Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

As suggested by title of the Counting Crows’ first album in six years, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings deals in celebration and contemplation. The album begins with the band driving hard; “1492” cruises like Pearl Jam. But by album’s end, singer Adam Duritz is nestled up alongside a piano wondering what it all means (“On A Tuesday Afternoon in Amsterdam Long Ago”) before pulling the band together for one final encore of classic rock togetherness (“Come Around”). The band’s louder moments are a tad brittle and Duritz’s plea for understanding his superstar life in “Los Angeles” a tad self-absorbed, but the band succeeds with the mid-tempo acoustic-based rock that brought them to national attention. “You Can’t Count On Me” has a sweet jangle and “On Almost Any Sunday Morning” perfectly replicates that “Sunday Morning Coming Down” that Kris Kristofferson once eloquently put into song. That’s where Counting Crows deliver on their promise as a no-nonsense band of the people.