Multi-platinum American rock band, Counting Crows have announced they will be releasing their first new album in over 4 years on April 6th, 2012 (Ireland)  (April 9th in UK).  Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a collection of songs, both familiar and obscure, interpreted by one of the most soulful and recognizable bands of the past two decades.

Underwater Sunshine is a testament of a band geek-obsessed with music. “There’s a million great songs written every day that you discover, and wish your friends could appreciate as much as you do,” says singer/songwriter Adam Duritz. “These songs come from bands young and old, stretching from the early 60s to last year. They’re all great and will hopefully be heard by a few more people now.”

Produced by Counting Crows and Shawn Dealey, Underwater Sunshine features tracks written by artists such as Big Star, Gram Parsons, Tender Mercies, Kasey Anderson and The Faces. Each rendition offers an entire spectrum of human emotion, delivered with the conviction and intense honesty the band is known for.

As their first independent release, it was the right time for the Crows to make this album. “If you wonder why we didn’t just write our own record, it’s simply because we wanted to do THIS one,” says Duritz, We now have the creative freedom to release albums like this and offer our fans more music than ever.”

In the spirit of becoming an independent band, the Crows will stream the new album, on demand in its entirety prior to release on radio station websites and other digital partners.  They are also giving away a free download of their new song, “Mercy” on http://www.countingcrows.com/

The Crows also gave their fans the opportunity to design their new album package. Just as the band is interpreting songs from others, fans became a part of this unique album by visually interpreting the Crows. The winning designer is working with the band’s creative director to develop the rest of the album layout. The contest was ran by Creative Allies, and is proving to be their most successful contest to date. To find out more, go to: http://creativeallies.com/contests/314-Design-an-Album-Cover-for-Counting-Crows

 Counting Crows will also partner with Indaba Music and Guitar Center to launch a contest in search of  the best Counting Crows covers. After listening to all submissions, the band will select 3 winning tracks to be awarded various prizes.  For further info go to:  http://www.indabamusic.com/opportunities/counting-crows-cover-song-contest

Underwater Sunshine track listing:

1. Untitled (Love Song) by Romany Rye
2. Start Again by Teenage Fanclub
3. Hospital by Coby Brown
4. Mercy by Tender Mercies
5. Meet On The Ledge by Fairport Convention
6. Like Teenage Gravity by Kasey Anderson & The Honkies
7. Amie by Pure Prairie League
8. Coming Around by Travis
9. Ooh La La by The Faces
10. All My Failures by Dawes
11. Return of the Grevious Angel by Gram Parsons
12. Four White Stallions by Tender Mercies
13. Jumping Jesus by Sordid Humor
14. You Ain’t Going Nowhere by Bob Dylan
15. The Ballad of El Goodo by Big Star

www.countingcrows.com / www.cookingvinyl.com