August vs. Satellites

After finishing college, I've worked for Atlantic records as a talent scout for about two years. I'm pretty low on the A&R totum pole, but let me share with you some of the buzz that's going on around Atlantic... given the diversity of opinions (scouts from all over the country) I think that the opinions I've heard could be called a "General Response" on the part of the music industry for the new album.

August and Everything After was a record company dream because it was a debut album that boasted more than two singles. Furthermore, songs that weren't released as singles were strong in their own right... a cash cow if you will. The thing is though, that the listening public is really complex. It's a weird combination of some of the shortest attention spans, with some of the most fixated listening ears. What that means is that while the public is never interested in hearing a band that does the same thing over and over, when it finds a band that is good- it wants that band to sort of "stay that way".

I think the industry opinion of Satellites is that it will automatically do well (commercially) because it's a follow-up to a debut. On the other hand, a few things will keep it from ever being perceived in the same way. One of those things is that the band released an unbelievable debut album. How do you follow that up with something equally impressive? It's really tough. When a band is working to get signed, their debut album can almost be considered a "compilation" of their best songwriting to date. Essentially, Duritz may have started writing Mr. Jones in 1988 and finally finished it (after much reworking) five years later. A follow-up album gives you less than two years to tour, relax, write songs, AND record them. It's not easy. Often, the only way for a second album to be held in high esteem is for the band to do a sort of "repeat". A good example is "Verses" from Pearl Jam. I like the album alot, but when I first got it, I thought it was too similar to "Ten." This turned out to be a blessing-in-disguise for them because even now, three albums later, people are pissed off because the band tried different things with No Code.

As a Crows fan, I'm happy to see that they're exploring new sounds. I get the idea that they didn't necessarily have different emotions to convey, but instead, that they chose different ways to express them. They wanted a harder sound.

But if you notice, the single that has really caught on "Long December" for example is much more reminiscent of the old album than the earlier singles on the album. I don't know if "...Elisabeth" has been released yet, but I'm sure that its release will eventually save this album on a commercial level because people don't seem to be ready for Counting Crows to try new things (just yet). It's a pity because I think that at their ages, they're interested trying new things... I think that they've all been involved in the lighter/August type sounds long enough that they want to move on. Why else would there be electric guitar solos on the album?