Roger's Year in Music 2014, No. 10: Somewhere Under Wonderland, by Counting Crows.

It's easy to be disdainful of Counting Crows, and even easier to aim barbs at frontman/songwriter/lyricist Adam Duritz. I've often heard the Crows denounced as whiny, pretentious, and worse. Original material comes slowly to this band; Somewhere Under Wonderland makes six albums in 22 years.

Overall, I've always thought these complaints were bum raps. The band's 1990s releases comprise a soundtrack of my fractured existence during the founding pub days. If anything, Duritz has gotten less morose since 2008's Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, and a mischievous and playful Duritz truly takes some getting used to. Matt Melis comments at Consequence of Sound:

The band find that same type of balance in the album’s musical direction, a colorful and emotionally rich palette of sounds that combines past recording styles, flavors from covers album Underwater Sunshine, and the spontaneous spirit of their live performances. “Elvis Went to Hollywood” (which sounds like a mingling between old tracks “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)” and “New Frontier”) and “John Appleseed’s Lament” scale back the muscle and flesh out the character of the full-throttle guitar tracks from Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings that left a bad aftertaste come Monday. The rambling, piano-plinking “Cover Up the Sun” and Southern rock-indebted “Scarecrow” both venture further into that country rock territory the Crows have always nestled up against, highlighting the impeccable harmonies that dance around and underpin Duritz’s unpredictable delivery throughout the record.

As usual, it's impeccably performed and filled with compelling storyscapes. It really did go wrong when Elvis went to Hollywood, didn't it?

I like it. You don't have to.