Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation)


Underwater Sunshine is the sixth studio album by American rock band Counting Crows, released on April 10, 2012, on Cooking Vinyl. The album is composed of cover songs, with vocalist Adam Duritz stating, "Sometimes it's great to play someone else's music and try to make it your own. Sometimes it's great just because it's fun."
Produced by both the band and Shawn Dealy, the album includes compositions from the 1960s through to the 2010s, and features songs written by band's early contemporaries, Tender Mercies and Sordid Humor, both of which included members of Counting Crows before the formation of the band.

Background and recording

In March 2009, Counting Crows left Geffen Records, becoming independent recording artists for the first time in eighteen years. The band subsequently decided to record a covers album as their first independent release, with vocalist Adam Duritz noting, "it seemed a good time for it." In April 2011, the band began recording Underwater Sunshine, in Burbank, California, with sound engineer Shawn Dealey co-producing the sessions. Brian Deck, who had previously produced the latter half of the band's previous double album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, mixed the album. The band collaborated to choose their favorite songs to record.
The band worked on versions of Stereophonics' "Local Boy in the Photograph" and Joe Jackson's "It's Different for Girls" during the recording process; however they were not included in the final track listing. They continued to write original songs while recording the album.
The band commissioned fans to create the album's artwork.

Critical reception

The album has received mixed reviews. Hot Press Edwin McFee who wrote that its "spirit of adventure infuses the opus with a sense of fun and excitement." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian gave the album three out of five stars, remarking that it seems a "waste of energy" to release an album of covers, but a few of the tracks were surprisingly fresh. Writing for Daily Express, Simon Gage called the country rock feel of the album "surprisingly lovely", but gave the effort only three out of five stars. An Associated Press review was particularly positive, highlighting the country influence, saying that it "feels like a comfortable pair of jeans."
Another three star review came from Matt Melis of Consequence of Sound who mentioned the country rock stylings on the songs and remarked that the album "doesn't reward listeners with definitive versions or perfect takes. Rather, it's sprinkled with 'keeper' moments and variations on originals that feel just right."
A negative review came from Irish Independents John Meagher, who criticized both the song selection and the performances on the album as bland and no better than the originals.

Charts

Track listing

  1. "Untitled " by The Romany Rye – 5:07
  2. "Start Again" by Teenage Fanclub – 3:33
  3. "Hospital" by Coby Brown – 3:08
  4. "Mercy" by Tender Mercies – 3:31
  5. "Meet on the Ledge" by Fairport Convention – 3:37
  6. "Like Teenage Gravity" by Kasey Anderson – 5:10
  7. "Amie" by Pure Prairie League – 4:33
  8. "Coming Around" by Travis – 2:59
  9. "Ooh La La" by Faces – 4:37
  10. "All My Failures" by Dawes – 4:37
  11. "Return of the Grievous Angel" by Gram Parsons – 4:22
  12. "Four White Stallions" by Tender Mercies – 4:00
  13. "Jumping Jesus" by Sordid Humor – 3:04
  14. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" by Bob Dylan and The Byrds – 4:19
  15. "The Ballad of El Goodo" by Big Star – 4:49
  17. "Borderline" by Madonna – 4:18
  18. "Girl from the North Country" by Bob Dylan – 5:52

    Personnel