
The Counting Crows have been together as a band for the past twenty years or so and have headlined countless tours around not only the country, but the world. Their music was very iconic in the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s. These songs, with the excetption of few, are all written by the lead singer Adam Duritz. His songs range from very dark and sad songs such as, Perfect Blue Buildings, to upbeat fun songs such as, Mr. Jones. His songs have also been described as, having no real meaning, or being very confusing and making absolutely no sense whatsoever. However, his music goes much deeper than this, much like they’re debut album, August and Everything After. August and Everything After is an album centered around Adam’s life, as he was born in August, and the cover is an example that your life may not have all that you hope or expect it to have.

August and Everything After was released on September 14, 1993 and was the Counting Crows debut album. The album featured four singles, all of which were in the top twenty on various Billboard lists across the globe. Adam Duritz explained in an interview that the album was really like a story of his life because he was born in August and each song represents an experience or time in his life. However, the title track August and Everything After was never featured on the album either time it was released to the public. The band even went back in 2007 to add a small bonus disc of tracks, but even thenl the single was still never featured. The song was a nine to ten-minute piano song written by Duritz that he could never perfect the sound for. Duritz spent countless hours attempting to record the song, but he says his “rudimentary piano skills” kept him from being able to finish the song with the sound he wanted. Some ask why he didn’t just have someone play it for him, but that’s because when Duritz had a vision for something that’s how it needed to happen. This thought process was very misleading for his fellow band members, much like the album cover for the listener.

On the cover of the album, the background is a snapshot of the actual lyrics Duritz wrote for the title track. So when the song never even makes the album it makes the listener wonder what happened or why. This album cover almost serves to show that things in your life may not happen the way you expect or you may not have the things you expect to have, regardless of the signs pointing to it. For Duritz many things did not go as he may have planned in his life, and this is evident from the lyrics and sounds of his songs. Many of his songs are about his struggles with women and love. He sings about everything he had planned and looked forward to in the relationship only for that all to not become a reality. This is just one of the many facts of life that nothing is going to be easy and that even your best may not be enough for that particular situation.

Throughout life you may face challenges that seem to take everything out of you, but you still don’t reach the goal you were striving for. You may feel as if you’re all alone in this very dark place with nothing and you’re just looking for a little help or a way out. It’s quite evident in the songs on this particular album that this is how Duritz felt for most of his life. Many of the songs on the album carry this very sad, heavy tone and are centered around where things went wrong for him. He sings about all the things that he had and lost or never had at all which is something people struggle with every day. While almost every song on the album has this slow dark feeling to them, the one exception is Mr. Jones. This song serves almost as the light at the end of the tunnel or the little light in every bad situation we face in life. Almost like a way out.

This album, much like life, offers an alternative for the missing song. In life if something doesn’t go your way or you don’t get what you wanted, there is usually another idea or thing to replace what you’re missing. On this album the song, Raining in Baltimore, replaced August and Everything After. It’s centered around Adam and him returning to Baltimore where he was born, and he’s looking for something, for anything. This song is much like the central idea of not having exactly what he needs, but he is making do until he finds that thing to fill the void in his life. Then, Mr. Jones is like that little glimmer of hope when everything seems to be going wrong, this is like when everything in your life seems to be in turmoil and you find that one thing that is positive. So while you can’t have what you want there is always something else.

 August and Everything After is a very unique album not only in the fact that the actual title track isn’t even featured, but the many messages and styles it possesses. While almost every song is about turmoil and being all alone in life, there is Mr. Jones which is a fun up beat song. It serves as the sliver of hope for happiness on the album, much like a small gesture or event in our lives. It’s the perfect example that life isn’t as it may appear to you at first. There’s going to be times where you are going to put every ounce of your being into something that may not produce anything for you. So you have to get out there and work towards something else because there’s always a light at the end and there’s always a way out.