Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

( 8 )

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble
Counting Crows return with their first studio album in six years. Saturday Nights is neatly divided in half, starting with rummed-up and ready rockers for the nighttime and segueing into more intimate ballads for Sunday morning.
All Music Guide - Thom Jurek
Since 1993's chart-topper August and Everything After, Counting Crows' musical roots have been stuck deep in rock's past; they sounded out of time at the height of grunge and "alternative" rock. Not surprisingly, they still do. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a concept offering divided into halves by title with two producers: Gil Norton on Saturday Nights and Brian Deck on Sunday ...
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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble
Counting Crows return with their first studio album in six years. Saturday Nights is neatly divided in half, starting with rummed-up and ready rockers for the nighttime and segueing into more intimate ballads for Sunday morning.
All Music Guide - Thom Jurek
Since 1993's chart-topper August and Everything After, Counting Crows' musical roots have been stuck deep in rock's past; they sounded out of time at the height of grunge and "alternative" rock. Not surprisingly, they still do. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a concept offering divided into halves by title with two producers: Gil Norton on Saturday Nights and Brian Deck on Sunday Mornings. Frontman and chief songwriter Adam Duritz channels his characters on their loneliest night of the week -- Saturday. Driven to distraction by loneliness, they seek connection -- through anonymous, empty sex and intoxication -- but they remain out of reach. Obsessive, urgent drives and self-destructive rage fuel every song on this half. Dirty, kinetic guitars and rim shots blast "1492" out of the gate, offering Duritz a skinny plank and he walks into the heart of oblivion. A victim of Christopher Columbus is roaming lost through the New York of Hubert Selby, Jr. He wails at nervous passersby from dingy, piss-stained doorways and street corners: "I'm a Russian Jew American/Impersonating African Jamaican/I wanna be an Indian/I'm gonna be a cowboy in the end." His companions are champagne-drinking skinny girls; they go down on him amid "railway cars and tranny whores," with the "morning spreading out across the feathered thighs of angels." Atop the glorious din he tells a truth: "Where do we disappear?/Into the silence that surrounds us/And then drowns us in the end?" Duritz is unhinged and exposed, soaring above a band that underlines every vomited bleak poetic utterance. The brooding atmospheric opening in "Hanging Tree" reflects Duritz's false bravado: "I am a child of Fire/I am a lion/I have desires...This dizzy life of mine keeps hanging me up all the time...." The second half is a reflective side-long update of Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Comin' Down." "Washington Square" has hovering pianos, acoustic guitars, banjo, harmonica, upright bass, and brushed drums. It's a brief respite seeing drunkenly the opening of the coming day as a beautiful if desolate moment. But on the country roots ballad "On Almost Any Sunday Morning," it's been transformed into the gaping maw of a self-created hell: Jesus isn't in his soul's empty pit. The tenet of honesty that runs through these songs is informed by a sick, hungover dystopia, where dread becomes horror and feelings are bone-stripped to the marrow. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings' protagonists are lost in existential crisis; they blame vengeful gods, angels, enemies, and even friends, but they know the truth. They are dramatically textured and framed by basic, expertly crafted rock & roll. An example is "You Can't Count on Me." Its lithe piano lines and lushly woven balance of guitars let the protagonist confess he knows he's a creep without a hint of denial or parody -- Dan Vickrey and David Immerglück's guitars push Duritz to sing: "I watch all the same parades/As they pass by on the days you wish you'd stayed/But this pain gets me high/And I get off and you know why...So if you wanted to be free...You can't count on me." These deluded characters acutely feel the separation between individual and community, the Divine, and self-image. The musical framework for these confessions is a painterly, near-perfectly balanced roots-kissed American pop and rock. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the other side of August and Everything After. The rocking final track, "Come Around," is a portrayal of the manic, love-starved kids from the debut who haven't grown up -- the price extracted for wasted time and broken relationships is: pervasive loneliness. Redemption lies not on some obscure horizon -- now knocking at the door -- but in facing a cracked and dirty mirror. Ultimately, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings doesn't despair, but comes dangerously close. The kids may not understand, but they don't have to. Brilliant.
Rolling Stone - Will Hermes
A record about holding on to your soul amid delusions (of celebrity, masculine vanity, nationalism and love), Saturday Nights has something to prove, opening with bare-knuckle riffs and veering between outsize, Gil Norton-produced rock-radio fare and introspective balladry.

