In America

AMG Review of In America

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

It (annoyingly) doesn't say so on the packaging, but In America is exactly the same live album as 1989's Bike-Toy-Clock-Gift, renamed, repackaged in a new cover featuring singer-bassist Kim Warnick writhing on the floor in front of Nate Johnson's drum kit in a sleeveless top and short shorts, and resequenced (dropping one song, a negligible 29-second abandoned run through "Trouble Sleeping," in the process). The resequencing job actually improves the album, as it restores the original running order of the two concerts (in August and September 1988) at which the album was recorded. As a result, the album sounds more organic; the ripping cover of the Buzzcocks' "Love You More" sounds like more of a nod to the Fastbacks' most obvious inspiration when it kicks off the album, and the leap from a completely reworked version of Mott the Hoople's "Roll Away the Stone" directly into the Ramones' "Swallow My Pride" (like the later segue from Queen's "Brighton Rock" into Kurt Bloch's oddly similar-sounding "Lose") shows the growing influence of pre-punk '70s ock on the incipient grunge era. Guitarist Lulu Gargiulo, who had temporarily left the band in late 1987, is sorely missed, but overall In America is a delight and a better release than Bike-Toy-Clock-Gift.