We're An American Band (studio album)
by Grand Funk

From talinhosgameplay 01/09/2025 01:16

Great album, if you tell me this your favorite GFR album I will not argue with your preference. That said, it is not my favorite one but that does not mean it is not a great album.

It is probably the most professional sounding recording from them, basically all choices made here are tasteful, Mark's writing is more contained and a lot less cringe inducing than what he usually goes with, specially comparing to the overwhelming bad songwriting from the Phoenix album before this one.

You could argue vocals here are not particularly amazing (specially Don's in this album), and this does occur in more than I would like to in others albums from them that I really like (their debut and their self titled). But even the vocals not being top notch, It does not let this album down significantly.

Highlights here are several:

The title track is definitely the most popular one and I can see why, but it is not one of my personal favorites. Nonetheless I do not deny its relevance.

I really like the chorus of "Stop Looking Back" and this is one of the songs which suffers from Don's not amazing vocal performance.

"Creepin'" is a slow burn, with a nice atmosphere during its progression and ends with a nice jam.

"The Railroad" is a great one, very well executed with some clever transitions, great musicianship and a sick outro.

I LOVE "Ain't Got Nobody", I know it is a silly love song but I find it so endearing. I love the chorus and the way it changes a little bit throughout the song every time it repeats. I love how the song gets more intense in its latter part, this to me is rock 'n roll doing what it does the best. This song is easily on my top 5 GFR songs, along with "Closer to Home", "Heartbreaker", "Bad Time" and "Paranoid".

"Walk Like a Man" is basically great rock song with a catchy chorus, very well executed instrumentally but it is a little bit letdown from Don's vocals again.

Those are the highlights for me but I also like the songs I did not mention, maybe one day I will write about them too.

About the album's production, It sounds generally great and pretty well recorded. The cymbals sound a bit weird sometimes in some songs, it "alternates" between the middle and right channel but it is a bit nitpicking from me that most people will not notice.

Not a bad record but, not their best. The band starts to move towards a more pop sound with this album.

This, of course, is the reissue album, not the original, as the original album had only 8 songs on it. Hooray, The End, and Stop Lookin' Back were not on the original album. Overall, not a bad era. Solid, straight ahead rock that sounds like the time period from which it came. Walk Like a Man is the best song.

From Bork 01/26/2012 17:11

Pretty good little rock & roller.