the spot that I have for this era of music is very soft

undo wrote:Kinda want to post "Sowing the Seeds of Love" in here (definitely one of the definitive songs that made me want to start some kind of thread like this in the first place) but it's like three years older than I thought it was. Like, I can close my eyes and remember sitting in front of my boombox in my bedroom and hearing that song on the radio right after something like "Pets" by Porno For Pyros or "Numb" by U2 but if these memories are actually accurate, then I was fooled into believing that it was a new song and not something that was released and peaked in 1989.

I'm a big fan of Break It Down Again from 1993, which seems on-brand for this thread.

techno raj wrote:
I'm a big fan of Break It Down Again from 1993, which seems on-brand for this thread.

This is definitely the song I must have meant to post and it fits into the timeline in a way I wasn't expecting. I always assumed this was one of their 80s hits, a song that defined the decade second only to "Head Over Heels" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"! I was so certain that "Seeds" was their final hit here or possibly anywhere.

Seeds was probably their creative peak, as long as you don't mind the Beatles worship too much, which I don't. So I think your reaction makes sense; it's not hard to see Break It Down Again (basically a Roland Orzabal solo joint) as a step back to safer territory after the dissolution of the band's core partnership, much as I like it.

techno raj wrote:

undo wrote:Kinda want to post "Sowing the Seeds of Love" in here (definitely one of the definitive songs that made me want to start some kind of thread like this in the first place) but it's like three years older than I thought it was. Like, I can close my eyes and remember sitting in front of my boombox in my bedroom and hearing that song on the radio right after something like "Pets" by Porno For Pyros or "Numb" by U2 but if these memories are actually accurate, then I was fooled into believing that it was a new song and not something that was released and peaked in 1989.

I'm a big fan of Break It Down Again from 1993, which seems on-brand for this thread.

Sickpup praising this song, you calling it like the best song of the decade, and Sickpup responding like "Easy there" is one of the random ass SOMB interactions I think about every once in a while for no great reason.

Oh yeah, I don't remember that specifically, but that absolutely sounds like a weird claim I would have made back then.

I guess while we're on the topic of Tears for Fears-based confusion, I until fairly recently thought this was a Tears for Fears song:

I was singing that while washing dishes yesterday.

Once every other year or so, I look up who actually does that song but then I quickly forget it almost immediately.

Was reminded of this song's existence in another thread.



I never cared for it.

Well I formed my opinion of it when I was a dumb 12ish year old myself and I can tell you this song was super popular around here so I wouldn't assume you were the one who was wrong.

This is the corniest group in the world and I hate them but the ambience of this album opener always got to me and it's maybe the only song they have where I actually like the sound of his voice. The lyrics are the kind of poetry that message board wannabe-crit kids try to dunk on to sound smart but rarely raise any valid critiques against; the opening verse is pretty much perfect. No way I'm watching this music video though, sorry.

Currently asking myself if the Counting Crows truly are the corniest band ever and if not them, who?

undo wrote:
The lyrics are the kind of poetry that message board wannabe-crit kids try to dunk on to sound smart but rarely raise any valid critiques against; the opening verse is pretty much perfect.

This is the second time in a week a post of yours has reminded me of an Andrew Unterberger blog post from over a decade ago but I guess I'll skip the link this time and just say that yes that opening line is pretty great.

But these guys had some jams. Still get legitimately excited listening to this:

I remember reading an old-even-at-the-time SOMB thread where Paul or whomever* counted down the top 250 singles of 1995 - 2005 and there was a Counting Crows song followed by Undo saying 'inexcusable'

*this is correct usage, right? 'Paul or him' makes more sense than 'Paul or he', w/e, I'm dumb

Soma wrote:I remember reading an old-even-at-the-time SOMB thread where Paul or whomever* counted down the top 250 singles of 1995 - 2005 and there was a Counting Crows song followed by Undo saying 'inexcusable'

*this is correct usage, right? 'Paul or him' makes more sense than 'Paul or he', w/e, I'm dumb

I don't remember this but I love it

Duff... wrote:

undo wrote:
The lyrics are the kind of poetry that message board wannabe-crit kids try to dunk on to sound smart but rarely raise any valid critiques against; the opening verse is pretty much perfect.

