"Get right to the heart of matters - It's the heart that matters more" - Omaha

When you put August and Everything After into your CD player for a listen, it is like reaching into your drawer and putting on your favorite old sweatshirt. There are subtle things that make it special to you. It may have been stretched, torn and at sometimes faded, but has grown with you and you with it. At times it has been forgotten, but you always seem to come back to it. The look, the fit, the memories; it can instantly invoke a flood of feelings. Whether it's been with you through good times or bad, it feels comfortable and just seems to fit perfect, no matter the occasion. Each person has a sweatshirt that is his or her favorite for different reasons. AEA is the same in that respect; everyone has different reasons for appreciating that this album is a great album but they can vary between people.

When Counting Crows hit the scene with their debut album, August and Everything After in 1993, they presented a new sound and direction. Adam Duritz's unique vocal sound and his sincere, captivating lyrics that focused on relationships, heartache and longing made the Crows an instant favorite of mine. Each song speaks to the listener as if Duritz was singing it for your personal benefit. His soulful personal reflection expressed through his music draws the listener into his world and his feelings. The song writing became a focal point of the music rather than some by-product as contained in much of the overproduced fluff coming out of the music industry at the time. The music of the songs contributes to the lyrics rather than competes with them.

My first true extended exposure to the AEA was through my roommate the summer of 1994. My roommate bought the album and I am not sure it left the CD player in our apartment the entire summer. Many albums would burn out from such repetitious play, but this album not only survived repeated listens, but it grew to be a staple in my listening rotation to this day. The album allows you to feel the heartache and longing during one listen and then it can become background music during the next listen and then become a happy listen during another listen. The versatility of this album lends to its timelessness.

The simple opening chords of the first track, "Round Here," draw the listener into both the song and the entire album as the intensity slowly builds with additional instruments added to flesh out the sound. However, none of the music of the album is particularly complex or ornate; rather it exudes simplicity and can be appreciated as played on the debut album or in a more stripped down acoustic version with minimal instrumentation as the Crows have also done, allowing one to focus more on the beauty of the lyrics when desired and at other times one can focus on the musicianship. The guitar work, the bass lines, the percussion and the piano all work together to lend a relaxing underlying framework for the lyrics, yet they can also stand alone and set their own mood.

The Counting Crows have followed up AEA with several other good albums. As the band tried to change and become more polished musically, some of the raw emotion was sacrificed on subsequent albums. The Crows have put out individual offerings that compete with those on AEA, but the whole package from start to finish has not been reproduced in its entirety. As with many great bands the first fruit has proven to be the best fruit.

On its simplest level, this album is about everyone's quest for some sort of dream. As Duritz sings in "Mr. Jones:" "We all want to be big stars, but we don't know why and we don't know how." Well the Counting Crows may not have known how to become big stars but they succeeded and set a tone for many copycat type bands. However, none of these bands ever achieved the brilliance of August and Everything After, and thus its legacy is secure. It remains some of the finest music for music lovers crafted in the last fifteen years.