{"id":18652,"date":"2020-04-29T05:30:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T09:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18652"},"modified":"2022-11-16T08:46:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T13:46:09","slug":"album-review-america-heritage-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/29\/album-review-america-heritage-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: America — Heritage II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Back when I was growing up, liking the music of the band America was something one pretty much kept to himself. They didn\u2019t exactly rock, and though their vocals sometimes sounded a lot like Neil Young, they never had anywhere near his hip quotient. But there was no denying the appeal of their breezy, well-crafted music. Having one George Martin as their producer surely helped a bit, and catchy songs like \u201cSister Golden Hair\u201d and \u201cVentura Highway\u201d easily gave acts like Eagles real competition.<\/p>\n

But on the other side, the plodding, goofy lyrics-laden \u201cA Horse With No Name,\u201d and the cloying \u201cMuskrat Love\u201d did little to win the affections of budding rock fans weaned on KISS and Sweet (for example). Soft-rock tunes like \u201cI Need You\u201d and \u201cTin Man\u201d were among the best of their kind, but when that kind is best described as yacht rock, you\u2019re grading on a curve. And when in the 1980s the apartheid regime in South Africa was enduring a growing boycott movement, America went and performed there. Not cool, guys. Not. Cool. (Okay, to be fair, Sinatra played there around that time as well. But he didn\u2019t court a rock audience, now did he?)<\/p>\n

In any event, America \u2013 Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek \u2013 had a good run overall, with all of its first seven studio albums charting in the Top 30. They also developed a strong following in Australia and the UK. The \u201880s weren\u2019t as kind to the group, whose acoustic-leaning sound was out of step with the MTV scene. As the decades wore on, new releases slowed to a trickle. Though its title might lead one to think it\u2019s something else entirely, America’s 2015 release Lost & Found<\/i> featured all new material. But that was the last new music from them to date.<\/p>\n

Since that time America has been turning its attention to digging into its archives. Fitting enough, the first release on that score was 2015\u2019s self-released set Archives, Vol. 1<\/i>. That album whetted fans\u2019 appetite for more of that kind of content, and proved that there was indeed a market for unreleased material from America\u2019s finest hour (so to speak).<\/p>\n

Enter Omnivore Recordings. The venerated boutique label has a well-deserved reputation for carefully curated archival releases. The first America release from them was Heritage: Home Recordings\/Demos 1970-1973<\/i> (yeah, it features a return to the band\u2019s dubious \u201870s practice of titling albums with words that start with the letter H. But we digress.)<\/p>\n

Now comes a second volume, widening its focus to include 1971 through \u201876. As with the previous volume, it\u2019s filled with alternate takes and demo versions of songs that longtime listeners will already know. But the emphasis is on polished material; many of the tracks here feature a George Martin production credit. The recordings chosen will appeal primarily to serious fans, though: does anyone else really want (much less need) to hear a \u201cstack-o-tracks\u201d mix of \u201cTin Man\u201d without the lead vocal line? Nice tune, but these guys aren\u2019t Brian Wilson or Jellyfish.<\/p>\n

Still, for fans, this album is a treat. Less ornate readings of their songs reveal the strength of the songs themselves. If you come looking for a rocking good time, you\u2019ll leave disappointed. But if you know what you\u2019re in for, there\u2019s much to enjoy in Heritage II<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when I was growing up, liking the music of the band America was something one pretty much kept to himself. They didn\u2019t exactly rock, and though their vocals sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,51],"tags":[4175,1622],"class_list":["post-18652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-pop","tag-america","tag-omnivore-recordings","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18652"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24266,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18652\/revisions\/24266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}