Flashback CD Review #94 - American Heartbreak - S/T

This review was originally written for the Rock Is Life.com website in 2006.

American Heartbreak
S/T
Liquor & Poker Music 2006
http://www.americanheartbreak.com

What's The 4-1-1?

The San Francisco rockers second full-length album finds the band sounding like something good from the 80's rock heyday.

Genre

Hard Rock / Rock / Metal

The Good

I know the band is from San Franciso, but they do manage to come across with that Southern rock down home rock and roll vibe on this disc. I don't it it that's just how I heard things or it it is an intentional design by the band, but it works like a charm.

For the most part the vocals from Lance Boone are excellent. He's got a bit of that rough whiskey tinged style I like on a lot of my rock music so that helps.

The band's straight ahead rockers are dominant on the disc, though I really did enjoy the slower paced "The Girl Who Knows Nothing At All" a lot.

The band has straightforward simple lyrics. Now that doesn't mean they are simplistic, it is just that they don't try to use a ten dollar word when an every day word works just fine. There are turns of phrase and phrasing that I found quite enjoyable.

The guitar work is excellent and the band has a nicely honed sense of what works in terms of melody. The opening track "Somebody" sets the pace for the band's melodic tones. The album features 13 tracks and I though 8 of them were simply awesome. The standouts among those tracks are the ode to the 1970's rockers "The Last of the Superheroes (of the 1970's)", "Fallen Angels" and my personal favorite, the screw you break up song "Crawling".

The Bad

The song "Isolation" is rather boring. The delivery of the chorus for "Love Your Abuse" is kind of lame.

The Verdict

I am not sure what I was expecting when I popped American Heartbreak into my CD player, but whatever those expectations were, they were exceeded. This album really surprised me and I think anyone who longs for the days of a fresh sounding arena rock album would do well to check out this album.

Did You Know

American Heartbreak guitarist Billy Rowe played with the 80's rockers Jetboy.

The band's bassist Michael Butler used to be in the thrash band Exodus. He also hosts a weekly podcast show called The Rock and Roll Geek Show.

There is a face shot of the front cover model underneath the CD holder for the album.

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5