Counting Crows - Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! (2025)

Counting Crows' first full-length album in more than a decade feels like a bit of a cheat—nearly half of the songs were released on the 2021 EP Butter Miracle: Suite One. But "Spaceman in Tulsa" proves the band still has the chutzpah and pop chops that made them inescapable in the '90s. Just glam enough, and boasting an insidiously catchy chorus, it's cocksure with revved-up guitar and piano and frontman Adam Duritz's most rock 'n' roll growl. In many ways, it feels like a book-end to "Mr. Jones," the band's debut single that shot Counting Crows into the culture (and made them, right away, a love-or-hate band for most). In that 1992 song, Duritz came on like a big dreamer—a guy who wanted to be a "lion" and Bob Dylan: "We all wanna be big stars/ But we don't know why and we don't know how." This time, he narrates the stories of Bobby and Ally, two hungry wannabes chasing fame: "Doesn't anybody wanna be a rock and roll queen?/ Leave 'em laughing when you wanna die/ Crazy little dreamer says, 'Man, I can't believe I'm still alive.'" Duritz, his voice burnished by the decades—funny how time takes the edge off—sounds like the wise man watching these crazy kids with "they'll learn" affection. The characters pop up time and again, including on "Elevator Boots," which tells Bobby's story as the young man experiences the highs and lows ("I snake and sparkle, pant and glide/ And it's hard to feel and I can't get high") of a touring musician's reality. Duritz has admitted this jangling tune—so unmistakably Counting Crows—is at least partly inspired by his own life, whereas "Bobby and the Rat-Kings" is from the perspective of a fan whose memories will forever be shaped by the character's band. "Angel of 14th Street," meanwhile, draws from Duritz's recollections of moving from California to New York so many years ago. A fist-pumping drama, it delivers bubblegum harmonies and piercing trumpet. "Boxcars" snarls with rockabilly muscle. "Virginia Through The Rain"—not to be confused with Dave Matthews' "Virginia in the Rain," though just as moody—is a Levon Helm-esque ballad. "Under the Aurora," with lovely strings that turn from orchestral to barn dance, is at once familiar in the Counting Crows canon but also unusual in its stacked-vocal chorus. And if you love the way Duritz sings the word "California," you'll dig "With Love, From A-Z," a romantic number set to bluesy barroom guitar.

TRACKLIST

01. With Love, From A-Z
02. Spaceman In Tulsa
03. Boxcars
04. Virginia Through The Rain
05. Under The Aurora
06. The Tall Grass
07. Elevator Boots
08. Angel of 14th Street
09. Bobby and the Rat-Kings