Neapolitan

Before I start my review this I like to mention Mord story. I introduced this band to Mord in plug.dj. This album is one I consider an essential, that one should hear, whether you like it or not. Mord only like half of my recommendations. So I was surprised that Mord liked it. I am glad Mord liked it. However I was very surprised Mord never heard of The United States of America. I thought everyone heard of The United States of America. I thought how is it possible of Mord not know The United States of America. I know Mord lives in Japan, but Mord has internet. The United States of America shares name with The United States of America and who on this great globe or flat Earth not heard of The United States of America? To make long story short I recalled Mord thank me for introducing The United States of America to him. If Mord was here I am sure Mord would vote anywhere between eight to ten. No lie.

There are a couple of problems I have with the album.

I am all into experimental electronic music mix with other forms of music. There is a long line of bands that did that kind of thing. Silver Apples, Roxy Music, Pram, and Broadcast. I find The United States of America to be in the middle of no-mans land for me. I evenwent through a bunch of albums released at the time, some before and after this album, and while I really like some of the songs on it (USA). I found myself enjoying those albums more. I am not going to trip all over myself declaring it "the greatest Psychedelic record of all time" cause this guy tinkered with some oscillators. There are plenty of Psychedelia albums I like more than this. To say they are better would only be a subject statement, and not a very strong argument. True some/most of those recordings perhaps don't contain someone tinkering with an oscillator on it, but should that somehow make an average song for its time even greater?

Scoring, it is a five out of a ten. Joseph Byrd was a full blown communist and I am docking five points to an album that otherwise had the potential to be a ten, but in all reality is really a eight or a nine out of a ten. Intuitively I think it is a solid eight. Eight minus five leaves it at three. However it garners two extra-credit point for being innovative and similar to music I like, thus pulling up the score to a five out of ten.

It is not an album I obsess over. I heard it before this and while I like most of it however capture my interest like other albums. I am sure I will return to this album, maybe not listen to it in full, but listen to tracks on it.

Washington Apples
Silver Apples
Apple
The United of America
Japan
The Boards of Canada

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