Counting Crows will release their first album of new material in over four years on April 10, 2012 via Collective Sounds. Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a collection of covers described as “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 Adam Duritz in a statement. “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, Dawes, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Tender Mercies, Kasey Anderson and The Faces.

The album is also the group’s first independent release. “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.”

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