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| The Sound Corner: Counting Crows, Dismemberment Plan |
by Michael O'Brien
Assistant Editor |
This Desert Life
Counting Crows
This is not just another album. This is not just another band. The Counting Crows are special to me–my guilty pleasure–and I’m not ashamed to admit that 1993's August and Everything After is one of the most important records of my life.
I was 17 years old when the album came out, and Adam Duritz’s mesmerizingly beautiful songs were my emotional crutch.
I had been looking forward to the release of This Desert Life for quite awhile–I took off work the day it came out. Yes, I’m a little sick.
The album kicks off with the first single, “Hangingaround.” It’s an up tempo, groove-based song–a startling departure from the band’s previous opening tracks. “Round Here” from August and Everything After was a mournful, epic tale of desperation, suicide and loss. “Catapult,” the lead track on Recovering The Satellites, was a sharp, hard-hitting dagger of rejection, infused with a carnival ride from hell sound. The difference in opening tracks parallels the differences between the albums. August and Everything After was a record for the lost–those who have failed and have severe resignations about trying again. Recovering The Satellites was an angrier album–things have collapsed–leaving contempt and regret, along with a twinge of hope, a glimmer that August And Everything After did not contain. This Desert Life is, most notably, a much less serious affair. Duritz is calmer. He’s commenting on his life, almost from afar. He purged his demons on the previous two albums. On This Desert Life he is in a contemplative mood. There is no anger on the album, no grief, no love. Consequently, it feels slightly hollow.
Repeated listens bring out the exceptional melodies on the album, and Adam’s voice is always a comfort and always a friend. However, the overall feel is that of a night out with friends, a fun night, but a night where nothing really happens. A night you don’t regret, but probably won’t remember.
Emergency & I
The Dismemberment Plan
I know I am not alone. I know that somewhere right now someone else is listening to Emergency and I--smiling, bobbing his head with a refreshingly new feeling about music. This is the record indie rock has spent most of 1999 waiting for. No one else sounds like The Dismemberment Plan, no other album this year sparkles and shines like Emergency and I. It is the freshest, most vital indie-rock record since Sleater-Kinney’s Dig Me Out. The first few listens leave an amazed, fulfilled glow--and then it becomes more important than that. “You Are Invited” will make you a better person--it is a kind song, The Dismemberment Plan’s first truly beautiful work of art. |
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