American Band
by Drive-By Truckers
  • Record Label: ATO
  • Release Date: Sep 30, 2016
Metascore
88

Universal acclaim - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. Exclaim
    Oct 5, 2016
    100
    They have both found, on their eleventh album (and best since the early 2000s), a renewed purpose and direction in this time of existential crisis for America.
  2. The Independent (UK)
    Sep 28, 2016
    100
    Thoughtful, engaging and utterly contemporary, it’s one of the albums of the year.
  3. Magnet
    Oct 18, 2016
    90
    A brave, provocative and thoughtful addition to the Tuckers' canon. [No. 136, p.51]
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  5. Uncut
    Sep 26, 2016
    90
    An album that's both sad and angry, thoughtful and impassioned, and desperate for America to escape its chequered past. [Nov 2016, p.18]
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  6. Classic Rock Magazine
    Sep 26, 2016
    90
    The USA in the year of Trump, though, has inspired Drive-By Truckers to make this lacerating denunciation of the state of their nation, which stands right up there with Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball and their own best work.
  7. Slant Magazine
    Sep 26, 2016
    90
    The band displays a new level of clear-eyed purpose and here-and-now urgency on American Band. Eloquently plainspoken as ever about the pressing issues we face as a nation, they’ve made an album multiple decades into their career that establishes them as more directly relevant than ever.
  8. The Line of Best Fit
    Sep 26, 2016
    90
    [The] band's most streamlined and forceful album to date.
  9. Chicago Tribune
    Oct 14, 2016
    88
    The band's feel for melodies remains sharp, and Hood's accomplished songwriting is now matched by Cooley, which makes for one of the band's strongest front-to-back albums.
  10. Consequence
    Sep 30, 2016
    83
    While the no-bullshit lyrics and get-in, get-out nature of American Band work to make the band’s politics perfectly clear (at 47 minutes, it’s a contender for DBT’s shortest LP), it still has unique lyrical details that separate it from other protest music, even protest music of the loud and pissed-off variety.
  11. Sputnikmusic
    Nov 7, 2016
    80
    For being so politically and socially charged, American Band is not a divisive album.
  12. Rolling Stone
    Sep 30, 2016
    80
    It's political rock that never confuses passionate commitment with smug certainty, asking more questions than it answers on a hero's journey into our darkest national impulses, and maybe in some small way, beyond them.
  13. AllMusic
    Sep 29, 2016
    80
    American Band is an op-ed column with guitars, and it presents a message well worth hearing, both as politics and as music.
  14. NOW Magazine
    Sep 29, 2016
    80
    American Band's force comes from its unflinching exploration of what it means to be American in 2016 and its assertion that questioning the status quo is necessary for the country to survive and thrive. Just in time for the presidential election.
  15. Mojo
    Sep 27, 2016
    80
    This is a protest album and a damn good one. [Nov 2016, p.93]
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  16. American Songwriter
    Sep 26, 2016
    80
    Taken as a whole, American Band is the group’s most thematically coherent work since their pinnacle of Jason Isbell-assisted records in the early 2000s.
  17. Paste Magazine
    Sep 30, 2016
    78
    The songs on American Band, for the most part, are well constructed, catchy-enough tunes that don’t quite rise into the first rank of the group’s deep and impressive catalog.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Nov 4, 2016
    70
    This is an album as much as about emotions as it is topics.
  19. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Nov 4, 2016
    70
    American Band won’t transform our American landscape; good country music can’t heal a national soul. But an art of humanity and a faith in being better to each other can help redefine America.

Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best Album of 2016
76
#76 Most Shared Album of 2016

User Reviews

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User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 40 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 40
  3. Negative: 2 out of 40
  1. Shrimpy
    Oct 6, 2016
    10
    This album needed to be made for the state of the country. Artists have the best vehicle to discuss modern society. The Drive By TruckersThis album needed to be made for the state of the country. Artists have the best vehicle to discuss modern society. The Drive By Truckers have always written brilliant lyrics and had an almost college professor like way of storytelling. For those "fans" who are offended by this album they were poser fans to begin with who thought it was hip to say they liked this band. They clearly didn't know that the band they liked was 100% liberal in an almost punk rock sense. I will say English Oceans and now this one have both shown the dominance in songwriting by both Cooley and Hood but also expanded their sound. The use of Jay Gonzalez and his keys throughout American Band is truly what makes me love this band. He is such a talented artist. The songs like "Ramon Casiano" about NRA, "Once They Banned Imagine" clear channel wanting to band songs after 911, "Surrender Under Protest" and "Darkened Flags On the Cusp of Dawn" about confederate flags flying at capitol buildings, "What It Means" about police shootings, "Guns of Umpqua" about a school shooting, these songs couldn't be more real and relevant to the world around all of us. There is no better band for the every day american than DBT. Over my 10-12 years as a diehard fan I've seen them many times live and even met them. This band is the absolute best at everything they do. For them to make an album like American Band 20 years in the game is unheard of by almost any other band. They are just getting started in my eyes. My favorite song is "Filthy and Fried" no one tells a story like Mike Cooley and the wordplay on this one makes it one of his best ever. As Patterson Hood stated when they made this album they are not trying to be everyone's favorite band. That proves it is about the art and the message for them. They made a monumental statement here with this one and this should be 2016's album of the year. Its that good. Too bad E-Diddy Shrimp isn't down with this band.… Full Review »
  2. emilypi
    Oct 3, 2016
    6
    The Drive-By Truckers are one of my top 3 all time favorite bands - not just for the content of their songs, but also their melodies and howThe Drive-By Truckers are one of my top 3 all time favorite bands - not just for the content of their songs, but also their melodies and how hard they rock. That's why I need to be honest about this records. It simply wasn't that good musicially. Ideologically? Yes, absolutely. Hood and Cooley can write a damn fine song, and they're always pretty poignant and clever. But on this album they get... a little preachier than usual? But I honestly don't mind that - I love lots of melodramatic and preachy music. The main problem that keeps me from liking this album very much is that the music simply isn't there. It's not very good, is all. The melodies aren't really there like they used to be.

    They really need to bring in someone like an Isbell to be the melodic counterpoint to Cooley's clever lyricism and rockin' guitar, as much as there needs to be someone to counter Hood's indie sentimentality and muted melodies.

    That being said, I think there's room for someone to come out with an incredible border-crossing, race-politically savvy masterpiece of a rebel rock album. They got that spot on, and I love Hood's indie-folk songs as much as anybody. Here's to the DBT!    … Full Review »
  3. akajazzman
    Sep 30, 2016
    9
    For years DBT have been singing about the Southern Thing in ways that help outsiders understand the complexities of South, but also in waysFor years DBT have been singing about the Southern Thing in ways that help outsiders understand the complexities of South, but also in ways the universally transcend any one region. DBT's progressive leanings have always been somewhat apparent, but with American Band, they drop all pretenses, and tell us clearly where they're coming from. DBT had a formula for 20-years that wasn't broke, and a shot in the arm wasn't needed, making this left-hand turn even a little more striking. Just as striking is how Mike Cooley has slowly emerged from just a couple songs per album, to the same number as Patterson Hood, to having the lion’s share of the better songs on the album.… Full Review »
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