsterdam Long Ago" does just that.

The album swells with poetry and emotion, like a wave crashing far out but then carrying you safely back to shore.
Download "Insignificant"