Counting Crows soars with 'Saturday Nights'

Sometimes a band gets it right out of the starting gate. Other times, it can take years and years to release that perfect, career-defining album. Very, very rarely does a band pull it off both times.

In 1993, Adam Duritz and company released "August & Everything After." A nearly flawless debut, it still contains some of the band's biggest hits and remains their most popular album. Now, 15 years later, the band has finally released another album with an ampersand in the title, and the result is the most powerful, stirring music the band has ever released.

The first half of the album -- the "Saturday Nights" portion of the disc, where, according to Duritz, events "transpire" -- is driving, aggressive rock produced by Gil Norton and sounds like a night without inhibitions. "1492" is the most arresting track the band has recorded since "Angels Of The Silences" more than a decade ago.

"Los Angeles" is a pseudo-touching ode to the City of Angels, best summed up by Duritz's snarky closing remark ("It's a really good place to find yourself a taco").

"Sundays" elicits the point in the evening where logic has faded but emotion hasn't yet taken over ("I don't believe in Sundays anymore" Duritz slurs), while "Cowboys" is a bitter, biting ode to betrayal.

By the time the second half of the album comes around -- this is the beautiful Brian Deck-produced "Sunday Mornings" half, where things are remembered and regrets are felt -- the true aching beauty of Duritz's melodic and lyrical gifts shine through.

The "rock" half of the album is good, but the Crows have never been so emotive as when the volume gets turned down for the latter half of their work. The first single, "You Can't Count On Me," is actually the album's weakest track, falling flat in the face of masterpieces like "On Almost Any Sunday Morning" or "When I Dream Of Michelangelo."

And, unlike the plodding mellowness of 2002's "Hard Candy," the acoustic-based songs here are lush, beautiful, intense and dramatic.

Duritz has never claimed to try to reinvent himself, and really, he never has. This is the same man who brought "Mr. Jones," "A Long December," "Colorblind" and "American Girls" into the world, and that's who he's always been. What "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" represents is not so much a change of pace -- just the best set of shoes he's ever worn.