:: America - The Definitive Pop Collection

America

It is never an easy task to review a greatest hits collection, particularly when in the current landscape a pop star can release a ‘best of’ after only a couple of albums – you know I’m talking to you Hillary Duff! Thankfully, America has an extensive body of work to draw from, spanning back to their beginnings in 1972, riding high in the charts on ‘A Horse With No Name’. Again the problem of reviewing a greatest hits album rears it head. How do you critique a band that has clearly established themselves as folk rock legends? I guess you can’t, and therein lays the joy. No judging or critical ears are required, you can just sit back, relax and enjoy. Re-discover all the songs that carved America into the history books, such as ‘Sandman’, ‘Ventura Highway’ and ‘Sister Golden Hair’. But this collection is about so much more than the hits, it’s the ensemble of songs that make it special. A career is a lifetime, and a lifetime is a series of vast experiences that cannot be contained to a few hit songs. I agree with the title, this is a definitive collection, and not one to be missed.