Sooner or later we knew he would do it, and here it is: a hillbilly album. Like everyone else, Elvis has turned to American roots and apparently found country music appealing. The music is distinctly country — the Attractions, Elvis' regular band, are replaced on all but one track by country and rock musicians, including guru guitarist James Burton, who slithers through some rather subdued contributions.
At times Burton also tries rockabilly. But through it all you've got Elvis' voice. It's his typical crooning, gruff, Brit-pop vocal style that refuses to sound right with anything else but his own Costello-stylized pop. This tells you several things:
A) That Elvis can't write great country music, only pretty good country music.
B) That Elvis can still be pretty bitter about everything.
C) That his real name is Matthew Declan Patrick Aloysius "Grinnin'" Macmanus, a.k.a. Little Hands of Concrete.
D) That Elvis is capable of doing an album without at least one great song.
E) That everyone in the record industry thinks all they've got to do is put "America" in the title of an album and it will sell.
F) That Elvis is the only songwriter capable of putting 15 country (with two rockabilly) songs on one LP, and stupid enough to do it.
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