Album · Counting Crows
This Desert Life by Counting Crows
This Desert Life is an album by Counting Crows, released in 1999. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 17 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Mrs Potters Lullaby”, on 10 lists with a best position of #4.
This Desert Life, the third studio album from Berkeley's Counting Crows, came out on Geffen in 1999 with the same crew that made Recovering the Satellites: Adam Duritz singing, David Bryson and Dan Vickrey on guitars, Charlie Gillingham on keys, Matt Malley on bass and Ben Mize on drums. The one change is a promotion, with multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, a session hand on the first two records, now a full member.
"Hanginaround" is the loosest, sunniest thing they'd cut, a shambling bar-band romp that went to number 1 on Billboard's Adult Alternative chart, and "Mrs Potters Lullaby" is the other one that stuck. Dave McKean's cover, adapted from his art for Neil Gaiman's picture book The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, sets a dreamy, storybook tone. Reviews were mostly warm, and by February 2002 it had moved more than 2 million copies worldwide.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from This Desert Life on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mrs Potters Lullaby | 10 | #4 | – | 2000–2020 | |
| 2 | Hanginaround | 7 | #14 | – | 1999–2021 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.