This Desert Life

This Desert Life
A painting of a man wearing a suit and bowler with a fishbowl containing two goldfish for a head. The album and artist names are written on the cover in black.
Studio album by
Counting Crows
ReleasedNovember 2, 1999 (1999-11-02)
Recorded1998 in a house in California
GenreAlternative rock
Length59:46
LabelGeffen
ProducerDavid Lowery, Dennis Herring
Counting Crows chronology
Across a Wire: Live in New York City
(1998) 		This Desert Life
(1999) 		Hard Candy
(2002)
Singles from This Desert Life
  1. "Hanginaround"
    Released: October 18, 1999
  2. "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby"
    Released: August 15, 2000
  3. "All My Friends"
    Released: 2000
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Entertainment WeeklyC+[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Q[5]
Rolling Stone[7]
Spin6/10[5]
The Village Voice(choice cut)[6]

This Desert Life is the third studio album from American rock band Counting Crows. The cover art is by noted comic book artist Dave McKean, best known for his work with Neil Gaiman, and was adapted from the cover art McKean did for Gaiman's picture book The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. The album had sold more than 2 million copies worldwide by February 2002.[8] The song "Hanginaround" was the first of three singles released from the album, and the highest-charting single off the album, reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart and number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as top ten in Canada and top 50 in a number of other countries.

The album contains the same personnel as the band's previous studio album, Recovering the Satellites, being David Bryson (guitar), Adam Duritz (vocals), Charlie Gillingham (keyboards), Matt Malley (bass), Ben Mize (drums) and Dan Vickrey (guitars), with multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, who formerly was credited as a session player on the previous two albums, promoted to full member. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "This Desert Life". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958.
  3. ^ Bautz, Mark (1999-11-05). "This Desert Life". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  4. ^ Weingarten, Marc (1999-10-30). "Some Endearing Melodies Mix With Duritz's Whine on 'Life'". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  5. ^ a b "This Desert Life CD Album". CDUniverse. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert (2000-03-07). "Cleanup Time". The Village Voice.
  7. ^ Hunter, James (1999-11-25). "Counting Crows: This Desert Life". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ "Counting Crows To Headline NARM Event". hive4media.com. February 12, 2002. Archived from the original on March 2, 2002. Retrieved September 25, 2019.