Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites (CD)

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By Yahoo! Shopping User  Oct 15, 2001 | 1 out of 1 found this Recovering the Satellites review helpful

Now THIS is Adam Duritz meeting his potential. The album starts off with a humming mellotron that leads into the lush tremolo sounds of catapult. The second song is "Angels of the Silences," a driving rocker in the vein of early Bruce Springsteen r...ecords. This song offers up some of Duritz's best lyrical and vocal contributions as well as a beautiful wall of sound provided by Bryson and Vickery's layered guitars. "Daylight Fading" is a strong country-rock strummer, and "I'm Not Sleeping" is an angry little Beatles-tinged rocker with strings coming into the mix over bent-string guitar riffs. "Goodnight Elisabeth" is the first Crows song to introduce its oft-referenced title character ("I Wish I Was a Girl," "Rain King (live)." "Children in Bloom" may not be as immediately accessible as some of the other tracks, but after repeated listens opens up to reveal Duritz's fragile poetry and the band's spacey arrangements. "Have You Seen Me Lately?" is without a doubt Counting Crows best rocker and perhaps their most self-referenced in concert (see Across a Wire). "Miller's Angels" sounds once again like a track off of Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park. "Another Horsedreamer's Bluse" is also an outstanding track, though it may take more than a few listens to pin down all of the symbolism. "Recovering the Satellites" is a good song as well, highlighted by a serpentine phased-out guitar line. "Recovering" also introduces the term "monkey" to the album. "Monkey" not only allows Duritz to flex his song writing chops but also allows him to toss in a hipster name-drop of "Ben Folds," which may seem to date the music except that this song was released before the breakthrough of Folds' single "Brick." "Mercury" is a good song, introducing the word "walkaway" for the first time. "A Long December" is an incredible piano-driven single that is almost impossible to dislike. The album closes with "Walkaways," a micro-song that sums up the general mood of the album: glorious sadness. This album is highly recommended and one of my top picks of all tiime. Read more Less