Counting Crows' first album since 2008 is also their first since leaving the major label that was their home for 16 years. They've been celebrating their independence with a round of online activity – not just the usual free download (of the sleepwalky ballad, Mercy), but a competition that allows a fan to design the album sleeve. All very "now" of them, but it feels like a ploy to obscure the fact that Underwater Sunshine is a covers album. Some of the 15 songs are little-known (the yearning alt-rocker Jumping Jesus was written by leader Adam Duritz's pre-Crows band, Sordid Humor), but they're still other people's material, and it seems a waste of energy for the Crows to have turned their weatherbeaten attention to them. That said, a few tracks offer something fresh: the use of Wurlitzer and banjo makes Travis's Coming Around positively sparkle, and the Faces' Ooh La La sounds unexpectedly right as a drawling country frolic. Nonetheless, it's telling that Underwater Sunshine's subtitle is What We Did On Our Summer Vacation.