Search - Black Crowes :: Amorica (Reis)

Kimberly S. from FORT YATES, ND
Reviewed on 8/15/2006...

This is the CD with the blacked out cover. Never opened

The first too were awesome. This one is epic.

J. Blocker | san antonio | 09/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album came out about the time Live Throwing Copper and Alanis Morisettes Jagged Little Pill came out. I liked both of which went on too sell 10 million and 30 million copies worldwide. I also bought Amorica around the same time which sold only 500,000 copies. Sorry but the difference in sales between the first 2 albums and Amorica is not the best way too judge this masterpiece. The other 2 caught lightning in a bottle. As they say timing is everything. Of which unfortunately; the crowes magnum opus, had bad timng and closed minded expectations. Most people would consider Lives Throwing Copper to be their first album. Hardly anyone ever heard of Live or Mental Jewelery until they became big from THrowing Copper. Jagged Little Pill was definitely Morrisettes first big U.S. release. So they had no expectations of prior albums to be judged by. Look were they`re follow albums went after these landmark sounding albums. Well amorica would have been a great first album just as throwing copper and jagged little pill were.



The first two albums essentially sabotaged their chance for growth that took place in this album. They became typecast and victims of their own genius. None of this recording would have sounded natural on the first album. I guess some narrow minded simpletons just want cookie cutter stuff. I love she gave good sunflower, wiser time and its transition into ballad in urgency. Most of these tracks though admittingly will have too grow on u. NOt as hook based, or radio friendly. But is listener friendly none the less.

I did not know these guys had a poigniant depth to their music. The first 2 were for the most part,str8 rock. This is more a well rounded effort with depth.

Worthy of at least the 4 million copies of the first album."

One of the greatest southern rock albums ever. A must have.

Parkansky | Morehead, KY USA | 08/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Black Crowes weren't taken too nicely by critics during their heyday. A lot of critics at the time (and still today) called them mediocre hacks and a "retro band," unfamiliar with the works of modern rock bands and ripping off nearly every great band of the late 1960's to early 1970's. This criticism must've affected the Crowes dearly, becuase a lot of anger, tension, and frustration can be felt in their 1994 masterpiece, Amorica. This, my friends, is the peak. Gone is the Stones-Faces-drunk swagger of Moneymaker and Southern Harmony, replaced by a tougher, syncopated sound that results in the heaviest album the Black Crowes have ever done. The guitars are louder, the vocals are angrier, the songs are tighter in arrangement, it's the best album they ever did. Right from the get-go, Amorica grabs you by the ears and never lets go during it's fifty-minute duration. Gone gets things started with a rough grungy riff that feels contemporary and old at the same time. A Conspiracy also continues the balls-to-the-wall rock and roll feel of the record, with Chris Robinson spitting out his most venomous lyrics to date (Say try your adam's apple/You talk it try it bite it right?/So now you want to fight?/Ok/Let's step outside). What's really interesting about this record is that it feels new while still having one step in the past. For all the talk about The Black Crowes sounding like an old band, there are definetly moments on this album where the grunge scene in Seattle seemed to affect them. The Zeppelin-drenched Cursed Diamond, with it's ascending chorus, comes to mind. It sounds like something Soundgarden would've wrote, had Chris Cornell not wrote so many Sabbath riffs in his time. Also, the band gets a little more psychedelic in their arrangements, with Santana (High Head Blues) and the Allman Brothers (She Gave Good Sunflower) influences coming out of their personality. Marc Ford's guitar playing has never been better. The psychedelic Middle-eastern guitar solos he throws throughout the whole record give the album a very 'acidy' feel, resulting in a strange and exotic world that Amorica brings to the listener. P.25 London seems to be a little influenced by modern rock bands at the time (Could they've possibly been listening to Stone Temple Pilots or Tool for the talk box vocals? Who knows.). Also, the band seems to pull out some unpredictable brilliance on this album, starting with the gorgeous Ballad In Urgency, with it's psychdelic keyboard-and-bass coda with birds chirping, and segueing into Wiser Time. (A brilliant segue too. The slowly cascading guitar chords and bent southern leads really does put to mind a tired band getting burnt out on the road.) Downtown Money Waster is another wow moment, as the band invokes the low down dirty blues of Taj Mahal. Finally, Descending is a gorgous ballad with incredible keyboard playing by Ed Harsch. This is the Crowes at their absolute best. Reccomended to music lovers everywhere, it's one of the best albums of the 90's, and one of the last 30 years."