Counting Crows

The career of Counting Crows tends to get reduced to one album, their 1993 debut, “August and Everything After.” (Casual fans might only know them from that album’s big hit, “Mr. Jones.”) But fans of ‘90s alt-rock would be well advised to dig a little deeper into the band’s fine and underrated catalog. 

By 1999, popular music was dominated by nu-metal and teen pop acts. Meanwhile, many of the alt-rock groups that were in vogue in the early part of the decade had either imploded or faded from mainstream view. Counting Crows — who moved a staggering 7 million units of their 1993 debut, “August and Everything After” — belong in the latter camp. The group’s sensitive-guy folk-rock was diametrically opposed to the likes of “Nookie” and “…Baby One More Time.” And yet the Los Angeles band carried on with its third record, “This Desert Life,” and toured the world for audiences still invested in their gentle post-grunge sound.