Five For Fighting - America Town (2000/2003) [SACD]

A clean and bright effort that delivers some heavy themes, America Town is a very American-sounding album: drifting from song to song is like driving through the Midwest from town to town, each town offering its own stories, not all of which are happy. Singer/songwriter John Ondrasik tackles topics like suicide on “Easy Tonight” and the desire to belong (“Superman”, which became an anthem for post-9/11 Americans one year after the album’s release) but still manages to see the silver lining in the areas of family (“Easy Tonight”) and idolatry (“Michael Jordan”). The songs are sung in a fragile growl, a little like Eddie Vedder singing a lullaby, and backed with some very straightforward acoustic guitar and piano-led rock. The focus is clearly on the lyrics, which are well written and effectively sung.