Did Counting Crows really just release a live record sans "Mr. Jones" or "Round Here?"

The band did, and it's a bold move that fans and nonfans will likely applaud.

Counting Crows is one of those bands ... the kind that is really easy to hate, while fans say singer Adam Duritz is simply misunderstood. While that may be the case, "New Amsterdam" finds Duritz at a much-talked-about period in his life - a rough spell in his personal and work realms - and it's a potent aural account of this battle of more than three years ago.

The band is on point throughout - kept in clear check here in Bob Clearmountain's mix - and Duritz sounds only slightly more tortured than usual. What matters on this record is the first track, "Rain King." Originally an uplifting rock 'n' roll sigh, it's a meditative dirge - a suicide contemplation - on this live record. It makes a listener wonder if it was a surface reworking of a song or a portrait of an artist and his psyche.
Source: Denver Post

Author: Ricardo Baca