Counting Crows - Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!

Since then, the only recent music from Adam Duritz and the band was the 2021 EP ‘Butter Miracle, Suite One.’ In interviews at the time Adam Duritz spoke about the band releasing a follow up EP ‘Butter Miracle, Suite Two.’

While the second EP never materialised, the band have now released ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’ The four songs that made up the 2021 EP are all present and correct but sound like they have been rerecorded. The full album consists of the reworked songs plus five more new tracks.

Musically the album delivers across the spectrum of genres that Counting Crows are recognised to be at the forefront of. Americana, Roots Rock, Jam Band and Folk influences weave their way between the tracks to deliver and winning mixture that is prime Counting Crows. Add Adam Duritz’s compelling lyrics and distinctive vocals on top of the mix and it’s clear that the band have created and sweet tasting confection of an album.

A taster for the album came in the earlier release of ‘Spaceman in Tulsa,’ which showed that the band were continuing to evolve while retaining their customary warmth and wonderful ability to create songs that draw you in with the band’s musical virtuosity and Adam Duritz storytelling.

The album itself kicks off with the rocking ‘With Love, From A-Z,’ It’s a terrific song to open the album off with delivering a bluesy tale of past histories while searching for deliverance in the future.

‘Spaceman in Tulsa’ follows. It’s all about finding connection in spaces you don’t belong and the way the music is way to create those connections. Musically the track finds the band in a playful mood creating as close to an out and out pop song as I’ve heard from Counting Crows.

‘Boxcars’ widens the lens to look at how certain communities are forced to societies edges and cruelties that are inflected on them. It opens with guitars at the forefront of the mix before Duritz’s vocals come in and the track takes off. There’s an element of Springsteen circa ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ here in the tale of the downtrodden. Jim Bogios drives the song along with his drumming and the guitars of Immerglück, Bryson, and Vickrey rock.

Things slow down with ‘Virginia Through The Rain.’ There’s a hint of The Grateful Dead, particularly the countryfied sounds of ‘Working Man’s Dead’ running through this song and it’s easy to imagine the instrumental section being jammed out in concert.

The band are back in alternative/Indie pop mode on ‘Under the Aurora.’ The most recent pre-release song is sweetly constructed with added strings to give it that wide open cinematic sound the band does so well. The song finds Adam Duritz harking band to themes he explored on the debut album ‘August And Everything After.’ The trick here is that this is a much older take on those ideas and Duritzs sees the natural wonder about us and asks, “to believe in something.”

The final four tracks of the album are the songs that made up the 2021 EP. ‘The Tall Grass,’ is a classic Counting Crows song and could drop comfortably into anyone of their albums.

‘Elevator Boots’ is a song for the everyman. It’s about how we are all searching for that certain something. Sometimes it’s as easy to find as “taking a ride on the radio dial” and hearing that certain song that brings you comfort.

“Angel of 14th Street” has grown since the first hearing four years ago. There is a timelessness to the track and the haunting trumpet playing lifts the song to a special place.

Lastly there’s ‘Bobby and the Rat Kings.’ It’s a song for dreamers for those of us who have always felt there was something out there, just beyond our reach, which would make us something better, “never stop wishing we were someone else.” If the album has hints of Bruce Springsteen’s songs for every man, I guess this I the albums ‘Jungleland’ or ‘It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City.’ Achingly beautiful, gossamer threads trailing away into the run out groove.

This is the sound of a band that still has plenty to say. There’s passion here and the production brings all these elements together with a crisp clarity that doesn’t dilute any of it. Adam Duritz is older and wiser, and the lyrics and themes offered up here reflect that. He can look back and remember but he also adds a new level of understanding to the sentiments he expressed on the band’s earlier albums.

So, it’s a happy return. The Counting Crows are back and have delivered one of the strongest and most accessible albums of their career.