259. David Ackles | American Gothic (1972)

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Wikipedia Entry

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Tracks

1. American Gothic
2. Love's Enough
3. Ballad of the Ship of State
4. One Night Stand
5. Oh, California!
6. Another Friday Night
7. Family Band
8. Midnight Carousel
9. Waiting for the Moving Van
10. Blues for Billy Whitecloud
11. Montana Song

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American Gothic is a peculiar album. The music has a vaudevillian and orchestral quality to it. David Ackles sings in a style similar to Tim Buckley and Jacques Brel.

The songs are ostensibly snapshots of American life—a loveless, dysfunctional marriage, the end of the Vietnam War, love vs. lust, mass consumerism, loneliness and alcohol, religiosity, the pioneer spirit. It's a dark, sad and cynical album that ends on a hopeful note; even the music is upbeat when the lyrics aren't.

This album has moments of profound beauty and insight. Other moments border on the banal. In that, it's an uneven album which can be forgiven because of it's adventurousness. I think the album is most definitely worth listening to, after a brief review of American history. This album can be seen either as a last gasp of pre-rock and roll popular music or as passing the baton to a new generation of singers like Tom Waits. Which it actually is ought to determine whether this album deserves to be on the 1001 Albums list. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

All the songs are quite good, but the strongest part of the album is the opening three songs. The stand outs are: American Gothic, Love's Enough, Ballad of the Ship of State, One Night Stand, Another Friday Night, Midnight Carousel, Waiting for the Moving Van, Blues for Billy Whitecloud and Montana Song.

★★★★★★★★★☆