Counting Crows’ second album, 1996’s Recovering the Satellites, was a bit of a letdown from August and Everything After, but I’ve grown to appreciate it over the years. Initially it felt a little too hard and a little too all over the place.
And I’ll admit, the extended coda of the otherwise excellent song ‘Miller’s Angels’ annoyed me so much that it turned me off the whole album for awhile. Duritz occasionally suffers from that Sting syndrome of not wanting to let songs end. And he can be a bit too in love with his own voice sometimes, noodling around with a phrase until you’re ready to smack him.
But that complaint aside, Recovering the Satellites emerges as a solid effort that avoids the fabled sophomore slump.