A thought on “August and Everything After”

Adam Kozman, Opinion Editor

“August and Everything After” by Counting Crows is the best debut rock album in the history of music, let alone one of the best albums ever, but I’ll just stick with the debut claim for now.

In the early 90s, Counting Crows lingered around the San Francisco, Calif. music scene by performing in various Berkeley, Calif. bars and local concert venues, perfecting their dynamic and becoming familiar with their signature sound, that of a base rootsy rock feel influenced by The Byrds and The Band and a highly emotive singer dancing across the canvas of a song like Van Morrison and Joe Cocker.

“August and Everything After” was released in September of 1993, and was praised by critics and went multi–platinum. A huge commercial success for their first album. The hit song, “Mr. Jones,” peaked at number five on the Billboard U.S. Radio Song Chart. Everyone knows “Mr. Jones,” it certainly is a hit, it’s bright and poppy, a sound that contrasts with the dark cloud of grunge, which was engulfing rock music at that time. Like a breeze, Adam Duritz’s voice came out with a pleading tone of “wanting to be Bob Dylan” and becoming a big star. Admitting his aspiration, but subtly hinting at the self–destructive nature of them.

However, I feel “Mr. Jones” is just the first taste of the greatness of the album. The first track, “Round Here,” poetically captures the idea of reinvention in light of a hazy and disoriented world. Following right after that, Omaha features a deeply rooted sound with a mandolin and accordion, likened to that of its Americana predecessors. 

“Perfect Blue Buildings” slows things down as Duritz sings about “the green apple sea” to the strum of an acoustic guitar with an organ layering a deep thoughtful feel underneath his sensitive lyrics.

The album is no skip in the highest degree. Each song delivers its own capsule of soul in every note, shamelessly reaching for a higher degree of feeling that’s never been touched before, and it is brilliant, go listen.