Definitive Mediocrity (The Definitive America - America)

Member Name: nilo0901

Product:	The Definitive America - America
Date:	10/11/09 (7 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Couple of great songs

Disadvantages: Too many mediocre fillers

America were another light country folk rock group from the 70's in the same vein as The Eagles or a thinner version of Neil Young or Crosby Stills and Nash. This is a fairly comprehensive overview of their careers works and includes hits such as 'Horse With No Name', 'Ventura Highway' and 'Only In Your Heart'. The main problem with this compilation, and any other America compilation for that matter, or the band America as a whole for that matter still, is that beyond these, there really isn't much else.

Horse With No Name was their big number one hit and is genuinely a great song. Vocally it gets a little close to Neil Young pastiche for my liking but lyrically it's cryptic and psychedelic and is very catchy. Ventura Highway is also a great pop-folk song, which again benefits from memorable melodies. Only In Your Heart is a fairly saccharine ballad that is pure soft rock. But that really is about it. Other songs like 'Sandman' come and go but always sound like sound a likes of other more successful tracks by other more successful artists. This compilation comes in at a whopping 23 tracks long too which doesn't help - you'd be better off with 'History - America's Greatest Hits', which is a more bite-size chunk and contains only 14 tracks.

The songwriting is just not strong enough here and I suppose this is indicative of the fact that America did not become a household name like The Eagles. If you can find a copy for very cheap it may be worth a shot (Amazon currently have it used at £4.76 which I think is too much given the quality).

Summary: Mediocre Folk Country Rock with a handful of hits