This is the second time in a week a post of yours has reminded me of an Andrew Unterberger blog post from over a decade ago but I guess I'll skip the link this time and just say that yes that opening line is pretty great.

But these guys had some jams. Still get legitimately excited listening to this:

This song has been utterly lost to time, and that's a shame because it was probably the best thing they ever got on the radio and they have several songs that are absolute duds even by Train/Maroon 5 standards that somehow made the cut as modern classics that are locked into seemingly permanent radio rotation

Spoiler:

Hangin' around this town on the corner
I been bummin' around this old town too long

Okay, well that's not the worst way you could start a chorus. Let's hear the rest of it!

Spoiler:

undo wrote:

This song has been utterly lost to time, and that's a shame because it was probably the best thing they ever got on the radio

Agreed, and when it came out kids were psyched about it. Who knows how these things work.

For the lame list:

Duff... wrote:Was reminded of this song's existence in another thread.



I never cared for it.

I definitely remember this being on Q101 when it was new. They definitely skipped over the entire first album but I suppose the station probably wasn't even alternative rock at that point yet, and it wasn't like anyone else in America was into the band before this. Anyone who tells you otherwise is absolutely lying. A couple years later I learned how to play most of the opening riffs of this song on guitar for some reason. I could never do it now.

I don't know how I found out that there was supposed to be something more to them than "Love Spreads" or Second Coming. In 2000 I downloaded all the songs on some official "500 Best Rock Songs Ever" list and "I Wanna Be Adored" or "Fools Gold" was on there.

^Stories don't get much cooler than that.

Feeling every single post about the Counting Crows ITT. "Round Here" verse 1 is perfect poetry and "Angels of the Silences" is a forgotten banger extraordinaire.

And they're corny as shit too.

I was at a Cal Bears basketball game that Adam Duritz - that's his name, right? - also attended. He got up and yelled during the halftime dancing part - UC Berkeley being sort of ahead of its time in terms of egalitarianism, had all types of different dance "troupes" and bodies featured at halftime - that "spandex is a privilege, not a right." That's the sort of sentence that sucks more and more every year.

BGwaves wrote:What’s your relationship to the opening? Did you own this album when you were younger? No judgement, I’m just curious how you developed feelings for the opening.

I owned this album when I was a kid because there was a very finite amount of music that was in the air at any given time and you would be hard pressed to avoid or not give yourself into it. I owned the first two Counting Crows albums. I owned the first two Hootie and the Blowfish albums. I owned the first two Collective Soul albums. I owned the first two (actual) Dave Matthews Band albums. I also owned Four by Blues Traveler, but never came back for a second helping of them and I think that says something.

People who talk about being in middle school and going to punk shows and being into Fugazi or riot grrl bands or listening to 1st/2nd gen emo that never got played on the radio, speak to an alien experience that feels too perfect to me to even be real. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, you could not congregate with other kids even if you wanted to and there was no way to physically get music that didn't get played on the radio. Product like this just magically appeared on the radio and you could choose between listening to it and loving it or just staring at a wall in silence and not letting yourself feel the thrill of being swept up in the teenage corporate rock experience in whatever form that took for you.

Most of this music really sucked but the adolescent memories and emotions I have are bonded to it so strongly that I cannot separate them completely no matter how hard I try. I could probably count on one hand how much this happened in the second half of the 90s; Smashmouth, Matchbox 20, Tonic... the pickings were quickly growing slim! I cannot explain why I like "Round Here," and there are definitely parts of it that I don't like at all. Maybe I just wanted to bump my own thread?

Michael K. wrote:I was at a Cal Bears basketball game that Adam Duritz - that's his name, right? - also attended. He got up and yelled during the halftime dancing part - UC Berkeley being sort of ahead of its time in terms of egalitarianism, had all types of different dance "troupes" and bodies featured at halftime - that "spandex is a privilege, not a right." That's the sort of sentence that sucks more and more every year.

What year was this? Just curious.