Old School Album of the Day: August and Everything After

The Counting Crows are a good band. I like a lot of their stuff, including many of the things they put out after their first album (particularly their second album), but I'm gonna focus now on this album, which is probably (definitely) their best. August and Everything After is just a really beautiful record. Can you still call albums "records"? For that matter, can you still call them "albums"? I'm missing my point. The point is that I wanted to highlight this album because I'm not sure if it really got much play back in the day, and it's definitely worth getting if you don't have it.

This album for me just packs a huge emotional punch. The songs are really catchy and the lyrics are really deep. It's an interesting combination. You get hooked in by the tune, but then you start thinking about the lyrics and it hits you all over again. It's a bit like hearing the album again for the first time once you start to listen to the lyrics.

I'm not really sure where to go from here. I could definitely talk about each song individually and why I like it, but that seems unnecessary. All of us know (and love?) Mr. Jones and 'Round Here. Imagine a whole album of songs as catchy as Mr. Jones, and then also really meaningful in retrospect. I particularly like "Sullivan Street" and "A Murder of One".

The one song I do want to talk about specifically is "Anna Begins". It's easily one of my favorite songs ever. It never gets old. I could listen to it over and over again for the remainder of eternity. Beautiful song, intriguing lyrics (should be a good game). If you don't know this song, then download it today.