THE BLACK CROWES – Amorica [Digitally Remastered +3]

And here’s the last of  THE BLACK CROWES remastered reissue albums available; their third effort titled “Amorica“, here including 2 bonus tracks. As extra, we added the bonus track only appeared in U.S. original edition.

On “Amorica”, The Black Crowes finally come into their own, taking their cue from the most relaxed, groove-oriented tracks on their previous LP. While this album contains no immediately obvious singles, the songs are among the best the band has ever written, stretching out into a hard, jam-oriented, funky blues-rock.

The Black Crowes’ influences are still discernible — no band celebrates the glory days of rock culture quite as enthusiastically — but they use them as an amalgam for their own vision of this timeless musical genre.
“Amorica” it’s a starting point that leads the band into a new direction, incorporating different musical genres, and making the music original. That sense of reinterpretation is what keeps “Amorica” fresh.

Among my favorites there’s ‘Cursed Diamond’ which opens with a beautiful softness before cranking up the guitars, (& the arrangement), as the entire band kicks in. ‘Nonfiction’ is even better, as it sounds & feels like a languid dream.
Other than the somewhat shrill & brittle, if still rocking ‘P. 25 London’, the rest of the album simply moves from strength to strength, closing with the sublimely beautiful ‘Descending’.

In other words, “Amorica” seemed to be armed and ready to deliver another mainstream success for the Crowes and, as usual on their own terms… until one of those terms unexpectedly gummed up the works.
Select big box retailers like Walmart and K-mart took offense to its admittedly risque cover art (borrowed from a ’70s issue of Hustler), and refused to carry the album outright.
An alternate, censored cover was conjured up, by which time some sales momentum had decidedly been lost. ‘Amorica’ failed to replicate its predecessors’ broad appeal, stalling at No. 11 on the Billboard charts and topping out at gold, instead of platinum sales.

This remastered reissue of course features the original artwork, and includes 2 extra songs, ‘Song Of The Flesh’ and ‘Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz’, both recorded during the “Amorica” sessions, while ‘Tied Up And Swallowed’ is the bonus from the original US release, added here as extra.

Ask any die-hard The Black Crowes fan for their thoughts on “Amorica”, and don’t be surprised if he or she considers the album to be among the band’s very best, if not their best, when all is said and done.
There’s wasted notes, needless jamming, sloppy playing and some self indulgence on “Amorica”, but the Crowes pull it all together brilliantly, and it becomes far more than the mere sum of it’s parts.
This is a great classic rock record.
Highly Recommended

01 – Gone
02 – A Conspiracy
03 – High Head Blues
04 – Cursed Diamond
05 – Nonfiction
06 – She Gave Good Sunflower
07 – P. 25 London
08 – Ballad In Urgency
09 – Wiser Time
10 – Downtown Money Waster
11 – Descending
BONUS TRACKS:
12 – Song Of The Flesh
13 – Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz
EXTRA:
14 – Tied Up And Swallowed (original edition Bonus)

Chris Robinson – vocals, harmonica
Rich Robinson – guitar
Marc Ford – guitar
Eddie Harsch – keyboards
Johnny Colt – bass
Steve Gorman – drums
with:
Jimmy Ashhurst – mandolin
Eric Bobo – percussion
Bruce Kaphan – pedal steel guitar

BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Amorica-Black-Crowes/dp/B000WS4OY8
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