American Minor – American Minor

Artist: American Minor

Title: American Minor

Label: Jive

Rating: 6/10

CORPORATE LINE: American Minor’s debut album comes as a complete surprise, sounding like a missive from an alternate, more perfect universe where Television opened for Bad Company and the Gun Club toured with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

American Minor are five working-class boys from rural West Virginia who write songs about real life instead of their record collections. They know that Grand Funk Railroad was just the MC5 with a better-looking lead singer. Most importantly, American Minor knows more about living in house trailers than living off trust funds.

THE GREAT:
“Walk On” – Just good old rock ‘n’ roll with a catchy hook and a guitar solo—rock on!
“All My Time” – A lovely ballad.

THE AVERAGE:
“Cheaters & Non-Believers” – Catchy with a nice hook and yet it doesn’t overwhelm you or convince you that it’s great.
“Mr. Queen” – See above.
“Buffalo Creek” – It has a vibe that fans of the Black Crowes will get into.
“Break” – its rock ‘n’ roll but nothing more than you’d hear at a local bar.

THE BAD:
Nothing.

FRANKLY: American Minor sounds like any other band that wants to go back to the roots of rock. The issue is that they don’t stick out amongst the plethora of rock bands out there doing the same thing. If anything they have a bit Bon Jovi and the Black Crowes in them minus the big rock ballads and hit singles.

+ Rae Gun