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Counting Crows' latest album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, is an attempted throwback to the days of records having two sides with the first section of the recordings acting as upbeat "Saturday Night" tracks and the other section the sobering "Sunday Morning" tunes. Unfortunately, it isn't too successful.

Although it's been more than five years since the band's last album, Hard Candy, Counting Crows has managed to stay in the public eye - "Hanginaround," if you will - by touring heavily, penning an Academy Award-nominated song for Shrek 2 and playing before the Home Run Derby of the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Counting Crows made its name mostly with catchy pop-rock songs, but as the band has progressed through its career since 1993's August and Everything After, its music shifted from hits on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks to the Adult Top 40. The band's last album, Hard Candy, had its biggest hit courtesy of a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi."

Considering the switch in its primary listening audience, it is not surprising to see the majority of this album (eight of the 14 songs) consists of "Sunday Morning" tracks, most of which are more likely to find airplay away from modern rock radio stations, having more of a slow country-ballad feel.

This is not for the better, however, despite the band's intelligent decision to cater to its core audience. Counting Crows has always been at its best when it plays its own style of pop-rock, and getting away from the style of "Hanginaround" and "Mr. Jones" isn't necessarily a good thing. While these song and the band's other previous hits were not always up-tempo, they were definitely not the slow, acoustic-driven songs that fill the latter portion of Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings.

The attempts at preserving the up-tempo style don't fare so well, either - some of them are downright silly.

"Los Angeles" starts off innocently enough, with a run-of-the-mill rock guitar riff, and more or less holds its own through the bulk of its 4:41 run. But the outro - which features singer Adam Duritz talking over the waning guitar notes - is laughably bad. It includes such gems as his desire to "Get drunk, find some skinny girls and go street walking," as well his endorsement of the culinary scene present in Los Angeles - "It's a really good place to find yourself a taco." Thanks for the tip.

Duritz is definitely not at his best when he sings ballad-like songs - his voice just doesn't fit them very well. However, there is one nugget among the mostly forgettable "Sunday Morning" side in "When I Dream of Michelangelo."

The song is a fairly simple acoustic guitar and piano arrangement, but Duritz's higher pitched vocals successfully fit the smooth instruments here. The surprisingly well complemented section also allows for some passion to creep into the mellow track, with the vocals rising aggressively over a loudly strummed chord progression. It doesn't quite get to the angry yelling stage but comes very close.

Counting Crows definitely scores points for being able to create the two separate sections, enabled by two recording sessions. "Saturday Night" was overseen by Gil Norton, who also produced Recovering the Satellites, while Brian Deck, the man behind Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica, produced the "Sunday Morning" side of things.

The separate sessions allowed for two separate entities, which is what Counting Crows was shooting for; in this case, however, the two halves don't make a good whole album. There are a handful of successful tracks present, but the overall product is disappointing for any listener - especially for those who have stuck around since Hard Candy.

tripp.laino@yahoo.com.

RATING: 2 STARS OUT OF 5

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