A record about holding on to your soul amid delusions (of celebrity, masculine vanity, nationalism and love), Saturday Nights has something to prove, opening with bare-knuckle riffs and veering between outsize, Gil Norton-produced rock-radio fare and introspective balladry.
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  • Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
    Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings  

Product Details

  • Release Date: 3/25/2008
  • Label: Geffen Records
  • UPC: 602517499850
  • Catalog Number: 001021202
  • Sales rank: 45,130

Album Credits

Performance Credits
Counting Crows Primary Artist
Jim Bogios Drums, Maracas, Tambourine, Vocals, sleigh bells, Foot Stomping, Group Member
David Bryson Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals, Mandola, Toy Piano, Group Member
Brian Deck Piano (Grand)
Charlie Gillingham Harmonica, Piano, Glockenspiel, Harmonium, Hammond Organ, Vocals, Mellotron, Vibes, chamberlain, fender rhodes, Toy Piano, Vox Continental, Group Member
Dennis Herring Acoustic Guitar, Dobro
David Immerglück Dobro, Guitar, Mandolin, Pedal Steel Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals, Mandola, Tres Cubano, Group Member
Ben Mize Drums
Adam Duritz Vocals, Brass, Group Member
Dan Vickrey Banjo, Guitar, Vocals, Group Member
Matt Malley Bass Guitar
Dave Gibbs Background Vocals
Millard Powers Bass Guitar, Vocals, Upright Bass
Robert Hawes Help
Technical Credits
David Bryson Engineer
Brian Deck Producer
Gary Gersh Executive Producer, Management
Charlie Gillingham Composer
Steve Harris Engineer
Richard Hasal Engineer
Dennis Herring Producer
David Immerglück Vocal Arrangements
Steve Lillywhite Producer
David Lowery Producer
Bob Ludwig Mastering
Gil Norton Producer
Adam Duritz Brass Arrangment
Dan Vickrey Composer
Ryan Adams Composer
Dave Gibbs Vocal Arrangements
Reto Peter Engineer
James Brown Engineer
Steve Masur Engineer
Aimee Tyo Management
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 8 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(3)

4 Star

(2)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(2)

1 Star

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Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    I love Counting Crows BUT...

    What a disappointment, I have been waiting 5 long years for this album! CC has really broken my heart, because this album it's AWFUL.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Better than ever

    Once again, Adam Duritz has reached into and bared his soul into an incredible CD. There is so much depth, meaning and moving lyrics in every track. I have not stopped listening to it since its release. This band is clearly talented beyond words.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    the magic is gone

    the ballads all sound the same, and they've all been done before. Every previous CC album had a few lyrical gems, or certain phrases that really stuck. the lyrics here seem whiny and forced, and the music is wholly uninspired.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    When you listen to it it speaks

    when i first listened to this new album i thought that it was OK butmusic tends to be one of those things that you need to ease yourself into. As i unfolded myself into the ballads and the lyrics i realized that this album is another great one from the counting crows. Its really good once you get into it. I love the whole upbeat saturday night stuff and the mellow sunday mornings. Its a good album.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Counting Crows back with a bang!

    The Counting Crows are by far my favorite band from the past 15 years or so. They have that old school sound to them that most bands don't possess today. After a 6 year layoff from new material, Counting Crows are back with "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings," a classic effort that echoes their classic albums "Recovering the Satellites" and the extremely underrated masterpiece "This Desert Life." Their previous album "Hard Candy" was good, but wasn't great as a whole. It was a bit to poppy for me and that's what Counting Crows are not about. Their music speaks from the heart, and it's their originality that makes them great. Counting Crows have turned back to the form that has made them great. Here, front man Adam Duritz wows us again with his brilliant lyrics that we all can relate to in some way or another. As any Counting Crows album, I urge you to listen to it over and over again. The tunes get better and better. There's already a handful of instant classic tracks on this album. This is easily one of the best albums to come along in years. It's a destined classic. Adam Duritz and company are back, better than ever!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 17, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 28, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 21, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews