Counting Crows - August and Everything After (1993)

"I wish I was travelling on a freeway
Beneath this graveyard western sky
I'm gonna set fire to this city
And out into the desert
We're gonna ride"
- Time and Time Again

Counting Crows has long been a name lost in the past. For the people of today, Generation Y, the name may not even register. But for those who have been cooking in the oven of life a bit longer, it is a name that stirs memories of a somewhat honest and brutally original reality. August and Everything After, with its slightly western sound and honest out take on life is the missing link that all people have disconnected with as time, money, technology and general everyday life has bloomed doubt within our souls.

We all remember the big names of the 1990s. A decade filled with technological bricks, television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Friends. Do you remember clothing styles with high ponytails and the plastic 'Barbie' look? However, what probably wouldn't come to mind are many of the earlier bands that, although had once dominated the charts, slowly collected dust in the corners of time.

The album, August and Everything After is one of those CDs that never truly get lost but may perhaps be always seen from the corner of the eye. The one place that is hard to miss but when found is so obvious that it cannot be lost to the individual again.

The purity and honesty of the lyrics cut through the layers of facade and the masks of society to reach down and grab the reality at heart. The truth resonates and pierces through the veil of deception lay between that of the individual perception and societies driven and coerced visions of the world. Simple repeated words and questions asked are what truly define the songs found resting in the nest of what is August and Everything After.

Do you remember these days?

            Growing up in small town suburbia

            Realising your existence in this world

            Laughing with a few mates.

Do you remember these moments?

            Being in the confusion of growing up

            Tasting your first truth of love

            Finding your soul surrender in the spirituality of nature.

Then perhaps you will remember yourself in these songs:

            Mr. Jones

            Rain King

            Round Here

Effectively, it is the easy music, moved by gentle melodic contours and a steady climatic climb that finally capture the lost boy or girl within you. Had you been playing hide and seek all along?

Find yourself again. Let go of life and drift upon the waves of honesty.

Find your song.

Find August and Everything After once more...

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