ADRIAN THRILLS reviews: Counting Crows: Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! Stone me! The Crows are back with a classic
Verdict: Heartfelt storytelling
The overwhelming success of their debut album, August And Everything After, proved to be a mixed blessing for Counting Crows.
That richly textured 1993 release, produced by T-Bone Burnett, sold well over seven million and propelled the hard-working band from the San Francisco Bay Area to rock superstardom in the blink of an eye.
But the downside of fame arrived just as quickly for frontman Adam Duritz, who struggled to cope with his overnight popularity.
'We were on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and selling loads of records, but I was still this shy kid from California who couldn't deal with people very well,' he said a few years later.
August And Everything After has also overshadowed most of the music the band have made since the 1990s – something they have tacitly admitted with occasional revamps of their glittering debut: a deluxe edition in 2007; a track-by-track live version in 2011; an orchestral rendition of the LP's previously unreleased title track in 2019.
Now they have finally come up with a late- career classic to match the melodic storytelling with which they first made their mark.
Looking to Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Band and Mott The Hoople for inspiration, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! suggests there's still a place for traditional rock music, provided it's played with passion and zest.
From Taylor Swift to Lana Del Rey, most of today's best lyricists are young women. With his meticulously crafted narratives, 60-year-old Duritz is striking a blow for the older guard. His writing these days has not just heft, but a sense of joy. 'I'm talking about being happy and being in love,' he says.
The romantic yearning is apparent from the off. With Love, From A-Z finds Duritz missing friends and family while on a road trip across America.
On Spaceman In Tulsa, he offers a bittersweet take on the lure of bright lights and greasepaint. 'If you could see behind my eyes, I'm just an empty smile,' he laments, over a rollicking backdrop.
The album's last four songs form a continuous piece of music. Keyboardist Charlie Gillingham adds Mellotron and strings to Angel Of 14th Street, while Elevator Boots and Bobby And The Rat-Kings celebrate the unifying power of song. 'We'll make them play 'til the stars all fade,' Duritz vows. It's a spirited addition to their legacy.
Counting Crows start a UK tour on October 23 at City Hall, Newcastle (livenation.co.uk).
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke: Tall Tales (Warp)
Rating:
The Radiohead and Smile frontman hooks up with West Country DJ and composer Pritchard on an electronic album that frames his voice in a refreshing new light.
Yorke sings and speaks in a husky croon on The White Cliffs, while Pritchard — an avid collector of vintage synths — supplies retro flourishes similar to those used by Pink Floyd and The Beatles in the 1960s on Bugging Out Again.
Yorke's lyrics are typically bleak, but the nods to Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode are a welcome sidestep.
The Kooks: Never/Know (Virgin)
Rating:
A faithful cover of Paul McCartney's slinky Arrow Through Me (from the Wings album Back To The Egg) gives a good indication of where Kooks singer Luke Pritchard's melodic instincts lie.
The track is the centrepiece of a bright, breezy indie-pop album that started as a solo project before Pritchard invited his bandmates to join him.
There are throwbacks to debut album Inside In/Inside Out, with Sunny Baby a paean to parenthood and Never Know an upbeat celebration of living for the moment.
Best of the new releases...
Arcade Fire Pink Elephant (Columbia)
Rating:
Heroes of alternative rock when they broke through 20 years ago, Arcade Fire's flame dimmed with 2022's bombastic We – and their old buoyancy is in short supply on the introspective Pink
Elephant, an album released in the wake of accusations (strenuously denied) of sexual misconduct against the Montreal band's frontman Win Butler.
There are no references to the matter here. Instead, we get songs, like Year Of The Snake, about the need to move on.
Amid the melancholy, hints of their old flair resurface.
Harmonies from Butler's wife (and bandmate) Régine Chassagne – who has supported her husband throughout – add a dreamy edge to synth-pop number Circle Of Trust.
Butler adopts a tender falsetto on Ride Or Die, which sounds a lot like a love letter to Chassagne. 'I could work a nine to five, and you could be a waitress,' he sings, adding a little light to an understandably tentative return.
Pinkpantheress: Fancy That (Warner)
Bath-born Victoria Walker – aka PinkPantheress – won the BBC's Sound Of 2022 Poll, but has since struggled to consolidate her position in a crowded market for female singers.
Her latest 'mixtape' is a feel-good trolley-dash between dance genres.
With her high-pitched vocals to the fore, four of the nine tracks feature samples from electronic duo Basement Jaxx, while there are also references to Underworld, Sugababes and Just Jack's catchy 2007 debut single Starz In Their Eyes.
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