My Amazon Reviews: America "The Definitive Pop Collection"

The Original Trio and The Original Songs
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The original America trio of Vocalists/guitarists Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley made faux CSN type of California pop so deftly that their initial single, "Horse With No Name," folled many into believing it was the other famed trio. Eventually the word got out and America soon began a string of seventies hits that made their first best of, "History," one of Warner Brothers' biggest selling catalog albums of the time. There have been many anthologies of America issues over the years, but this "Definitive Pop Collection" stands as one of the best.

Focusing solely on their WB tenure, "Definitive Pop" is a pretty exhaustive collection. Culling 30 songs from seven albums, the only things missing are "The Border" and "You Can Do Magic," but they were recorded for Capitol records and must not have been available to be licensed for this 2 disc set. (You can get them on "America - The Complete Greatest Hits.") But for the money, this comes up just short of the even more exhaustive Rhino box set Highway: 30 Years of America."

As to the music itself, the band kept it light but pure. The mainstay was well harmonized folkish pop, augmented with the occasional banjo ("Don't Cross The River"), electric guitar (the mysterious "Sandman") synthesizers ("Only In Your Heart"), and via producer George Martin on their later albums, some exquisite Beatlesy production (you try to listen to "Lonely People" without thinking of "Eleanor Rigby"). The three men also were a formidable songwriting trio, with each man capable of writing their own hits. In fact, it is only the treacle of "Muskrat Love" that came from an outside source on this set.

That's not to say there aren't some clinkers (I could have done without "Watership Down," for example), but they are far outweighed by such classic delights as "Sister Golden Hair," "Tin Man" or "Woman Tonight." Janet Jackson was so fond of "Ventura Highway" that she sampled it for her hit single "Someone To Call My Lover." Buoyed by many enjoyable album cuts, a decent band history/essay, and some missed singles like "Everyone I Meet Is From California" or "Amber Cascades," this is easily all the America you could ask for a minor price. The only thing better would be the "Complete" set, but it's also the America that went on without the late Dan Peek. This is the original trio in all its soft pop glory.

     

My Amazon Reviews: John Mayer "Born and Raised"

Born to be Grammy Bait
5 Out Of 5 Stars

John Mayer's public mea culpa comes musically, a whispered plea for understanding after some serious public bumbling of his life. Who knew that, when his musical world finally had a collision with the paparazzi word, it would humble the guy into making the stellar music of "Born and Raised"? It's the first album he's made where what used to be affectations towards the singer-songwriters of the 70's that John's long been enamored by become genuinely personal and effective.

You can't blame the man for wanting to make something other than knock offs of his heroes. He may have been extremely good at doing just that, but now he wants to be the man who - as he states in the song "Queen of California" - finds the "sun that Neil Young Hung after the gold rush of '71." The pallet he is drawing from is serious CSNandY and James Taylor turf, yet now he sounds less like he's rubbing shoulders with them and more like he's proving he can make music that spiritually accentuates his forebears. Those public slaggings have obviously made him want to try harder, and left their stings. "Now the cover of Rolling Stone ain't the cover of a Rolling Stone," he realizes in "Speak for Me."

"Born and Raised" also chucks aside any attempt at overproduction (no loudness wars here) for a spartan acoustic setting. "Whiskey Whiskey Whiskey" begs for quiet in a life that was filled with too much background noise, along with a great harmonica riff. Same with "If I Ever Get Around to Living," as blatant a confirmation that trials by fire are something that need to be part of the past. The bulk of the album is spent in these contemplative moments, and it all rings true. It's not only Mayer's personal best, it maybe one of 2012's classiest albums.