Track Listing

1. Hold My Hand
2. Drowning
3. I'm Goin' Home
4. Goodbye
5. Not Even The Trees
6. Look Away
7. Time
8. Running From An Angel
9. Hannah Jane
10. Let Her Cry
11. Only Wanna Be With You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36580 in Music
• Released on: 1995-03-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Cracked Rear View Mirror marks the commercial debut of these college buddies from South Carolina and it sold an astonishing 13 million copies in its first year of release. With Darius Rucker's ringing baritone and Mark Bryan's muscular guitar framing Jim Sonefeld's bluesy, energetic southern folk rock tunes, it's easy to understand its success: It's the kind of thoroughly likeable album people sing along with on the car radio. When Rucker demands, "Stand up and let me see you smile", there's something that feels real and convincing behind it; sure, it's a formula, but a sincere one and it works over and over again. Songs like "Let Her Cry", "Hold My Hand" and "Running from an Angel" lay down the rhythm for a cohesive, feel-good collection. There may not be a lot of virtuosity behind it but there's plenty of fun. --Barrie Trinkle

CD Description
Hootie & The Blowfish are a powerhouse regional band exploding upon the charts with a musical point of view born of the"New South" stylings originally pioneered musically (and socially) by the Allman Brothers. Comprised of four Universityof South Carolina graduates, Hootie & The Blowfish began asa classic rock/R.E.M. cover band, but polished an original sound through persistent East Coast tours, and developed a fanatical regional following with their 1993 indy release KOOCHYPOP.
Hootie & The Blowfish draw upon a wide range of themes and styles on CRACKED REAR VIEW. "Drowning" is a fervent tale of forbidden romance, coloured by the pressures of ignorance and racism. "Time" begins with a simple folkish dignity and Byrds-like guitar harmonies, before revving up to full poetic ambivalence ("Time, you ain't no friend of mine...Time, why do you punish me"). The opening cuts "Hannah Jane", "Hold My Hand" and "Let Her Cry" are hook-happy AOR fare;poignant, tender love songs with an edgy, lyric undercurrent of loneliness and longing, driven forward by Darius Rucker's soulful, preaching vocals. With CRACKED REAR VIEW, Hootie& The Blowfish have distilled their unique brand of Southern rock & soul into a driving pop sound, marked by an insistent rhythm groove, shimmering, soaring guitar work, and sweetcountry/R&B-styled vocal harmonies.

Customer Reviews

One of the best-selling albums of all time - deservedly so
Unless I'm mistaken, Cracked Rear View still has to be one of the most successful debut albums ever released. This album was huge, boasting several hit singles and getting more airplay than just about anything else out there for months on end. Strangely enough, the group only managed one small blip on the radar in the years following this release, but that doesn't take anything away from the success of this, their first and most successful commercial release. Being from North Carolina, I felt a special affinity for these South Carolina brethren of mine, and indeed at one point I actually acquired the moniker of Hootie myself (for reasons I could probably not explain even if I could remember them). I also loved the obvious influence of Bob Dylan in their music; heck, these guys actually incorporated some of the lyrics from Dylan's classic Tangled Up in Blue in their hit single Only Wanna Be With You.

Speaking of hit singles, Hold My Hand and Let Her Cry (along with Only Wanna Be With You) dominated the airwaves for a few weeks short of forever, and I do believe Time also registered on the charts. I seem to remember Hannah Jane also coming out as a single - if it didn't, it certainly should have as this, the album's leadoff track, in many ways typifies the type of music Hootie and the guys perfected. Running From an Angel also stands head and shoulders above most of the songs recorded during the somewhat dead years of the mid-90s. Darius Rucker's voice just has a special quality impossible to describe - soothing in a sandpapery sort of way. He could be the king of the party, and he could also touch something in your soul when his musical mood turned melancholy. If you secretly search the CD collection of anyone between 30 and 50, you will most likely find this little gem there somewhere, as it sold upteen millions of copies. You don't have that kind of success without something extraordinarily unique that appeals to a wide cross-section of music fans. Cracked Rear View was a great album in 1994, it's a great album now, and it will be a great album for all the years to come.

Probably the best album you can buy...Fantastic !
This first album by H&TB is probably their best work.
Combining tremendous AOR & blues rythmns, a huge amount of talent & musicianship and demonstrating an obvious love of their work, this is an album of excellent quality. It's got love songs, songs about life in general and some more upbeat tracks as well.

Don't forget: This is one of the fastest-selling albums of all time, and for good reason...
The out-and-out pure craftsmanship of highly-talented musicians doing what they obvously love shines throughout this whole album.
This was the album that won the band the best new act at the MTV awards, in the year that all the British music press could talk about was the "Blur vs. Oasis" hype.

Even though this album was released a few years ago, it still stands the test of time as a classic:
Every time you put the album on, it's like a breath of fresh air - each track sounds like it could have been produced yesterday.
In a time of bands producing albums that are "all filler, no killer" and where you find yourself fast-forwarding to the best songs, the sound of this band comes out strongly as something different to what else is around, yet it also calls out to you like the music you've always heard (or that you've always wanted to hear).

A special mention must go to the lead singer, Darius Rucker, who has the most amazing, soulful voice:
The power of his voice just touches your heart every time you hear it and -unlike many other singers with great voices- he has got a fabulous range and this album allows him to demonstrate his wealth of talents. Fast, slow, soulful, happy, loving - this album has it all.

I've been listening to music of -literally- all styles for the last 25+ years and nothing comes close to this H&TB album....
It's the only album I've every found where you can repeat it all day and each and every time you put it on it's like hearing the music for the first time...For me, no other artists' album has had this quality.
"Fantastic" and "5 stars" doesn't even come close to describing this music: I urge you to buy it...you won't regret it.

An Undiscovered Treasure Well Worth Finding
This is an amazing album from a group of great guys from Columbia, SC. They have a very innocent, honest and alluring sound. Darius Rucker, the lead singer, has a one of a kind voice that you can recognise anywhere, it's deep and hypnotic. The majority of the songs have a melancholy sound to them such as "Time", Running From An Angel", "Let Her Cry", and "Drowning". There are a few upbeat tunes, which are also the more well-known ones: "Hold My Hand" and "Only Wanna Be With You". If you have not yet been introduced to Hootie and The Blowfish...now's your chance - take it!