Details

Album Cover
Artist
Don Caballero
Album
American Don
Label
Touch & Go
Released
October 03, 2000

Review

"American Don" is Don Caballero's most experimental release to date. The songs tend to resort less to hard-rock guitar work and drum pummelings, and focus more on math-rock guitar work and more subdued drumming; in their previous albums, Damon Che's drumming was essentially the lead instrument, but now it sits more in the background, supporting the guitars. "The Peter Criss Jazz" is this album's main highlight; after two and a half minutes of a standard drum beat and a twangy background, the guitars and piano come in for an impressive few minutes, and at roughly five minutes in, a new melody is introduced using synthesizer and guitar, which is the most un-Caballero-like part of the song (and maybe the album) and is played amazingly. A fourth melody comes in to finish the song with off-beat guitar notes eventually fading to silence. Altogether, this album is very good, but it lacks some of the energy of its predecessors. "American Don" shows a large change in their style since 1993's "For Respect", and it would have been interesting to see how the band progressed from here; unfortunately, however, they broke up shortly after the album was released.

Rating
77/100
Reviewer
Noah Jackson
Published

Track List

  1. Fire Back About Your New Baby's Sex
  2. The Peter Criss Jazz
  3. Haven't Lived Afro Pop
  4. You Drink a Lot of Coffee for a Teenager
  5. Ones All Over the Place
  6. I Never Liked You
  7. Details on How to Get ICEMAN on Your License Plate
  8. A Lot of People Tell Me I Have a Fake British Accent
  9. Let's Face It Pal, You Didn't Need That Eye Surgery