BoDeans - American Made 2012

American Made is the 11th studio album from the BoDeans, but in a fundamental way it sounds and feels different from their earlier work. And with good reason -- while the heart of the BoDeans was always the interaction between singers and songwriters Sam Llanas and Kurt Neumann, in 2011Llanas left the band (reportedly under less than cordial circumstances), and on American Made,Neumann called the shots completely solo, singing lead, writing the songs, and giving the music a slightly different spin. Without Llanas' tough, bittersweet tenor voice, American Made has a different flavor than the BoDeans' best-known work, but Neumann sounds strong and confident throughout, singing like he's been waiting all his life to have the space to himself, and incorporating a richer sound that could be arena-ready in a world where '80s heartland rock is still the choice of the masses. (The interplay of Michael Ramos' accordion and Warren Hood's fiddle in particular recalls the heyday ofJohn Cougar Mellencamp.) In many respects, American Made connects with an emotional directness and eagerness to please that recalls the BoDeans' glory days, even if the approach is somewhat different, but the album has one serious pitfall -- Neumann's songwriting invariably tries too hard and sounds painfully obvious, and the frequently clunky lyrics in "American," "Chemical," "All the World," and "Don't Bring Me Down" sound all the more irksome when animated by Neumann's soulful vocal bravado. Neumann's attempt to address Llanas' departure from the band on "Everything You Wanted" suggests the wounds are still uncomfortably fresh, at least on Kurt's part, and it's a bad idea to include the line "tramps like us, we was born to run" when you follow that track with a Bruce Springsteencover. American Made confirms that Kurt Neumann can certainly lead the BoDeans all by himself, but when it comes to songwriting, he's advised to find a good collaborator if he wants to keep making albums. AMG.

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