America

I’ve been a huge Dan Deacon fan since his 2007 Spiderman of the Rings release. That album got me through many a long night in college. I absolutely loved his 2009 release Bromst. And immediately after I heard that America was going to be something of a concept album, I pre-ordered. Dan Deacon’s music never lets down. And something as epic, as ambitious as America promised to be was sure to be a great album. And it is.

America is a two-part album—the first couple of tracks pick up where Bromst left off. “True Thrush” and “Lots” made for good singles. I watched the video for “True Thrush” over and over and over again.

But what really makes America epic is the second half of the album. This is where the “concept” comes in. Anyone who really digs Dan Deacon has probably heard about his touring travels from coast-to-coast where it was really just him, a bus, a couple cans of food and his electronic equipment. One of my favorite Dan Deacon interviews is Erin Gleeson’s “That Guy at the Bus Station”. America, and the concept behind it, was a long time coming. Describing the four-part concept track from America entitled “U.S.A.”, Jess Harvell sums up nicely in her review of the album for Pitchfork:

[It’s] the sound of someone trying to recreate the awe of watching the vastness of the country unfold from the seat of a steadily moving vehicle.

In that sense, America is a great success. It’s an album you can get lost in. Dare I say it’s headnodic. Quite the departure from his previous work SOTR and Bromst, but one that shows his growth as a song-writer, a composer, a product of good ole’ America. It’s possibly his most revealing work to date. It’s his story. It’s the story he had to tell. And it’s definitely worth a listen.