Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

Untitled

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the title for the forthcoming fifth studio album from Counting Crows.

According to guitarist Dan Vickrey, "The idea at the moment is to have kind of a rocking side and then an acoustic-y, maybe country-ish side."

Frontman Adam Duritz confirmed that the former half of the record was produced by Gil Norton, who also produced the band's second album, Recovering the Satellites. Duritz explained the working title: "Saturday night is when you sin and Sunday is when you regret. Sinning is often done very loudly, angrily, bitterly, violently."

Duritz added: "The end of Saturday Nights is '1492'... probably the hardest, darkest song we've ever played. It's about my utter disintegration – alcohol and blow jobs in underground bars in Italy and a total loss of self. Sunday Mornings is not about redemption, but how you come out of degradation."

The album consists of fourteen tracks, six of which fall on the "Saturday Nights" side.

In a March 16, 2007 blog entry, Duritz indicated that Brian Deck produced the latter half of the album. Deck is perhaps best known for his production work on Modest Mouse's album The Moon and Antarctica.

On May 10, 2007, Duritz confirmed on his blog that the band had completed recording the album and had begun mixing. In July 2007, Duritz announced a tentative November 2007 release date for the album. On September 27, 2007, Duritz announced that the band had asked Geffen Records to postpone the album's release until early 2008, citing the time pressures involved in preparing both the new album and the deluxe edition of August and Everything After for release.

A new song, "Washington Square", was previewed at the band's June 18, 2006 performance in Washington, Pennsylvania. Other tentative song titles for the new album include "Come Around", "Cowboys", "Anyone But You", "You Can't Count on Me", "There Goes Everything", "Le Ballet D'or", "Hanging Tree", "Insignificant", "When I Dream of Michelangelo", "1492", and "Suffocate". The origins of some of these songs predate Recovering the Satellites.

At the Louisville, Kentucky show on the band's 2007 summer tour, Adam stated that "Cowboys" was the first song on the Saturday Nights portion of the disc and "Washington Square" was the first song on Sunday Mornings. He added that "Insignificant" would be the second track on Saturday Nights.

On December 21, 2007, the band announced that the album will be released in the U.S. on March 25, 2008.

On January 16, 2008, the band released a digital EP as a free download on their official website. It comprises the songs "1492" and "When I Dream Of Michelangelo."

The lead single is "You Can't Count on Me", a track from the "Sunday Morning" side. It was released to radio on February 4.

Track list

On January 28, 2008 the complete track list was posted to countingcrows.com.

Saturday Nights

1. 1492
2. Hanging Tree
3. Los Angeles
4. Sundays
5. Insignificant
6. Cowboys ("Cowboys" on YouTube)

Sunday Mornings

1. Washington Square
2. On Almost any Sunday Morning
3. When I Dream of Michelangelo
4. Anyone But You
5. You Can't Count on Me
6. Le Ballet D'or
7. On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago
8. Come Around