Counting Crows - Hard Candy
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Free Music Notes for Hard Candy
Free Music Review: Return to Greatness
Hit: 5 Stars
Adam and the boys return with true audio "candy" this time. You can hear the magic again in the music. You can hear reflections of the melodic hooks that made the Crows great (something that was sorely missing on the last album)....its the old sound Crows fans love....just updated to help it grow and reach new levels of appeal. Credit Steve Lillywhite (of DMB fame) for finding the soul of the band again!! Even the lyrics reflect a growth and departure from pure melancholy. The songs take the listener around the world from Mexico, Spain, Miami, LA and the French Quarter. This cd has some tunes that immediately grab you.....American Girls, Hard Candy, Miami, Goodnight LA, Holiday in Spain....and others that grow on you with each time you play it !! Definitely a classic but it may take some listeners a couple spins to digest it !! A five star return....but I would avoid the import and buy the domestic version....the extra tracks aren't worth the extra cash !!!Free Music Review: Very Good
Hit: 5 Stars
I am that guy who originally bought August because Mr. Jones was on it. Then I bought Satellites because they had a song called Monkey...and that is a funny word. But something happened...I really fell in love with both of those albums. After Across a Wire there was no turning back. There was nothing this band did that I didn't like. My favorite is still August, but there is not a release yet that I don't love. Take Desert, for example...how can you not love Mrs. Potter?? I bought Hard Candy over a year ago and it has not left my CD changer in my car...not once in a year.I am not a huge fan of the Joni Mitchell cover, but I do not think they are lame for doing it. I am sure there are many who do like it. I am one person. I hear some Influences from XTC and REO Speedwagon, of all bands, on this album. Late 70's REO Speedwagon, mind you...nothing to be ashamed of. Yeah, maybe I am nuts.
I am a fan till the end. Something about this band that grabs me...can't quite figure it out. Oh, now I remember. They are a great band!
Free Music Review: Still Love this CD
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this CD the day it came out, about year ago, and I still love it. Some have complained that it's not as good as August, but it is; it's just different. Sonically this CD elaborates on sounds that the Crows have never experimented with before, and it generally works extremely well. The only song I did not like when I first purchased the CD was "New Frontier," but frankly that song has grown on me, because of the catchy chorus. I am thankful that the version of the CD I have doesn't have Vanessa Carlton singing back-up on Big Yellow Taxi, because in all honestly having heard both, it just seems like a shamless way to promote the song. But that's how the record industry execs are. A great CD all the way through, I highly recommend it. And, John Mayer [stinks], and ruined this summer's tour.Free Music Review: Nice fourth album by the Crows
Hit: 4 Stars
With the Counting Crows taking an average of two and a half years between album releases, it would be a shame if all that time spent writing and recording produced an under-average album. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet. In their three prior releases, the Crows showed a willingness to take textured sounds, thoughtful lyrics, and rootsy production and turn them all into something memorable. They rarely attempt the same thing twice, moving from the rootsy Americana of "August and Everything After", to the hard-edged "Recovering the Satellites", to the kaleidoscopic "This Desert Life". "Hard Candy" continues the Crows' desire to push forward with their sound and continue to write intelligent, focused, and thoughtful music. Although this is clearly the Crows of old, there is one noticable change. They're not quite as sad - here, they seem to actually be having fun, sounding loose and playful on songs like the jangly title song, the bouncy, summer-ish "American Girls", and the silly, new wave "New Frontier". It's a good fit for the group. Adam Duritz, often derided for his dark, sometimes self-loathing lyrics, seems to have things going his way a little more often (although I would still not use the word "happy"). Maybe he sums it up best in the opening lyrics to "Miami" - "I guess I think I feel alright".
"Hard Candy" also features its share of ballads, the strongest being the soft "Goodnight LA" and the Bacharach-ian "Butterfly in Reverse", co-written with Ryan Adams. Another winner is the coincidentally-titled, The Band-like, "If I Could Give All My Love or Richard Manuel is Dead".
This is a very solid album. Even though I wouldn't say that it's their strongest album, mainly due to the fact that it runs a little long and that it seems a little more like just a collection of songs rather than an actual album, it's still another worthwhile release from a group that continues to grow, expand their sound, and make some of the best American music today.
Free Music Review: Downhill
Hit: 1 Stars
Counting Crows once made good, quality music. August is a beautiful CD, one of the best of the 90s. Recovering was still solid. Then This Desert Life hit. I remember going to get it the first day, listening to it, and thinking how generic it was. Adam can't seem to find an original lyric anymore. If I hear one more song in which Adam references not being able to sleep and feeling alone... Counting Crows next song: "It's four AM and I just can't sleep, daylight is rising soon, mama, why didn't you tell me, all my friends would leave me lonely." We're all lonely. There are ways to express isolation without saying "I'm so lonely", see: Radiohead. This Desert Life wasn't terrible though. See, they were saving terrible for Hard Candy. I played the CD again for the first time today in a long time and I seriously considered burning it. The lyrics are stale, the music is generic and frankly embarassing, the singing is uninspired. You can see the band trying so hard to please. Please like us, look we're non-threatening, we're poppy, you can drive to the mall with us. It wouldn't be so bad if this CD hadn't poisoned my love for August. It's hard to listen to some of the lyrics in August because they've been re-used so much. It's depressing to see a band fall like this. It sounds like they took sound effects from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nintendo game on New Frontier. Goodnight LA sounds like at least half a dozen other CC songs, not the least Amy Hit the Atmosphere. Their "hit" single Big Yellow Taxi is pointless. It reeks of commercialism. This whole CD reeks of commercialism. Every song is drowning in unoriginal thought. It has all of the earmarks of a band with nothing more to say and another album remaining on their contract. This CD is the musical equivalent of a bowl of cheap three-year old hard candy, a gooey resin sticking to the wrapper.