Counting Crows – Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! Review

Just over a decade on from their last album, and four years since their first Butter Miracle, Counting Crows returns. Dissatisfaction with the originally written material prompted a rewrite, which then expanded into more than an EP of material. Adam Duritz shared Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, as an act of change. A chance to defy expectation. Be it shaving his dreadlocks or coming to terms with subconscious expectations for ourselves or others, his recent writings have mused on the familiar stretch, from touring to the essentials of life. Backed by a tremendous instrumental tone, the depths of Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! are made all the better by the defiant tone taken, the modernisation of their sound. Counting Crows may be four years removed from their most recent release, but this latest album has them catch up to their contemporaries with ease. 

For the uninitiated, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! will serve as a brilliant overview of both Duritz as a songwriter with stories to tell and a nod to the ever-present flourishes of a great group. Opener With Love from A-Z is a stellar opener, with its rolling melodies and instrumental independence, the real heart is the ongoing story, the ever-present lyrical flourishes which the band backs with glee. Counting Crows never loses their sense of pleasure in performing, and it informs the slightly darker, suggestive lyrical observations from Duritz. He walks the line of intimate detail and no-frills rock and roll with Spaceman in Tulsa, an out-there song which revolves around the desire to be a rock and roll star. Unfortunately for Counting Crows, they are more than they wish to be. There is heart to their lyrics, skill and nuance to their playing, and it makes Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, one of their very best efforts.  

Politically pertinent commentaries on the uplifting rock structure of Boxcars sounds a tad too reminiscent, but they are heartwarming in their honesty. A sprinkle of news here, a desire to surgically remove the troubles of the time there, these are the moments of hope and futility blurred together. It is a feeling shared with the listener, an individual who cannot enact much change themselves. Counting Crows hit all the right subjects with this release, the heartland rock-adjacent fawning on Virginia Through the Rain is delightful, as is the pleasant rock structure of follow-up song Under the Aurora. Duritz and the band deliver this new material with a welcome conviction, a confidence which moulds those usually soppy strings into a part of the structure, rather than a defining piece of the song. What a surprise, a pleasant one too, to hear the band create with a daring energy to their decision-making.  

Duritz remains an incredible storyteller and Counting Crows stand tall as a band in the right place, backing these Bruce Springsteen-like occasions. The Tall Grass is nothing short of staggering. A bit of a sluggish transition into Elevator Boots, but it feels like the end of a chapter, an ongoing story kept alive by the sudden change in tone. We wish to be someone else because the life we have now is what we have gotten used to. That appears to be the message of the long and winding story presented on Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, with its consistent lyrics and warm instrumentals. Counting Crows are back with a bang, their ingenuity and constant push for innovation, be it in the stories they tell or in the music they deliver, remains a charming part of their discography. Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! is a treat indeed.