Years later, however, things are different. Time has a way of changing the musical landscape in order to reveal something about quality and emotion. Something, if you will, about the soul of a recording. As the years have passed, I have begun to find that the tracks on Amorica are the sountrack to my life. It was subtle at first... a vague idea that there was a track on Amorica that would suit a young man's road-trip somewhere in the urban plains... and so I skipped around until I found Wiser Time... later, the notion one night, walking home slightly inebriated, that there was some track that would really speak for my "heightened" mental state... and so I found Ballad in Urgency... then I fell in love and realized that Cursed Diamond was the soundtrack to my smile... Descending... A Conspiracy... She Gave Good Sunflower... every damn track on this disc is a classic. Not just great, like the tracks on The Southern Harmony... but a sleeping *classic*, like Gimme Shelter, like Hey Jude. Every damn Amorica track is a classic of Rock and Roll, destined to be listened to for generations, like others before them.

And so, years later, every last damn track on Amorica is one of my favorite musical tracks of all time. I can't live without this disc. Yes, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion is tight and probably more "lively"... but Amorica is more real, more beautiful, more deep, more in tune with (as Chris once said in an interview), "The Song."

I place Amorica alongside the likes of Led Zeppelin IV, Beggars Banquet, Abbey Road, Back in Black, Mellen Collie, Daydream Nation, Blowout Comb, Exile on Main Street, Brilliant Corners, Naive, Never Mind the Bollocks, Ziggy Stardust, & Nico, The Joshua Tree, Halber Mensch, Angel Dust, Disraeli Gears, Electric Ladyland, OK Computer... and on and on. In short, once you have had the Amorica high, you can't satisfy that particular Jones any other way. It's quality. Hit the road, crank it, and live your life. Thank you, bros. Robinson and the Black Crowes, for a classic.


The Apex of the Black Crowes Career   December 17, 2003
Thomas E. Hoke Jr. (Atlanta, GA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This album is simply stunning. Like a lot of reviewers here, I was actually disappointed by "amorica" at first .... it was so different from "Southern Harmony" and not at all what I expected. But now, almost ten years later, I find that I listen to this album more than any other Crowes CD. The lyrics are so poetic here, especially on the beautiful "Ballad in Urgency" and "Cursed Diamond". This album shows a band coming into its own and defining their unique sound. If all you have ever heard by the Crowes are songs like "Jealous Again" and "Hard to Handle", you haven't heard any of the songs which truly make this band great. "amorica" isn't as accessible as some of their other records and is not an easy listen at first, but it will eventually take root in your brain and gain more and more depth with each play. This is the best record The Black Crowes ever recorded, and unfortunately they were rewarded with mediocre sales which caused them to retreat back to a more accessible style. Ironically, "amorica" is now almost universally regarded as the band's strongest work. I just think this record was too daring for the mainstream record buying public, who wanted "Hard to Handle 2". This is about as far removed from that as possible; it's the real deal, a classic which I predict will only grow in stature with the passing of time.


Great CD after 11 Years....   December 13, 2005
Dean Buffoni (Mesa,AZ)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I havent listened to this CD in years, pulled it out today and it still sounds great. The songs "Non Fiction & "Wiser Time" are the best tunes on it, they are slow melodic ballads that just take you away. Strange lyrics though but I guess these guys are a little ecentric, drugs definitly influenced these lyrics. Conspiracy is a catchy riff, typical Crowes, love the cover, I got it before they changed it. Anyways, great songs and a great band, good to hear they are reforming for another CD and tour, go see them there worth the money.


Clasico! Clasicamente!!!   September 17, 2006
The PROjectors (Oslo, Norge)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Now that the 'Lost Crowes' compilation is being released at the end of the month (find it now torrentially,) I find myself revisiting this glorious recording. Although some of the versions contained on these new 'demos' are revelatory (check the chorus on 'Descending' as well as the french horn ending a la 'You Can't Always Get What You Want') most are what you would expect. Anyway, those were the seeds of THIS superb album. When I first listened to Amorica on the day it was released, 'London P.25' (better on the 'Lost Crowes') and 'Downtown Moneywaster' were my least favorite tracks. This did not matter in the least, as the rest had surpassed anything I had expected in rock music at the time. At a time when techno was peaking, this album was out of place with most of the young people at the time (in Ft. Lauderdale, at least) but it is a landmark!!! If you are considering the Crowes, get this one. DO IT!!! The Southern Harmony was really a favorite of mine (and also a classic,) but this SOB is the shiznit.


A Bacchanale of Classic Rock   January 8, 2006
Princess Eilonwy (Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

"Moneymaker" shook us up and loved us. "Southern Harmony" proposed to us, laying down the foundation of the Crowes sound. Then let it be said that "amorica" took us to bona fide Heaven!

Argueably, the Robinson's finest wine culminates in their third release which begins kicking hard twice with rockers "Gone" & "A Conspiracy," mellowing into "High Head Blues" and then serving the luscious "Cursed Diamond." By that time, my friend, I guarantee you will be there in "amorica," and it is a beautiful place.

It's so much made of the same materials of the previous two outings, yet the mix of the emotion and the passion of Rich & Chris here is unbelievably potent.

"Nonfiction," "...Sunflower" and on -- it's the same holy places where the prophets of undying tunes tread, but it's totally Black Crowes brand, and it feels too good for words.

"p.25 London" breaks in with awesome ghetto blues so bad and dirty, but it's "Wiser Time" that carries one back to the euphoric plane on which this album takes stage.