Disc 331 is...Hard Candy
Artist: Counting Crows
Year of Release: 2002
What’s Up With The Cover?: This cover is not only designed to look like an old style metal candy box, it also contains special clues about the band for the discerning viewer. For example, it indicates the 'candy' was "Est. 1991", which was the year the band was formed, and it indicates '13 Fresh New Flavors', a nod to the fact that the CD has 13 tracks (although actually there is a 'hidden track' that makes for 14, but more on that later). Learning through cover art!
How I Came To Know It: When I first met Sheila, she was a fan of the Counting Crows first two albums. When this one came out, I think I bought it for her as a gift, although she's never really taken to it like the first two.
How It Stacks Up: This is a tough one, partly because I like and dislike all three of our "Counting Crows" albums about the same, each for very different reasons.
I like the overall sound of "Hard Candy" for its consistency, but the high points of "August and Everything After" are higher, and their single best song is on "Recovering the Satellites". I'm going to go with a three way tie, since I don't know any of the records well enough to say with confidence. When I review the last one, I will rank them - scout's honour.
Rating: 3 stars.
Counting Crows were a pretty big deal in the nineties, with big hits like "Mr. Jones" and modest hits like "A Long December", but by 2002 when "Hard Candy" came out, the fickle world of pop and mainstream radio had moved on in search of The Next Big Thing.
This made the album a perfect entry point for me, as I had dismissed this band's first two records in the face of critical acclaim and fan support. If I was to be perfectly honest, I probably dismissed them specifically because of these two things; I'm contrary that way. Also I really hate that song "Mr. Jones." It is truly annoying, but I'll save the bulk of my ire over it for when I review "August and Everything After."
As an album under the radar, "Hard Candy" was a way I could give the Counting Crows a listen without risking a loss of honour over any of my hastily stated opinions about the band in prior years. Petty, yes, but at least I'm admitting it now.
The first thing that stands out about this record is that it is a bit more upbeat musically. The songs still cover the usual maudlin range of Counting Crows work, but the songs are less like dirges. There are even songs like "American Girls" where the chorus is positively cheery:
"American girls, all weather and noise
Playing the changes for all of the boys
Holding a candle up to my hand
Making me feel so incredible."
Just don't pay too much attention to the verses (yes, it is carefully hidden dirge after all). The fact that the band is willing to infuse a sad song with a bit of pop enthusiasm helps the overall feel of the record by creating peaks and valleys of listening that I found absent on the other albums (I think - I don't know them that well).
Because let's face it, the Counting Crows like to sing about unhappy things, but somehow "Hard Candy" is an album that finds the right balance musically. Halfway through the album when Adam Duritz opens the song "Miami" with "I guess I think I feel alright" it feels positively uplifting - qualifiers and all - and the song soars near the end as if to tell the listeners, "hey, it's a new decade - you don't have to be depressed any more." If nothing else the song is about one of my favourite cities - go Dolphins!
You do get a fair helping of the band's usual slow wrist-slitters like "Carriage" and "Black and Blue" they are a bit easier to handle because they don't overpopulate the record.
The band expirements with new sound on the record as well, with a few stumbles, but mostly to good effect. An example of the good is "New Frontier" where they work some groovy synthesizer sound into their more traditional college rock arrangements. Some long time fans might not have liked this, but as someone seeing them with fresh eyes, I found "New Frontier" refreshing. Emotionally, it was like crossing the depressing "Fox in the Snow" by Belle and Sebastian with the synth-happy "Fox on the Run" by Sweet - only without any foxes. Too many obscure references? Then let me sum up, it's a fun song that avoids being totally vacuous.
The band is helped, as ever, by the fact that Adam Duritz is one of the most unique and recognizeable voices in popular music, and that the man has an innate talent to knock off a catchy pop melody. That he chooses to infuse those melodies with introspective, often painful lyrics, shows that he's trying to do something in a genre more often known for artists mailing it in.
On the flip side, Duritz can occasionally sound like he is forcing too much emotion into song structures and in so doing makes the music a bit overwrought. He also suffers from the occasional bought of awkward phrasing as he tries hard to sound different (You already sound different, Adam - you can stop trying).
Most disappointing on "Hard Candy" is the decision to include a hidden song in that CD style where you leave a bunch of dead air between the end of the last listed song, and the hidden song, recorded on the same track.
This is too bad, because the last listed song, "Holiday in Spain" is one of my favourite songs on the album, with just Duritz singing and playing piano as he sings a slow, wistful tune about getting away, physically and emotionally. My favourite line is:
"Oh well, happy new years, baby!
We could probably fix it if we clean it up all day
Or we could simply pack our bags
And catch a plane to Barcelona 'cause this city's a drag."
Then, after a minute of silence, we get the song restarting as a remake of the Joni Mitchell classic, "Yellow Taxi." Don't get me wrong, I love "Yellow Taxi." While this remake is delivered well enough, the Counting Crows don't add a lot to it. More importantly, by permanently coupling it to the end of "Holiday in Spain" they make me sit through 8:45 for two four minute songs, that I may not always want to hear together (try seldom).
"Hard Candy" is not a great record, but it is a good one, and most of all it does not mail it in like so many bands desperate to recapture earlier success. It is an album by a band determined to expand their musical boundaries even at the risk of losing some of their audience (which, sadly, they did). We don't blame the Beatles or U2 when they did this, and we shouldn't blame Counting Crows either.
Best tracks: American Girls, Miami, New Frontier, Holiday In Spain
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