Counting Crows
Hard Candy

In 2001, Hard Candy by Counting Crows is released, an American band known mostly in their homeland and some parts of Europe, but not much in Italy, where they have made a bit of an impact only a few times with "Mr. Jones", the single from their first album, "August and Everything After", released nine years earlier.

From their debut until 2001, Adam Duritz's band hasn't significantly changed their style of making music and has always held tight to the consideration that critics and fans have had about them. The CC have always remained an honest group and have never thrown themselves into commercialism, the only time they really tried was when they left "American Girls" (a track from "Hard Candy") to Coca-Cola, with the collaboration of Sheryl Crow, or when, for example, Duritz started swaggering by posing for gossip magazines, they found themselves targeted by some less tolerant factions of their Fun's Club who accused them of selling out. There have been responses from the parties involved, and they were pretty bad, but the new album released continued not to sell, and the success of the other albums never even touched it, that's for sure.

"13 New Flavors" (actually fourteen with "Four White Stallions Live") that's how the new songs are presented on the original cover. They open with "Hard Candy", an engaging ballad, with a constant rhythm that gives the album its name, and "American Girl" mentioned above. "If I Could Give All My Love Or Richard Manuel Is Dead" follows "Good Time", one of the most interesting tracks of the whole album, and is perhaps the most rock'n'roll piece and appreciated for the suggestive contrast created by electric guitars and Gillingham's piano. Instead, "Goodnight LA" leaves me very puzzled; there's nothing new here, not even the title, to be honest. In "Hard Candy" there's also the presence of Ryan Adams in "Butterfly In Reverse" another track that still didn't completely convince me, unlike "Why Should You Come When I Call?", a delicate song that releases all the genuineness of Counting Crows, with an antithesis between lyrics and music that doesn't let the sadness inherent in the words fully show. The voice blends with the piano in "Black And Blue" to then flow into a slow and gentle chorus. "Miami" and "New Frontier" are the tracks that form the heart of the album, decent tracks that lead to a beautiful and slow "Carriage", where finally some acoustic guitar is heard and a taste of Andre Carter's sublime trumpet. Remarkable ending with a tear-jerking "Holiday In Spain" that well evokes Iberian landscapes, and "Up All Night" subsequently reused many times in live performances.

Overall a good work that would deserve something more than what I actually gave it, but when I think back to the early works of Adam & Co and their abilities, I hope for something better, and I would come to totally despise "Hard Candy" just to stimulate the CC to make a work on par with "This Desert Life" or "August".