There's a song by the band Fall Out Boy called "Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends" that includes the couplet:
"Strike us like matches, cause everyone deserves the flames
We only do it for the scars and stories, not the fame"
In the end, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings seems to be about Adam Duritz's attempt to find himself and his "real friends" amid the "sham friends" that come with his Rock and Roll lifestyle.
Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is a two-disc concept album. One disc, Saturday Nights, is full of plugged in rock, crunch guitars, and sin soaked melodies. Sunday Mornings, on the other hand, is an introspective-feeling album full of the regrets that come with a hangover and the realization that you've woken up alone.
One is supposed to listen to both albums back-to-back, I've read, to feel the full effect of the album.
I bought my copy on iTunes, so the transition from Saturday Night to Sunday Morning seemed all the starker. My mind was still trying to recover from the amped up, driving melody of "Cowboys" when the haunting song "Washington Square" demanded my full attention.
Most of my favorite songs came from the Saturday Nights portion of the album. "Sundays" was dance-able with a big hook. "Cowboys" reeked of a desperation and need that I haven't seen from Counting Crows since...well, ever.
The lone standout on the Sunday Mornings album, for me, was "When I dream of Michaelangelo." It starts with the line "I don't like you, but you wanna be my friend" and doesn't stop until the last chord. Duritz and co. evoke images brought forth in Recovering the Satellites' song "Angels of the Silence" with the line "I dream of Michaelangelo when I'm lying in my bed." It's copied word-for-word from the earlier track. It's an interesting play on their part and, strangely, it works.
Overall, it was an ambitious album. If I could take Saturday Night and leave Sunday Morning, I would. The band seems to be at it's best when it's rocking, and the stripped down tracks just don't work for me.
1 comment:
haha true story--I saw CC on two consecutive nights in 2003 and Adam claimed the first night that he was playing "Washington Square" for the first time. I thought it was ok, but then the whining just kept going...and going...and going. When he came out to do it on the second night, my friends all groaned.
Besides that track, though, I still love "Sunday Mornings!" I think "Michelangelo" is definitely the stand-out.
-Carrie
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