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Down-home South Carolina boys playing unoffensive,very enjoyable,heartland style rock.Hootie offered an alternative to the morose,moody stylings of grunge in the world of rock/pop in
the mid '90s and turned out to have one of the best-selling albums in US history with this 1994 debut,"Cracked Rear View".

Now I know that it's "against the rules" for a credible music
fan to display love towards a unabashed mainstream pop act but
I happened to like Hootie's brand of feel-good frat boy rock!:-)
"Time",the lovelorn hit "Let Her Cry","I Only Want To Be With You",and the criminally overplayed "Hold My Hand"-all down-home,
Americana-styled pop/rock songs that are as easy and cozy as a Southern breeze.

Those who bash Hootie seem to be missing the point.They never seemed to proclaim themselves as intellectual rockers

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Laugh if you want, but this is actually goodMar 01, 2003
By rockthebells
Over the last several years, it seems that people make fun of those who still like Hootie & the Blowfish. No matter what they say, this album is still a classic. The massive amount of hits ("Hold My Hand," "Let Her Cry," "Only Wanna Be With You," and "Time")are great, but the lesser-known songs are even better. "Hannah Jane" and "Running from an Angel" are awesome, while the albums final two tracks, "Not Even the Trees" and "Goodbye" are probably the best songs the band has ever put out. The weaker material ("I'm Goin' Home," "Drowning") is pretty good, but the excellence of the rest of the songs makes the few decent ones forgivable. The album as a whole flows well and, while not groundbreaking or complex, it's still a really good album.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Great start to awesome music!Nov 19, 2006
By J. Schultz
This album is awesome... There is a reason that it sold 16+ million copies. Unfortunately it was overplayed and backlashed on the band, as is most music today. I will today and will always say that this is one of the best albums from the 90's/00's, as are all 6 of their albums.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Truly an amazing album....Mar 07, 2000

A couple of days ago I was watching a television program where Hootie and the Blowfish were compared to REM. REM being one of my favorite bands, I thought, "Well, maybe I should look into Hootie." That is when it hit me! A gift someone had given a couple of years ago, "Cracked Rear View". While blowing the dust off of the CD and taking "Automatic for the People" out of my CD player, I looked at the track listing and realized I had heard less then half of them. So I set my stereo to shuffle and the first thing I hear is the inspirational bonus track, "Motherless Child." I was truly amazed! So once he had blown me away with some of the tracks that I heard with the shuffle function, I flipped to the only track I hadn't heard yet, a song called "Not Even the Trees". I really had no idea what to expect- but i realized after the song had started that I had saved the best for last! The one recurring thought I had through the whole album was how much Darious Rucker's guitar sounded like the guitar in "Walkaways" off "Recovering the Satellites" by the Counting Crows. I guess if I had to say "If you like Hootie, you will love..." I would finish that sentance with the Counting Crows and REM. This is a truly amazing debut!

11 of 13 found the following review helpful:

One of my favourite Debut Albums everMay 13, 2000
By mikeazzo22@hotmail.com
Although only selling 5 copies in England, Cracked Rear View went on to break records of the biggest selling debut album of all time (counts at the moment are in excess of 20 million). If you are lucky enough to have heard any track of this album you will see why. Bordering on the lines of country rock once again we see an excellent example of how a band can produce the hits and keep the rest of the album as strong. The opening track Hannah Jane is a boppy rollocoster with Darius Ruckers voice in full swing from the off. The acoustics of tracks like Hold my hand and I'm going home, the piano led Goodbye (played by drummer Soni), viola Running From an Angel and the Euphoric Let her Cry bring a debut album which has just about everything. The emotion in Darius voice has to be heard - Sometimes sympathetic, sometimes angry, always empathic. Just hear it on Look Away which is one of my favourite songs on the album. The short and emotional ride has Hootie and the Blowfish doing what comes naturally making them more than just another band with a box of tricks. This box of tricks is here to stay. Enough said.

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