Adam Duritz's songwriting on the Counting Crows' debut album "August and Everything After..." (1993) and their excellent follow up "Recovering The Satellites" (1996) was impressive and impactful because of his unique ability to sing with such utter honesty about specific girls at specific locations that the songs still somehow translated into relatable music. It was Adam's authenticityAdam Duritz's songwriting on the Counting Crows' debut album "August and Everything After..." (1993) and their excellent follow up "Recovering The Satellites" (1996) was impressive and impactful because of his unique ability to sing with such utter honesty about specific girls at specific locations that the songs still somehow translated into relatable music. It was Adam's authenticity that stood out on classics like "Goodnight Elizabeth," and "Anna Begins". Their uneven fourth disc "This Desert Life," (1999) also has some terrific tunes, but by the time "Hard Candy" (2002) was released, Adam had developed into a masterful pop songwriter, constructing gems such as the title track, "Miami," "Up All Night," and "American Girls".
Since then, things have started to unravel.
It took six more years before "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" (2008) was released, and it was a bit of a letdown. The honesty and relatable aspects of Adam's lyrics seemed to be missing, and he just seemed to be trying a bit too hard. The album was mostly a collection of forgettable tunes with a false authenticity, although "You Can't Count On Me" and "Insignificant" were standouts.
Six years later, and now "Somewhere Under Wonderland" is somewhere between awful and annoying. Adam seems to have completely lost the art of the song craft. While Across A Wire (1998) documented a pair of the Crows' once incredible live shows, their concerts have begun to devolve into an inconsistent exercise in theatrics and over-expression on behalf of their lead singer, and Adam's overacting is on display on this studio record. It is one thing to go off on a tangent in a live jam, but without a solid song behind it, the performance just comes off as a meandering act of masturbation. Songs that are about nothing go nowhere, and his once-raw lyrics have been replaced by attempts at clever wordplay that are actually just annoying gimmicks you would expect from a second-rate beat poet. One or two songs could perhaps be characterized as "catchy" with easy hooks, but the songs are so shallow and meaningless that the listener is quickly bored. Mostly, however, the songs on this album are just overwritten, crammed with words upon words upon words with attempts at wittiness that only feel contrived and without any structure.
There are two songs worth mentioning. "John Appleseed's Lament" is very interesting. It is wholly derivative of their earlier work, but to such an obvious degree that I must give them the benefit of the doubt and say it is more like a live mash-up, with samples of guitar riffs and lyrical themes borrowed from across their catalog. If it was intentional it is genius.
The last song on the album is Possibility Days, and while it doesn't quite justify the $10 purchase price of the full album, it at least makes me not wholly regret the purchase. Unlike the rest of the songs on the album, this song actually breathes. The lyrics tell a new story of another one of Adam's famous failed relationships, and with a well crafted structure that carries the listener as it builds into a climax. This is a truly great tune, and I can only hope that as the final track on the album, it was also the most recent song Adam wrote for it, and perhaps it's a tease of a great album due out six years from now.
My advice: buy the last two tracks on the record, and consider the act of skipping the rest as cash (and time) well-saved.… Expand
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