Living in the USA

AMG Review of Living in the USA

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Living in the USA is not an official Steve Miller Band album -- it's a compilation assembled by CEMA Special Markets that draws highlights from his earliest albums. There are a couple of hits here -- namely, "Living in the USA" and "The Joker" -- plus a handful of album rock favorites like "Gangster of Love," but there is also a bit of filler on the album. Consequently, it's not as entertaining or valuable as the classic The Best of the Steve Miller Band, nor should it be seen as a cheap substitute for that collection. Instead, Living in the USA is an uneven sampler of an uneven era, and it offers almost as many misses as hits. For a budget-priced collection, that's actually a pretty good ratio, but casual fans should stick with the well-known hits collection, not this sampler.