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Sep 14, 2011What follows is a lovingly balanced set of rural rockers ("Street Fighting Sun") and dirt road ballads ("Girl in a Coat") that sound about as far from the murky introspection of 2010's Destroyer of the Void as one would expect from a band that continuously tries to reinvent themselves within their own psych-folk/alt-country/indie rock universe, and almost always succeeds.
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Sep 12, 2011American Goldwing is an all-around great listen - one perfectly suited for late fall nights on the porch or holiday road trips - and it may even be the band's best record to date.
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Mar 15, 2012About half of American Goldwing owes more to Faulkner than Jack London.
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Sep 13, 2011The eclectic Portland, Oregon based quintet's 6th studio album is a return to form following last year's Destroyer of the Void, which, despite showcasing Blitzen Trapper's refined instrumental chops, came off as flat, derivative, and fatally overproduced.
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Sep 13, 2011When the band kicks on the distortion, things pick up immensely.
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Oct 17, 2011What makes American Goldwing so disappointing and, frankly, dull is that Blitzen Trapper seems entirely unconcerned with sounding either fresh or interesting.
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Sep 12, 2011Earley's songs may adhere to a certain formula, but that formula works wonders on American Goldwing.
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Sep 12, 2011It'd be too easy to dismiss Blitzen Trapper for choosing to release an album that more or less stays inside the lines, opting for convention over innovation. Yet, with American life in the 21st century being so frenzied, it's oddly comforting to listen to a record that doesn't challenge you to keep up with it.
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Oct 17, 2011American Goldwing isn't bad, but it's not particularly exciting when you consider the band's usual standards.
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Sep 12, 2011Plodding rhythms predominate and there's a prevalent sense of nostalgia that sometimes threatens to become a little syrupy, not least because of the numerous cliches about highways or the open road.
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Oct 20, 2011The eclectic approach was often messy but also fresh, which can't be said for their middling sixth LP.
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Sep 12, 2011Sure, they may be well within their comfort zone, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
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Sep 20, 2011Ultimately, the trip they're taking us on isn't into America, but into the past, and they show too much reverence for their forebears.
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Sep 14, 2011Blitzen Trapper still have a way to travel yet, but American Goldwing is a more than a homely waypoint on the road and reason enough to wonder where the band's imagination-and yes, its influences – will take the group next.
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Sep 9, 2011The trouble here is what we know: That they're capable of more. So the question becomes how much we hold our expectations against them, and the way you answer that question will shape how you feel about their latest offering.
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Q MagazineSep 21, 2011Hardly coherent, enough of the disparate strands hang together to make it curiously moreish. [Oct 2011, p.112]
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Sep 12, 2011It's a simplistic but intoxicating roots fantasy - full of Dylan mysticism, spidery acoustic Dead jamming, tasty 1970s rock moves and evocations of high-plains drifters with itchy trigger fingers drinking from jam jars.
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Sep 13, 2011Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley performs the amazing feat of making alt-country seem fresh on the band's gripping sixth album.
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Oct 31, 2011Sure, Blitzen Trapper attempt to vary the formula a bit--there's the jangly campfire number, or that one about astronauts--but when it comes right down to it, everything's all the same.
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Sep 13, 2011American Goldwing is a journey into the unknown, and like the drifters Blitzen Trapper sings about, there's no telling where the group is headed next.
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Sep 9, 2011American Goldwing does eerily recreate that saggy, limbo-like feeling of the mid-1970s, before punk happened, and when much music of the period hung as wearily as bellbottoms--but presumably that form of nostalgia was unintentional.
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Sep 9, 2011The songs are stubbornly engaging, filled with characters who drink and regret it, and struggle to understand their own decisions. Tucked amid the pastiche are good laments like "Taking It Easy Too Long," a rueful self-evaluation, and "Love the Way You Walk Away," a brokenhearted shrug.
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Sep 11, 2011Goldwing is just too canonical to tell us anything novel about either heartland or heart.
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UncutSep 9, 2011Their thing is Troubadour-era rootsy rocking rather than harmonic rapture, but American Goldwing's free-wheeling charms are still hard to resist. [Oct 2011, p.81]
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Under The RadarSep 14, 2011Standing between The Allman Brothers Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival is a high task, and this time, it gets a little lost in between. [Jul 2011, p.78]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 12
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Mixed: 1 out of 12
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Negative: 0 out of 12
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Sep 29, 2011
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Sep 15, 2011
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Sep 15, 2011