THE CD: “New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall 2003″
PERFORMER: Counting Crows
WEBSITE: http://www.countingcrows.com/
SELECT TRACKS: “Goodnight Elizabeth,” “Hangin Around,” “Hard Candy,” “Omaha”

The Counting Crows are the kind of band people either love or hate. But either way, the group still has a huge fan base 13 years after their first major release, August and Everything After. Their sophomore effort, 1996’s Recovering the Satellites, was an album that can only be compared in greatness and cult-like status to Weezer’s Pinkerton, (which happened to come out around the same time), but unlike Weezer, Recovering the Satellites had a hit with “A Long December.”

From there the studio albums were still good (This Dessert Life from 1999 and Hard Candy from 2003). But Counting Crows real strength seemed to be in their live shows, which makes New Amsterdam a little bit of a let down.

The album kicks off with “Rain King,” a song any self-respecting Counting Crows fan is sure to know by heart. Unfortunately, the laid-back version presented here doesn’t carry nearly the same punch as the album version from 1993’s “August and Everything After.” The song itself is based on Saul Bellow’s book Henderson the Rain King, about a man whose miserable life is made irritatingly worse by the fact that everywhere he goes it rains on him. Deciding he has to escape, he travels to Africa on a safari and as usual the rain follows — but instead is viewed as a blessing by the people he visits.

That doesn’t really explain much about the version of “Rain King” on New Amsterdam, but the point of this tale is that I am a Counting Crows nerd and trust me: this version just doesn’t hold up.

Most of the album sounds a little tired compared to the Crows’ shows I have been to in the past, which rocked. Could it be the Crows have worn themselves with these songs by constantly reinterpreting them over the years, which is what made each live show unique? I’m not for sure but it sounds that way.

The album does have some bright spots such as “HanginAround,” the first single from 1999’s This Dessert Life, which reminds me of the now deceased town of Holley Lawn, and “Omaha,” also from their first album August and Everything After. Other notable tracks are “Goodnight Elizabeth” from Recovering the Satellites and “Hard Candy,” the much underrated title track from the album of the same name. There is also the non-LP track “Hazy” with Gemma Hayes and a cover of “Four White Stallions,” which has appeared as a B-side on one of their singles.

All in all, New Amsterdam is probably a must-have for hardcore Counting Crows fans like myself who are sad enough to know which songs are named after books. (Don’t stop with Henderson’s Rain King; stop by the Public Library and see if they have a copy of The Greening of America by Charles Reich). However, it is hard to imagine why the Crows would put out another live album when they have several other ones available which are much better. On top of that, the last album they put out was Films About Ghosts…a greatest hits collection.

To sum up, a review on iTunes said it best: “This album is great, but we have heard it before. These guys need some new material.” As much of a fan as I am, I agree.

— by Mark Totten

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.