Originally published by L.S. Media. April 9th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
Perhaps they were after the longest album title of the year, thankfully the new offering from Counting Crows, Underwater Sunshine (Or What I Did On Our Summer Vacation) doesn’t detract from the incredible sound that comes out of the speakers at you. It doesn’t so much as crash out at you at a speed that’s unfathomable, it more meanders, slowly, carefully, sits down at your table, eats a few meals with you and before you know it, you wonder how it managed to hang around and become essential listening.
When the band formed in 1991, there were few signs that the band would still be delivering incredible and emotionally charged music. Yes they had some real success with their releases and some tracks were just wonderful but the albums have been too spread out and for a band that has been going so long to only have six studio albums at their disposal, especially with the incredible voice that vocalist Adam Duritz brings to the group dynamic.
The only slight issue that the recording may present to the fans of the band, is that there really is nothing fresh that comes along with the album, which essentially a covers tribute with the rockers changing their style to bring more of a country feel to songs by artists as eclectic as Bob Dylan, Teenage Fanclub, Fairport Convention and Travis. It isn’t so much as potential gone astray, creative energy being wasted in the pursuit of an easy album to put out or even laziness on behalf of the band; however it’s not a million miles away from that!
Despite that, it is an album that still demands airtime, over and over again especially as you hear the richness of the vocals taking on some incredible classics such as Gram Parsons’ Return of the Grevious Angel, Bob Dylan and The Byrds’ You Ain’t Going Nowhere and an incredible rendition of Sordid Humour’s Jumping Jesus. It’s just a shame that the band thought this was the best way to bring their sound to the forefront of popular opinion again.
Ian D. Hall