As soon as the sound of Dan Vickrey’s telecaster pipes in through the speakers in the form of the opening chords of Underwater Sunshine‘s first track, the untitled love song, any fears about the album being a bad one are immediately suspended. The follow-up song, "Start Again", works well with the untitled track to set the mood for the rest of the content on its way.
For bands like Counting Crows, who focus on their songwriting more than anything else, a short song is a good song. There’s no need for lengthy instrumental solos or repetitive chorus lines. The Crows seem to have taken this lesson into account, and did a lovely job of writing their songs to be just long enough to be complete.
The previously aforementioned Mr. Vickrey’s guitar work, while not an impressive statement in the world of guitar-swinging blues-monkeys and metal-junkies, certainly lends itself perfectly to the Crows’ masterful songwriting. It is also worth noting that, in response to judgmental metal players, telecasters are difficult guitars to play, and the average shred-head would find that he simply couldn’t make a chord or a note sound as clean as Vickrey. To the angry blues players, there need not be a response. Dan Vickrey knows something they don’t – chords.
Regarding the voice of Mr. Adam Duritz, it must be noted that he possess a great amount of power and volume, even if he does not choose to fully employ it very often. This alone is a fantastic advantage for him, and makes him worthy of respect. At any rate, Duritz has found his niche and adapted to it quite well, as the soulful, intimate balladeer.
This is not a high-energy album. Even the more up-beat, friendly (despite the lyrical content) songs like "Amie" are given a relatively mellow delivery. This makes the album an extremely pleasant, low-key listening experience that is certainly a repeatable experience.
The mandatory identification of an album’s negative traits is easily fulfilled. Despite the fact that the majority of Counting Crows’ audience is decidedly not a teenage demographic, this particular album could very easily be written off as ‘another feeling-laced teenager album.’ To a skeptic, an emotionally jaded individual or a veteran of music, the lyrical content itself could be labeled as shallow, or even thoughtless, regardless of how catchy their hooks are, or even of the fact that, content aside, the lyrics are written quite well.
To an individual with broad musical tastes, the album can also be a bit difficult to get through. One may consider dividing it with a bit of swing, or classic rock – whatever serves the purpose of breaking up the monotony best.
To summarize for those readers who haven’t the time or patience to submit themselves to an entire written review, Underwater Sunshine is a thoroughly pleasant work that does the talent present within Counting Crows justice, and contains just enough guitar work and musical substance to keep other musicians happy, and just enough up-beat fun material to break up track after track of delicious, soul-melting balladie goodness.
MP3 Stream: "Meet On the Ledge"
