Black Crowes Recommendations

Same here. Southern Harmony is #1, but Lions is probably my #2.

 

From Amorica: "Gone"
Three Snakes and One Charm": "How Much For Your Wings?"

 

Definitely the best LP. Except for 'Time Will Tell'. Skip that every time.

 

only a fool is some awesome old school r&b

 

I recall there being 4 singles with heavy air play at the time. Jealous Again, Twice as Hard, Hard To Handle and She Talks to Angels. They definitely had a lot of corporate push on that album.

It wasn't the production so much as there seemed to be nothing organic about the band at all on that album. It just smacks of that same kind of contrived copyist thing that Lenny Kravitz and more recently Greta Van Fleet did. Even with the whole image thing it seemed like these guys are being positioned as the new Stones/Aerosmith thing.

It was really interesting how most of the fans who bought that first album didn't follow the Crowes as they morphed more into a more organic sound over the next few albums.

 

1. 3 Snakes
2. Lost Crowes
3. Amorica
4. Southern Harmony
5. Freak N Roll
6. The rest of the catalog


One of my favorite bands, happy listening!

 

People are stupid.

 

Yeah, definitely one of their best for me, it's just got great groove and a real sprawling epic vibe in the back half.
One of the little things that grabs me every time is the riffing over the beat at around the 1:50 mark in the clip below, never fails to get me movin' !

 

Much much prefer 'Paint an 8' to 'Come On'.

Musically, Lions is excellent...but lyrically, it's probably CRs weakest album, period.

The high points are high, but the low points ("Ozone Mama", "No Use Lying", the lyrics+cell phone ringing in "Come On") are the lowest in their catalog.

It was a wildly inconsistent affair.

 

see I think "losing my mind" is one of the best tunes on lions

 

Excuse me, I was thinking of "No Use Lying".

 

oh yeah that track was a bit "meh" to me

 

i loved the first three albums. amorica probably being the pinnacle

 

I expect more out of CR than that chorus, which is trite, obvious, and cliched.

That one should've been the B-side and "Pretty Gurl Song" added in its place.

Also 'Last Time Again' should've been on the album instead of 'Ozone Mama'

 

For their first 5 releases on American, you can't go wrong with this compilation:

Greatest Hits 1990–1999: A Tribute to a Work in Progress



"Jealous Again"
"Twice As Hard"
"Hard to Handle"
"She Talks to Angels"
"Remedy"
"Sting Me"
"Thorn in My Pride"
"Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye"
"A Conspiracy"
"Wiser Time"
"Good Friday"
"Blackberry"
"Kickin' My Heart Around"
"Go Faster"
"Only a Fool"
"By Your Side"

 

Nope.

Overblown late 90s mastering + weaksauce pedestrian track listing make that one THE most unessential TBC release ever.

Buy the first 4 albums on the original (unremastered) WEA CDs.

By Your Side...wait a couple years for the re-release.

Plus...only the first 4 were on American. When Sony bought American Records, the Crowes asked to be transferred to Columbia, which is what BYS came out on...

 

To each his own. Since the OP was not too familiar with them and hadn't delved too much into their catalog, a comp is usually a safe bet. And this one is a good one. Thanks for pointing out BYS wasn't on American......but in the end it really doesn't matter what label it's on, right?

And actually, if someone isn't a huge fan of them (like me), this can be considered "essential".

 

live at the greek w/ jimi page

 

Just pointing out the facts.

 

It's a really crappy track listing.

A Black Crowes novice would be far better served buying one of their albums.

 

Agree with this. I enjoyed the debut, but it hasn't aged very well other than a few cuts, and I find it simplistic and disconcertingly derivative. I thought the band became their own thing with the second album, which was a huge leap forward. Amorica was even better and I find it amazing that anybody can say that the songs from that album aren't "tuneful". I can hum them in my head right now and I haven't even played the album in probably a year. By Your Side was a huge letdown and compromise that saw them retreating into a cheeseball "rawk" mode for the muscle shirt and mullet crowd. Really dire stuff with a very few exceptions (the title cut is excellent). It was telling that most of the b-sides from that period were far better than almost everything on the released album. Lions was a bit of a comeback, but still fairly patchy. It wasn't until the band reunited and did Warpaint that they seemed to get their special mojo back.

 

Nicely put. though not as great an album as "Pump', "By Your Side" does sound similar in style.

 

Surprised to hear YOU say that. As a Stones fan, I see Amorica as their Sticky Fingers.

 

It doesn't sound like Sticky Fingers at all to me. A few tracks I like but the rest just aren't that memorable.

 

Disagree. I like Three Snakes, but it's not one of the first ones I'd recommend, unless someone was really into mellow acoustic stuff. BYS just rocks.