US rockers Counting Crows have announced their first release in seven years. The four track Butter Miracle, Suite One will be released on May 21, and is the follow-up to 2014's Somewhere Under Wonderland album.
The first single from the EP, Elevator Boots, is already available, and is a contemplative, road-weary slice of heartland Americana that conjures up visions of Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison and REM.
Elevator Boots was written by band frontman Adam Duritz while he was living in the UK on a friend's farm last year, during which time he shaved his trademark dreadlocks. “I got rid of my beard, too,” Durtz tells Rolling Stone. “I just wanted to see myself. I didn’t want to be hiding behind a beard or the dreads."
“I’ve been quite happy,” reports Durtz, who was diagnosed with dissociative disorder in his early 20s. “I’ve been in a relationship for four or five years now – one that is very satisfying, and healthy. Most of my experiences in my life had been what it’s like to be alone and live alone. And that’s not the case anymore. That’s a big change for me, to really come to the idea that maybe something’s more important than writing songs."
The four tracks that make up Butter Miracle, Suite One will eventually form half of a full Counting Crows album, with an as-yet-unwritten suite filling the second half.
Counting Crows' Butter Miracle, Suite One is available to pre-order now.
Butter Miracle, Suite One tracklist
1. The Tall Grass
2. Elevator Boots
3. Angel of 14th Street
4. Bobby and the Rat-Kings
