4/5
Buttersweet.
BTS, the South Korean pop goliath have just released their second all English language single to follow-up their explosive 'Dynamite' Summer smash. And with lyrics like, "Oh, when I look in the mirror/I'll melt your heart into two/I got that superstar glow so (Ooh)/Do the boogie like", 'Butter' is set to spread across airwaves until they burrow back in the studio before we hear their next earworm. But mellow yellow is this the Summer of Butter like Esquire magazine called it? Because on the exact same day the K Pop giants broke YouTube premiere records again with their release, one of America's most storied drive-time bands of that golden era of the 90's have come back with their first new material in seven years. Even if it all seems like yesterday like The Beatles. Just look at the album artwork. Something that BTS themselves would be proud of. A woman drenched in yellow lying seductively next to a spread. Knife in hand, ready to cut through your heart like you know what. Buttercups that you used to playfully tickle under your friends chin as children behind her with yellow wax candles set to melt everything like leaving the dairy product out of the fridge over night that the delightfully offbeat Jeff Goldblum talked about mid-song on his own jazz suite album. Oh yeah and her face...no her whole head, a crispy piece of toast smothered in the dairy product just the way I like it as I butter myself into an early grave. Not for the cholestral faint of hearted, the Counting Crows are back with their new EP, 'Butter Miracle Suite One'.
Mr. Jones, ever since their seven million selling, 1993 debuting classic this Berkley band have been an American institution like 'August and Everything After'. Think Billy Joel meets Dave Matthews Band at the side of the road, or stage. Tuning their cars, guitars, or pianos. Adam Duritz may have chopped off those iconic dreads, looking like 'Man vs Food', but this butter on butter artery violence is good enough to go up against the biggest group in the world, even if this four-track after 2014's rabbit hole return of 'Somewhere Under Wonderland' is only an extended play and not a full album. No matter. The California classic act that once took a Joni 'Big Yellow Taxi' with Vanessa Carlton when she was so huge she could play piano in the middle of the road like Björk's 'Big Time Sensuality' and everyone would just stop and stare have plenty of platinum plaques for all of that. The rocking, 'Recovering The Satellites'. 'This Deser Life' and the 'Colorblind' look through the Hollywood looking glass into the 'Cruel Intentions' sexy soundtrack of lust and love. The 'Hard Candy' tin of Taxi and collaborations with 'American Girls' of the country like Sheryl Crow. The 'Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings' of a band coming to terms with their time from the party to the preacher. And who could forget the 'Underwater Sunshine' of 'What We Did On Our Summer Vacation'? It's been a long time since the 'Accidently In Love' Shrek 2 nominated band have been round here. "Counting crows feet" like a classic 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee' Meets 'Between Two Ferns' Zach Galifianakis joke about Jerry Seinfeld. But "stepping out the front door like a ghost in a fog" it's so good to have them back where they belong in song.
Grammy family members can really be counted on and stone the crows if this EP won't spread into a formidable full-length by the fall. They once told screamed at you in the 'Jurassic Park' sequel starring Goldblum, 'The Lost World' to not go into 'The Tall Grass'. But that was because of Raptors, not these reeds. Springsteen storytelling with lyrics like, "Oh, she takes a train to Paris/For a weekend with a friend/They take you places/Trains and summers/At 200 miles an hour/That you’ve never been/Did I ever say/The way your breath/Takes mine away" that feel as good as a Bordeaux on the streets of Pairs, flowing like the Seine behind. Taking us higher than the moon on 'Elevator Boots' Duritz is back in his groove singing, "Bobby was a kid from round the town/Kicks pumped up and head held down/Underwater more than he was up/He dreamed submarines in bottle green/Imaginary flight machines/But in blue jean flares he bubbled like a 7up", like a young sprite. But it's the 'Angel Of 14th Street' that really hits in New York City like Amy and the atmosphere. Count this as a crows classic. All before the fall of the 'Butter Suite' closer (for now) 'Bobby and the Rat-Kings', stalking the subways like a pack of Dino's and ole blue eyes. "I saw Dorothy in drag/Taking the Tin Man for a ride/And then Z the Cat said she knew where to go/Then she kissed me without a thought/And said “Sometimes memories are all that we got/So come on boy, let’s make some at the show”, the song sings as this group reunites for the memories they left and the new ones they give us. And how suite this one is. The Counting Crows are back. It's a miracle and we're all butter off. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'The Tall Grass', 'Elevator Boots', 'Angel Of 14th Street'.
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