These are various different album covers that the Counting Crows have used. For our digipak, we have to create an album cover ourselves, so it is a good place to start by looking at the common features of the original albums.
A fairly easy feature to pick out is the consistent use of the colour orange. It is a colour that goes well in with the indie genre, and relates to the light heartedness of the majoriyt of the songs the band does. Obviously there are a few exceptions where the band has gone for a slightly darker approach, but that isn't relevant to us.
Generally, the album covers are fairly simplistic. This is something we would like to try and emulate ourselves. Indie is a fairly simplistic genre in terms of the sounds and styles, so it is appropiate to do that again.
The band comes from San Franisco bay area, and is made up of:
Vocals - Adam Duritiz
Guitar- David Bryson, David Immergluck and Dan Vickery
Keyboard- Jim Bogios
20 million albums sold worldwide, Eight Top 5 singles, and four records having broken the Top 5 on the Billboard 200, Counting Crows success dates back to their 1993 debut release "August And Everything After" and the hit single “Mr. Jones.”
Subsequent albums include Recovering the Satellites (1996), Across A Wire: Live in NY (1998), This Desert Life (1999) and Hard Candy (2002) which featured the band’s Top 10 cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”. The Crows boast another # 1 hit with the song “Accidentally In Love,” which was featured on the Shrek 2 soundtrack, and honoured with nominations in 2005 for a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.
This is the music video/ song that we decided to do for our coursework, unless our audience disagree with our chosen song.
We chose this song because it was short, so this would be easier for us since there are only two of us, and also because we had lots of ideas for making our remake of this song as the lyrics are very inspiring and descriptive.
Here are the lyrics of the song:
So she said "What's the problem baby?"
What's the problem? I don't know
Well, maybe I'm in love ( love )
I think about it every time
I think about it
Can't stop thinking 'bout it
How much longer will it take to cure this?
Just to cure it cause I can't ignore it
If it's love ( love )
Makes me wanna turn around and face me
But I don't know nothing 'bout love
Come on, come on
Turn a little faster
Come on, come on
The world will follow after
Come on, come on
Cause everybody's after looooveeeeee.
So I said "I'm a snowball running
Running down into the spring that's coming"
All this love
melting under blue skies
Belting out sunlight
Shimmering love
Well, baby, I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever ender
All this love
Well I didn't mean to do it
But there's no escaping your love
These lines of lightning
Mean we're never alone,
Never alone, no, no
Come on, Come on
Move a little closer
Come on, Come on
I want to hear you whisper
Come on, Come on
Settle down inside my love
Come on, come on
Jump a little higher
Come on, come on
If you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on
We were once upon a time in love
We're accidentally in love
Accidentally in love…
I'm In Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
Accidentally…
Come on, come on
Spin a little tighter
Come on, come on
And the world's a little brighter
Come on, come on
Just get yourself inside her
Love!...I'm in love!
This was written for the Shrek 2. It appears near the beginning of the movie. Lead singer Adam Duritz said of it: "I was really struggling with it. I generally don't write songs on demand, and I almost got to the point where I thought I wasn't going to do it. They just told me that the song had to be uplifting. They actually said, 'Don't write a song about Shrek. Write a song that's about you.' The funny thing is, the song ended up reflecting a lot of what was going on in my life at the time: falling in love with someone you're not supposed to fall in love with because it's inconvenient. My songs for Counting Crows are mature and generally don't get a chance to reach kids. To be part of something like that is pretty cool."
