Artist of the Week

Speaking of Blitzen Trapper (last post rant), they just recently released yet another album!  It is called American Goldwing and I downloaded it from iTunes.  It is also available on Amazon MP3, but iTunes offers a bonus track (and yet you pay two dollars more!)

American Goldwing Album Cover

It seems that Eric Earley and the boys have been quite busy.  It feels just not long ago they released the colossal work of art that Destroyer of the Void album was.  Following their trail, I had noticed that they had not stopped touring, yet somehow they found time to put out yet another compilation.

The first impression of the album: 7 stars out of 10.

The album seems to be a definitive separation of Blitzen Trapper from the rest of genres that they dabbled, and further into the hardcore prog rock that they emanated throughout their previous work.

I used to enjoy their folksy and acoustic pieces, and I miss them in this American Goldwing.

The album opens with the extravagant Might Find it Cheap, an epitome of prog rock with heavy riffing and an exquisite 12-string-acoustic lead that is bound to induce flashbacks of a golden era of rock and roll.

What seems to be the beacon piece of the album, Love the Way You Walk Away, is my favorite song on it.  It possesses certain elements of a country ballad, coming both from its vernacular as well as the rhythm guitar play. 

As with Destroyer of the Void, American Goldwing keeps a theme throughout the album, yet with each song paying an homage to a different substyle or a different artist.  For example, Your Crying Eyes (song 4), to me, resembles even some David Bowie sound.

The lyrical prowess of Earley is still heavily present, and quite enjoyable.

There are a few mellower songs on the album, but we are certainly not getting another acoustic, "murder ballad" such as Man Who Would Speak True (Destroyer of the Void), or Black River Killer (Furr).  And, we are certainly not getting a grandiose folksy piece such as Furr, or even Tailor. This is my personal bias.  If you are a die-hard prog rock fan, you will get more out of it.  I find it somewhat monotonous.

I would still recommend it and would buy it again, knowing what it was about.