if you wanted to be free

you can't count on me ~ counting crows (live, video)

the new album is out next tuesday, and though i have listened to a leaked version, i will not post songs here. i plan on buying it as soon as it is available, as i have a great deal of love and respect for this band, and i encourage you all to do the same. it is an incredible album, well worth the wait.

it is a bit of a concept/theme album, entitled saturday nights and sunday mornings, meant to set the mood for both moods. the first half of the album is the equivalent of getting out into the city, the sparkle and shine, and the hard edges, that we take out into the night; hard, rough, raw, with lyrics such as the following, from the opening song, 1492:

"past railway cars and tranny-whores,

and mornings spreading out across the feathered thighs of angels,

oh where did we disappear to?"

the second half of the album is the morning-after sunday. hungover, with those inescapable regrets and the harsh light of the mirror. i know from adam duritz' blog that he has been doing a lot of soul searching and personal recovery lately, and it shows - if nothing else, then in the brutally honest lyrics on songs like the one featured in the attached video (and the band's first single), you can't count on me:

"coming along real good,

but i still can't do most of the things i should;

i watch the sky coming down to bury me,

and i can't stop this crawling out of my skin.

i know that you see yourself flying in,

out of the sky,

coming down to carry me,
but i won't come out.

so, if you think you need to go,

if you wanted to be free,

there's one thing you need to know,

and that's that you can't count on me.

no, you can't count on me."