The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Counting Crows

[#] This Desert Life (1999)

Clear-headed and tuneful about confusion.

Reviewed July 6, 2026

With a catalog so taken to melodrama, This Desert Life sees Counting Crows doing the unthinkable: a bit of restraint and a bit of fun. The record starts with a sozzled hootenanny and ends with the band joking around with a spaceman over the talkback. It's half of what makes This Desert Life so much more enjoyable than what came before—the other half, of course, is that the songs are just better. The aforementioned "Hanginaround" turns "Round Here" into a handclap singalong. Long songs like "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" and "I Wish I Was a Girl" are strong on fundamentals and sharp lyrics, building up and taking down with zero fat to cut. "Colorblind" is one of the starkest, most arresting piano ballads Counting Crows have.

Yeah, I've made no secret of my love for this album in the past. This is Counting Crows' realizing that contrast and timing is everything. It doesn't sprawl, and it doesn't get bogged down in its sadness (though there is plenty to go around). When it does mope, it's built on buzzing soundscapes ("Amy Hit the Atmosphere") and simple, twangy accompaniments ("Speedway"), effective at being good songs as much as big bundles of feelings. Again, it's the weird and slightly chipper side of the Crows that buoy up the sads, whether it's a organ-fueled stream-of-consciousness ramble about a car and a ballerina, or a country-rock barnburner about love making you feel young again after ten minutes of silence. God, it's hard even picking Essential tracks from this one. Now when's this getting a vinyl repressing?

Essential:	"Colorblind", "I Wish I Was a Girl", "Speedway"
Quintessential:	"All My Friends"
Non-Essential:	$1000 used vinyl copies
Rating:
Further listening:	"How the Goldfish Man Changed My Life" on Letters From Somnolescent