Counting Crows released nearly a dozen studio and live albums between 1993 and 2014, including six that reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s chart and four that sold at least a million copies each. Things quieted down considerably after that, however, as lead singer and songwriter Adam Duritz turned his attention to other projects such as podcasting and investing in wineries. “I was kind of burnt out on music in a lot of ways,” he once told Forbes.

However, a four-song EP, billed as a suite, finally appeared in 2021. And now, in 2025, the San Francisco–based group has delivered Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, its first full-length studio album in more than a decade.

Your reaction to this 41-minute record might depend on your expectations.

If you’re looking for something completely fresh, you could be disappointed. Butter Miracle isn’t entirely new, in that four of its nine tracks consist of revamped versions of the songs on the 2021 EP. Plus, none of the tunes on the CD would have seemed out of place on Counting Crows’ early records. There’s a bit more emphasis on lead guitar, but this still sounds very much like the band we knew in the ’90s.

Moreover, Duritz is still singing about loneliness, dislocation, alienation, and the pitfalls of stardom. He even references a few memorable phrases from earlier albums. “Help me believe in something,” he pleaded in 1993’s classic “Mr. Jones,” and on the new album, he proclaims, “I wanna believe in something” (in “Under the Aurora”) and “I know you wanna believe in something” (in “Spaceman in Tulsa”). In “The Tall Grass,” meanwhile, he sings, “Can you see me?,” echoing the 1996 song “Have You Seen Me Lately?”

If you like Counting Crows’ old records, however, this is all good news—especially since the nine tracks on Butter Miracle are up to the high standards that the group established early in its career. Duritz remains an intense, attention-grabbing vocalist, and his imagistic verses, though sometimes cryptic, still often paint vivid pictures. The rest of the band—and guests who add trumpet, violin, and cello—help to make these songs as rich musically as they are lyrically.

Standout cuts include the forceful “With Love, from A-Z,” about a road trip across America, and “The Tall Grass,” in which a woman invites the narrator to “come outside, we’ll watch tomorrow pull the curtain on today.” Also, “Virginia Through the Rain,” an effusive ballad whose first verse finds Duritz singing, “You grab your phone and text the lie / That you’re where you’re supposed to be this time”; and “Bobby and the Rat-Kings,” which limns several colorful characters from a generation that “hasn’t even got a name of its own.”

Arguably, nothing on Butter Miracle is quite as arresting as early triumphs such as “Mr. Jones.” But Counting Crows hasn’t lost its muse.

Also Noteworthy

Freedy Johnston, Can You Fly (deluxe edition). When it appeared in 1992, Can You Fly flew under the radar. Critics raved about it, but the album failed to chart. Now, pop-rock singer and songwriter Freedy Johnston’s second album is getting a second chance. It has just been reissued in an edition that features remastered audio and two bonus tracks.

After hearing the CD, whose recording Johnston financed by selling the family farm, you’ll understand why it earned him acclaim, not to mention a four-record contract from Elektra. Johnston and his band deliver hook-laden ear candy, and his lyrics, some of which are autobiographical, are poetic and memorable.

Highlights include the lead-off cut, “Trying to Tell You I Don’t Know,” in which he references the farm sale (“I sold the house where I learned to walk…I sold the dirt for a song”); “Down in Love,” a duet with Syd Straw; the lilting “Tearing Down This Place”; and the upbeat “The Lucky One.”

Mike Henderson, Last Nite at the Bluebird. Virtually every Monday night from 1984 until his unexpected death in 2023, blues-rock guitarist and sandpapery vocalist Mike Henderson took the stage at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. This release, which kicks quickly into high gear and never flags, captures the excitement generated there by the Grammy-winning artist and his band. Though culled from a variety of shows, the CD sounds like a recording of a cohesive single concert.

Henderson, a member of the bluegrass band the SteelDrivers from 2005 to 2011, sets the mood in the first track, the self-penned “Weepin’ and Moanin’.” “This is blue Monday,” he tells the audience, halfway through the number. “So, if any of you came to listen to the sensitive songwriters that they have the rest of the time, I’m sorry; you’re out of luck.” Adds Henderson: “We have two rules tonight. Number one, there’s no drinkin’ on the gospel songs. Number two…no gospel songs.”

True to his word, Henderson eschews that genre in favor of party-ready, slide-guitar-spiced rockers like “Too Much Alcohol” and “When I Get Drunk.” By the time the 44-minute, eight-song set is over, you’ll be wishing you’d been on hand for one of those nights at the Bluebird.