Counting Crows
August And Everything After

THE REVIEW

Rock.
A word that encompasses countless meanings, that offers endless emotions, and that is arguably “something” difficult to explain with words.
Because “rock” doesn’t just mean social rebellion or adolescent passion. It doesn’t just mean immortal energy or pure adrenaline. It doesn’t merely categorize a simple musical genre; it’s “something” that has always gone hand in hand with the great happenings of human history, evolving as and when humanity has evolved. It’s something abstract, like feelings. Friendship, love, hope, happiness, sadness, beauty. Feelings that each of us experiences subjectively and at different times, difficult to explain... like rock and its essence.

Because Rock is not just THE rock music.
It is the word that must not be missing in music.

Now, I’m certainly not here to play the poet or the sentimentalist, nor am I here to be the moralist. It just seemed like the most appropriate way to start reviewing this wonderful album, thus paying it the deserved tribute.

A splendid album, I was saying, that no one should ever omit from their personal list of “favorites.”
The Counting Crows, originally from San Francisco, birthed this album in September 1993, a time when the grunge phenomenon reigned.
But the period or the genre dominating the musical scene hardly mattered: this masterpiece will always seem alive and current, always bringing the same, delightful effect, thanks especially to the immense pathos and nostalgic atmosphere it contains within itself.
“August And Everything After,” a mix of roots rock, folk, country, and blues, couldn’t have been a better debut for the six Americans, who have completely vanished with their later and banal works.
An album full of exciting nuances, loaded with nostalgia that delves into classic rock, and that the skill of the six in creating an evocative sound and the penetrating voice of Duritz, the band’s main figure, make even more intense.

The Crows form a sort of rustic orchestra complete with mandolin and accordion, which, embellished by Gillingham's Hammond organ, Bryson's eager guitar, and a consistently apt use of the piano, ranges between melancholic melodies, “American” atmospheres, and groove passages.
Each track of the album has its own story, both conceptually and melodically speaking. The eleven episodes flow with simplicity and in a genuine way through sincere arrangements, vocal nuances, and wonderful melodic inserts. Adam's voice captivates, narrating through fatalistic lyrics that penetrate the human soul and reach all the way into the heart, stories of the provinces, hopes, disappointments, youthful loves, and daily dramas.
Beginning with the sweetness of “Round Here,” to the hit “Mr. Jones,” to the nostalgic “Perfect Blue Buildings,” ending with the rhythms of “A Murder of One.” And then “Omaha,” “Anna Begins,” “Ghost Train,” “Rain King,” “Sullivan Street,” “Time and Time Again,” “Raining in Baltimore.”
The whole album, in short. There is nothing that doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in “August and Everything After.”

A masterpiece of rock music in general, created by a highly classy band, the Counting Crows, first pioneers of the return to American “roots rock” and capable of combining mainstream and alternative sounds, then brazenly commercial and banal.