Songs from an American Movie-Vol. One:Learning How to Smile - Everclear

The first Everclear song I heard was 'Wonderful', a song which shows the world through a child's eyes as his parents split up. The innocent melancholy of the song is continued throughout the whole album, with a parallel sense of optimism and pessimism, 'Please don't tell me everything is wonderful now'. The sound of the album varies from track to track but the easy-listening guitar music is fairly constant throughout. The fact that this album is less heavy than some of their earlier music prompted many critics, particularly fans of the band, to slate this album for delving too close to pop territory. But the rocky edge which is evident when ...  Read the complete review

This is the second album I bought with my Dooyoo vouchers, yay! I have always been attracted to this band, probably because I feel for all American bands when they come over here, stuck behind piles of dance remix and pop crap. This album is one of those you have to listen to many times to get any hold on it, you have to also take it with a pinch of salt considering it is called, 'Songs from an American Movie: Part One, learning how to smile,' and therefore is taking the mick quite a lot on the country twanging tracks! Part Two is released soon and will be a lot more rockier, apparently. The soul element is present throughout the album and at times sounds ...  Read the complete review

Lookout everybody, it’s not one, but TWO concept albums. Former punk/grunge/rockers, Everclear (Think along the lines of the Foo Fighters and later Metallica) take an album off the distortion to go ‘pop’ for twelve songs before returning to rock for a further twelve songs on Songs From An American Movie Vol. Two: Good Time For A Bad Attitude. The idea behind this structure came from Everclear’s lead singer, Art Alexakis, a man who describes himself as “An old guy, I still think in terms of sides” and this, ladies and gentlemen, is his attempt at giving a CD sides. Quite unsurprisingly the concept fails quite badly. The only ...  Read the complete review

Everclear are an American three-piece led by ex smackhead Art Alexakis,they sell millions of units in their home country. The term `college rock' comes to mind when you listen to this predictably angsty record. Songs from an American movie is less abrasive than their previous outings but I don't think it'll win them many new fans, not even the frankly shit cover of `brown eyed girl'.This record and the singer's vocals and lyrics just irritate me like an itch you can't scratch and it seems intentional. ...  Read the complete review