Loose Fur
Born Again In The USA
Release Date: Mar 21, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Drag City
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Album Review: Born Again In The USA by Loose Fur
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Though it's in keeping with the jammy, appealingly tossed-off feel of their debut, Loose Fur's second album, Born Again in the USA, isn't quite as, well, loose as Loose Fur was. Actually, in its own mellow, affable way, it manages to be pretty accomplished while keeping the freewheeling, creative spark that made Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, and Jim O'Rourke's collaboration fun the first time around. A mix of rambling instrumentals and songs that border on the poppy side of these artists' work, Born Again in the USA has a laid-back, late-'60s/early-'70s feel to it, particularly on the two Tweedy-sung songs that open the album.
Opinion: Mediocre
Formal experimentation in pop music has frequently drawn from the avant-garde, using a slew of loaded languages ranging from bludgeoning violence to inhuman instrumental proficiency. These can serve as a statement of radicalism, or perhaps more ideally, as something more honest and individualistic than other pop music. There is a sense of intended delineation, a desire to reclaim a beacon of artistry in an extremely saturated and commercial cultural medium.