Craig Leve wrote:
> Has anyone picked up the brand new album by America, that's produced by 
> Adam Schlesinger and James Iha?

I've been listening to it for a large chunk of the past week, and once you
get past the "America? AMERICA?!?!?!?" part (which, arguably, you could have
started getting over as soon as you heard that Schlesinger was involved),
it's been a satisfying listen. There's plenty of jangle, the harmonies are
still great, and the songs are solid. If anything, I worried about the
cloyingness factor, and that doesn't really creep in until very late in the
album. "Indian Summer", "Always Love", "Work To Do" -- some great stuff. On
rhapsody.com, Eric Shea writes that "indie rockers will be amazed at how
much all of this simply sounds like early Teenage Fanclub." (I think he's a
little off base -- it sounds more like *latter-day* TFC, but anyway...) I
would think that there'd be a lot of takers for _Here & Now_ 'round these
parts.

-steve