Album: Counting Crows, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings (Geffen)

In many ways, Counting Crows suffer from a Stateside version of the Supergrass syndrome.

Following a 1994 debut album that sold over seven million copies was never going to be easy, but here they still are, on album five, earnestly and heartfeltly channelling Van Morrison for the "whatever" generation. The Crows have, though, attempted here to add something new to the mix: a "rock out" side one followed by a more-familiar acoustic-based side two (Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, get it?). It all gets a bit U2 meets REM, but there are, at least, enough chunky choruses to keep the customers satisfied.