Big Yellow Taxi

by

Counting Crows

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Counting Crows is one of the only decent things to have happened in music, in my opinion, in the last decade.

Increasingly, the music scene has been dominated by no-talent pretty faces singing heavily produced, sugar coated bubble pop, while Counting Crows is a sorrowful, soalful folk rock act that Ive always loved. Thats what makes this so painful and unexpected.

'Hard Candy' the album from which this single comes is produced by the inimitable Steve Lillywhite, but his concept here seems to have been to turn the Crows into a shiny-happy-poppyseed band, with this remake being the most agrevious sin on the disc. Admittedly, Mitchell's version wasnt very good, much as I like her, and from a career angle this was about the best thing the struggling Crows could have done. But it makes me miss the days when Duritz and Co. got big radio hits ala Mr Jones and Long December, all by themselves like big boys. The remake is alot of fun, but in the same sort of way that a naked cheerleader is fun: a great, quick time to be had, but dont expect a discussion of Nietzche when you two finish up. Likewise, its painful for fans of the Crows' real sound and lyrical depth to see them resort to this sort of thing. Everything else on the single is worth having.