Recovering the Satellites
| Recovering the Satellites | ||||
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| Studio album by Counting Crows | ||||
| Released | October 14, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | January–March 1996, Hollywood, San Francisco and The Sound Factory, Hollywood | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 59:22 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Producer | Gil Norton | |||
| Counting Crows chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Recovering the Satellites | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| The Independent | (unfavorable) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | (6/10) |
Recovering the Satellites is the second album by Counting Crows, released on October 14, 1996 in the United Kingdom and one day later in the United States. Released three years (and two years of worldwide touring) after their debut album, it reached #1 in the United States and was a top seller in Australia, Canada, and the UK as well.
For this album, the quintet became a sextet, with fellow San Franciscan Dan Vickrey added, contributing a second guitar as well as sharing in songwriting credits on four of the fourteen tracks. Steve Bowman was replaced as drummer by Ben Mize.
Counting Crows brought in producer Gil Norton for Recovering the Satellites (The track "Miller's Angels" was produced by Marvin Etzione).
For years Adam Duritz felt this was his favorite album by the band.
Writing for Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis gave the album a star rating of four out of five stars. He said that the band's second album develops the sounds of August and Everything After and that they "largely achieve their serious ambitions". He praised Adam Duritz' lyrics and called the album "deeply satisfying".
In a review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album a rating of four stars out of five. He called it a "self-consciously challenging response" to their successful debut album. He described the songs as "slightly more somber" than those on the first album but "more affecting". He noted an occasional "pretentiousness" on the album but praised "A Long December" as particularly articulate.
Andy Gill from The Independent gave the album a more negative review. He criticized Duritz' song-writing as "self-pity[ing]" and called him a "classic solipsistic soul-barer, he just won't shut up about himself". He called the album "bland" with "obvious" influences (including R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen and Lynyrd Skynyrd). Gill had some praise for producer Gil Norton's work on the album.
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