Counting Crows August and Everything After (Vinyl 2LP) * * *

By the time the Counting Crows signed to Geffen in 1993, they had already built up a significant fanbase which payed dividends upon the release of their runaway hit debut August And Everything After later that same year. Produced by the great T-Bone Burnett, the album climbed all the way to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 charts thanks to the trio of ubiquitous singles "Mr. Jones," "Rain King" and "Round Here," selling over seven million copies in the U.S. alone in the process. It checks in at a respectable No. 67 on Rolling Stone's '100 Best Albums of the Nineties' who writes: "An artfully crafted, intimate song cycle, August and Everything After seemed to explode on impact. Vividly produced by T Bone Burnett, its post-punk bleakness married to old-school rock influences, August became that rare album over which both alterna-kids and classic rockers could bond."