Hanginaround

The third album from Counting Crows, This Desert Life, came out in 1999 to little fanfare. Critics were polite. Fans moved on quickly. The song that should have bolstered the success of this album was the first single, "Hanginaround." It reached 28 on the Billboard charts, but “Hanginaround” was not as revered as Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby or Colorblind.

I remember heading to Homer’s Music with a friend in 1994 to buy CDs for a little road trip. I bought Beck’s Mellow Gold and he got August and Everything After by Counting Crows. We listened to both and as much as I like Beck, I wished I had bought the Counting Crows album.

Of course I ended up purchasing that album myself. It was great, but Counting Crows was becoming overplayed and I started to tire of them. When Recovering the Satellites was released in 1996, it was critically adored and reached number 1 on the Billboard charts. Call me crazy, but I thought it was mostly fine. At this point I would listen to "Anna Begins" on occasion, but never the full albums.

And Counting Crows have really always been an album band in the truest sense. Dense, layered, the type of album that rewards you for sitting with the whole thing rather than skipping around. But that quality also means certain songs get permanently assigned to the background. “Hangin’ Around” has been living there for 25 years. It shouldn’t be.

I was recently discussing music with a friend, let’s call him Scott since that’s his name. I was pooping on his Counting Crows takes, mostly because I think the cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" and the Shrek song are abominations. He implored me to dive into Counting Crows again, so I listened to their entire first album and remembered how much I loved it 30 years ago. I listened to the second album and was certainly more impressed than I was in 1996. Then I listened to the third album and made a discovery. "Hanginaround" is my favorite Counting Crows song.

What I love the most about Counting Crows is when they implement piano into their music. There is no slow piano build-up like Long December. The piano on "Colorblind" is beautiful, haunting and melodic throughout. The piano on "Hanginaround" almost sounds like a toddler banging away on a toy piano in the best possible way. The playful, lively bass line from Davey Farragher is what really drives this song and announces almost immediately that this song is going to be different. 

As the first song on the album and the first single I would imagine this was Counting Crows declaration that the audience would not be hearing the same old Counting Crows. That experimentation led to a frisky and fun tune. Adam Duritz seems to really be enjoying himself instead of singing in the fairly pretentious and “my music is so important” manner that we have seen so many times. In fact, the entire band appears to be having more fun on this track than on the slower, sadder songs for which they are most known.

So what made Hanginaround a somewhat successful single that was quickly forgotten? It was released in the wrong era. The late 90s brought us rap rock with groups like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit dominating the radio. We were also in the midst of the N*Sync and Backstreet Boys era. The world had moved on and left bands like Counting Crows behind. The group never again achieved the level of success they did with their first two albums, with maybe the exception of the Shrek song.

Go give "Hanginaround" another listen. Maybe you were too distracted by Britney Spears, Eminem or a boy band in 1999. Go revisit this song and the rest of the Counting Crows catalog. You may discover you forgot about something you loved just like I did.

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Was this song already in your rotation? Did you forget about it or just get introduced to it? Let us know in the comments.