Bob’s Jukebox: Recovering the Satellites

I’ve been away for a while due to holidays and technical issues, so I thought I’d do something a little different this time. Nah, just kidding. Back to the early Nineties we go!

More serious and reflective than the earnest and, dare I say, innocent sound of their debut album August and Everything After, Recovering the Satellites is an unusually effective and affecting sophomore outing for Counting Crows. From what little I understand of the music industry, this tends to be because record executives like to “strike while the iron is hot” as it were, which is to say they don’t want to spend more money promoting a band they already spent money promoting while they already have songs on the radio. So, the push is on to get another album out practically as soon as the first one is done (sometimes even before the first one is done). This tends to result in a significantly less… well, less album, for lack of a better way to say it. Whatever it was that made the first album spectacular (or even tolerable) tends to be missing, because it was often the work of years, and the record execs want it in months, and inspiration and artistry can’t be turned on and off like a faucet.

Fortunately for us, Counting Crows waited three years (and apparently did a fair bit of touring) before releasing their second album. The tone is a bit more somber and introspective, which pretty well fit the mood of the time judging by the top albums of the year (and no, I don’t care that Celine Dion is on that list. If anything, that just proves that people felt like the end times were only a few years away, and they were trying to suck up to the Antichrist*). Either way, it made for a solid evolution for the band, moving them forward without being so different that fans were unable to identify with their sound anymore (Metallica, I’m looking in your direction). And speaking as a fan, I have to say I very much enjoy the entire album. So, let’s break it down.

The first track, “Catapult”, feels like it could have been on August, but it would have been one of the more somber songs on the album (it’s a bit more somber in tone than “A Murder of One”, if not subject matter). “Angels of the Silences” may well be my favorite song on the album; a powerful and poignant song with driving guitars and a surprisingly deep message if you take the time to listen. “Daylight Fading” is a fine song, well-constructed and performed with a bit of a western twang to it. “I’m Not Sleeping” could also have been off of August, but again it lacks the innocence of that album; it has an edge to it that the former album lacked, which is not a slight to either album but simply an acknowledgement of reality; in fact, the song even states it:

Spend my nights in self defense
Cry about my innocence
But I ain’t all that innocent anymore, more, more, more

“Goodnight Elisabeth” is a beautiful song by itself, but it also reminds me of someone I knew decades ago, which gives it a special personal meaning to me. “Monkey” is a cute song, fun basic pop. Otherwise, it’s another one that reminds me of someone I used to know which also gives it special personal meaning. (And no, I’m not going to talk about either of them, so don’t bother asking.)

“Children in Bloom” is fine, although to be honest I find it a bit self-indulgent. That’s not to say I don’t listen to it, but it really depends on my mood. If I’m in the mood to listen to anything and everything Counting Crows, absolutely. If I’m just listening to the songs I particularly care for, I tend to skip right past it. “Another Horsedreamer’s Blues” is far more to my taste and seems to me to be what “Children in Bloom” is trying to be, even if it never quite gets there. It has a restrained urgency to it, a desperate yearning and subdued anger that at the same time feels somehow on the edge of hopeful.

“Have You Seen Me Lately?” is fine. It’s bouncy background music, mostly standard pop, but it does have an edge of harshness and even a bit of bitterness born from experience that works for it. It’s like the bit of lemon that cuts through the sweetness of a cola. “Miller’s Angels” is pretty, if somber.

The title track, “Recovering the Satellites”, is kinda middlin’ and kinda maudlin. Another one that I don’t mind listening to, but I wouldn’t seek it out specifically. “Mercury” is a pop song with a funky southwestern twist. It’s a good track, worth listening to.

And at last, we come to “A Long December”. Look, I love this song. It’s a great song. Sweet, sad, poignant. If you somehow haven’t heard it, rectify that situation right the fuck now. Yes, that was aggressive, but seriously, I think it’s a great song, and everyone should hear it once. Once.

See, I have a couple of friends who post “A Long December” toward the end of the year on Facebook (for obvious reasons), and I have to say, with all the kindness, love, and respect I can – let it go. Please, find your inner Elsa and Let. It. Go. This is a tradition that, much like my own gone and in no way lamented tradition of listening to Pink Floyd’s “Time” every year on my birthday, has far outlasted any value it may have once had. Just to be clear, this album was released in 1996. That’s almost thirty years of “A Long December”. It’s been long enough. And this is coming from a guy whose sister told him he was stuck in the Nineties, and I wear her scorn as a badge of honor.

“Walkaways” honestly feels like the perfect way to finish the album. Simple, bittersweet, ambivalent, like the album itself.

What’s my takeaway? If you are a Counting Crows fan, you should already have this album. If you don’t, why not? If you’re new to Counting Crows, I suggest starting with August and Everything After. I think it would just be a little too hard to walk back to after starting here, although probably far from impossible. There’s enough good music here, and certainly enough great music here, to make the whole album a solid buy and a solid listen all the way through at least once, although on subsequent listens you’ll probably be sticking to your favorite tracks (although please do me a favor and don’t post them to social media.)

*I’m not saying Celine Dion is the Antichrist. I’m also not not saying it.