Style: Southern and classic rock with country-folk; compare to the Band, Big Star, Neil Young
Top tracks: “Love the Way You Walk Away,” “American Goldwing,” “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Blitzen Trapper’s sixth full-length finds the Portland band once again deftly mining sounds of America’s past to create taut, rootsy pop songs that continue singer Eric Earley’s tendency of swaddling spiritual exploration in the blanket of relationship trials (“Your Crying Eyes,” “Love the Way You Walk Away”) and quasi-allegorical story songs (“Astronaut”). Longtime fans may wish for more diversity to keep these songs from sounding interchangeable with others on the last few albums, but if the worse you can say about American Goldwing is that it’s unmistakably Blitzen Trapper, well, if it ain’t broke …
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