It's been four years since the band's last proper album, "Hard Candy," a solid but unspectacular work suggesting that faithfully following the Crows' career was reaping diminishing returns. In the meantime, the group has released a not-quite-comprehensive retrospective (2003's "Films About Ghosts"), that nifty but inconsequential "Shrek" tune and now, out this week, a live album, "New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall, February 4-6, 2003."

It's their second live set, actually - and the earlier one, 1998's "Across the Wire: Live in New York," was a double. That means the band has put out almost as much live work as studio jobs in a decade-plus. And rather than retreat, finish up a rumored double-album (half electric, half acoustic, like Foo Fighters' "In Your Honor"), they have taken to touring. Again. And with, of all acts, the Goo Goos.

Didn't Duritz insist - to me and anyone else who interviewed him last year - that they weren't coming back until a new album was done?

This development is pathetic, and troubling. It suggests Duritz is creatively washed up and willing to pick up a paycheck by teaming with an inferior touring partner. Compare him to forebears he idolizes, like Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison, and his reputation crumbles. Those legends have not only rarely let up in terms of output, typically issuing something new every year, but they continue to stretch their boundaries, challenging fans with new twists one moment, satisfying their need for nostalgia the next.

And those guys are four decades into their careers. Duritz hasn't reached the end of his second, yet he seemingly has nothing left to say. Maybe it's high time he broke away from the band, let the terror of creative independence fuel him.

A recent celebrity sighting paired Adam Duritz, 41, lead singer of Counting Crows, with Mary-Kate Olsen, 19, one half of the Olsen twins conglomerate of recordings, movies and merchandise.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 7:21 PM  |