The soundtrack to so much mid to late 90s sadness.
I've had this album on tape since before memories. I think I might have borrowed it from a friend in high-school. It's certainly one of the first CDs I bought.
I'm fairly sure next to "melancholic" in the dictionary is a picture of this album. It certainly is a great album to put on when you're sad. I'll admit, in moments of intense sadness, I've cried on the train listening to it.
If I'd started this blog twenty years ago, this album would be 10/10. Not today. It could be because I'm a far happier person than I was as a teenager. I can hear the album's problems now, where before they were washed under the waves of hormones and tears.
I still love the strange timing of the vocals over the verses of "Round Here" and the changing chorus stream of consciousness nature of "Mr Jones". "Anna Begins" can still make me sad. The lovely use of strumming electric guitars instead of acoustics, mandolins, accordions. All the sort of thing to pique the interest of a music fan just getting in The Tea Party and The Whitlams.
Weirdly this album is wound up in a world where I discovered so much music, the mid-90s. I associate it with Regurgitator, Powerderfinger, The Whitlams, The Tea Party, +Live+, Pearl Jam... even Faith No More and Metallica. In a list of "grew-up-listening-to" albums... this.
I played this album in the car once on a long car trip. My parents both hated it, almost totally because of the vocals, which are, I can now clearly hear, horribly whiny, particularly in "Time And Time Again" where Adam Duritz sounds like he's just waking up from a huge bender and can barely talk.
It's strange to like this album at all, as I can't help but think Counting Crows are the "folk rock" heroes of the 90s, exactly the kind of music that really gets up my nose these days. Bands like Birds Of Tokyo and that friggin' Lantern song...
History.
I still really enjoy listening to AaEA, and maybe if I'm sad in the future I'll pull it out give it a spin. I'll certainly keep referring to it for tips in mixing clean tone guitars. The production is lovely.
7/10
