It probably sounded good on paper, but Counting Crows' vinyl-vintage idea of splitting this album into separate sides – reflecting, respectively, the hurly-burly of a night of drunken self-obliteration, and the next day's hungover ruminations – has rather rebounded on them here.
The first half isn't too bad, with "1492" opening the album with the urgent drive of Document-era REM, Adam Duritz spinning a frantic narrative of Columbian discovery that typically leads to "The silence that surrounds us and which drowns us in the end". But it transpires that "1492" is a leftover song from 2002's Hard Candy, and as the band reinvent first Nirvana's "Teen Spirit" wheel with "Hanging Tree", and then The Black Crowes' frazzled blues-rock wheel with "Los Angeles", it looks increasingly as if they've run out of ideas.
But it's the second half that really sinks one's spirits, as Duritz's self-absorption is exposed by flimsier, largely acoustic arrangements. "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago" is most unbearably representative of the album, a ghastly wallow in self-pity that not even Adam's mum should be forced to hear.
Watch the video for Counting Crows' track '1492'.
Pick of the album: '1492', 'Los Angeles'
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies