August and Everything After

"With this, their stunning, yet subtle 1993 debut 'August and Everything After', Counting Crows became the proverbial "overnight success story". Their vivid musical landscapes and the feverish brilliance of singer / songwriter Adam Duritz combined to create a unique, melancholy style, which immediately captured the attention of music lovers worldwide.

Musically, Counting Crows are filled with passion and surprise, with a current of compelling lyrics running beneath the surface, conveying messages with an eloquence that is quite rare in music today.

Beautifully produced by T-Bone Burnett, 'August and Everything After' is full of highly memorable songs and yielded two radio hits - the up-tempo 'Mr. Jones' and the starkly moving "Round Here"."
- GEOFF

"The lyricist discovery of the year is Adam Duritz. Something reminiscent of the imagistic daring of Tim Buckley marks the San Franciscan's word work; his songs recall, too, Springsteen's sureness with anecdote and dramatic detail. But Duritz's vision is his own: "Asleep in perfect blue buildings/Beside the green-apple sea/Gonna get me a little oblivion/Try to keep myself away from me." A band-like quintet, his fellow Crows deftly underplay behind Duritz's voice and piano; while sometimes rocking, they never overwhelm the folk-based tunes.

T-Bone Burnett - idealist and rootsy solo artist - is the perfect producer. Building casual and intimate atmospheres, he allows room for Duritz's forays into myth ("I think of flying down into a sea of/ Pens and feathers and all other/ Instruments of faith and sex and God/ In the belly of a black-winged bird") and yearning ("I can always hear a freight train/ If I listen real hard/ And I wish it was a small world/ Because I'm lonely for the big towns"). A noteworthy debut, August and Everything After leaves us eager for more."
- Rolling Stone Magazine (December 1993)