Amorica

Amorica (stylized as amorica.) is the third studio album by American rock band The Black Crowes. Spawned from the band's unreleased, scrapped Tall album, Amorica was released November 1, 1994, on American Recordings and reissued in the UK in 1998 with two bonus tracks. Amorica reached gold status in the United States, shipping 500,000 copies.

This article is about the Black Crowes album. For the region of Brittany, see Armorica.
Amorica
The original cover of the album.
Studio album by
The Black Crowes
ReleasedNovember 1, 1994 (1994-11-01)
RecordedMay–August 1994
Genre
Length54:13
LabelAmerican
Producer
The Black Crowes chronology
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
(1992)		 Amorica
(1994)		 Three Snakes and One Charm
(1996)
Censored cover
Editions sold by big box retailers have a cropped image.

The record cover notably featured a close-up photo of the pelvic region of a woman wearing a United States flag thong with pubic hair showing at the top of the thong. The cover photo was taken from the cover of the July 1976 issue of Hustler magazine. The album with this cover was subsequently banned from chain stores like Walmart and Kmart, resulting in the cover being censored with a solid black background, displaying only the thong.[1]

The Amorica album came as a re-recording of a previous Black Crowes project tentatively titled "Tall", which was produced by Chris Robinson. Rich Robinson stated, "Chris and I got into a huge fight over it because he wanted to produce it and I'm like, no, but he did it anyway because the rest of the band was sort of on his side." Chris also stated, "Rich obviously has his head up his ass about what 'Tall' was because I wanted to produce the band. I really wanted to take away the big Black Crowes sound, I mean, there were guitars there, but they weren't the main thing...I had Jellyfish singing on a lot of things with me, big harmonies...and there were French horn players on there, and lots of percussionists, different things and Amorica is more Rich's ideas from "Tall" really and my ideas were kind of scraped off there." The "Tall" songs were released (featuring new mixes by Paul Stacey) as part of the 2006 compilation The Lost Crowes (the original mixes of the "Tall" material circulate on bootlegs).

Other songs recorded during the Amorica sessions were "Feathers", "Tied Up and Swallowed" and "Chevrolet" (a Taj Mahal cover). These tracks were later released as B-sides, bonus tracks or on compilation albums.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[3]
NME8/10[4]
Q[4]
Robert Christgau[5]
Rolling Stone[6]

"The Crowes haven't ceased their cocky pillaging of the universal jukebox – echoes of the Stones and Led Zep abound," wrote Rolling Stone's Paul Evans, who awarded the album three and a half stars. "But in joining the mix with offbeat kicks (Latino rhythms, wah-wah guitar, strange vocal treatments), they sound remarkably fresh."[7]

In July 2014, Guitar World chose Amorica as one of "50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994".[8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson.

No.TitleLength
1."Gone"5:08
2."A Conspiracy"4:46
3."High Head Blues"4:01
4."Cursed Diamond"5:56
5."Nonfiction"4:16
6."She Gave Good Sunflower"5:48
7."P. 25 London"3:38
8."Ballad in Urgency"5:39
9."Wiser Time"5:33
10."Downtown Money Waster"3:40
11."Descending"5:42
US bonus track
No.TitleLength
12."Tied Up and Swallowed"4:16
Japanese bonus track
No.TitleLength
12."Chevrolet"3:32
1998 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Song of the Flesh"3:45
13."Sunday Night Buttermilk Waltz"2:46

Personnel

The Black Crowes

Additional personnel[9]

Production

Charts

Album
Chart (1994) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[10] 11
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[11] 17
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[12] 40
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[13] 39
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[14] 25
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] 35
UK Albums (OCC)[16] 8
US Billboard 200[17] 11

Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1994 "A Conspiracy" US Mainstream Rock Tracks[18] 5
US Modern Rock Tracks[19] 23
1995 "High Head Blues" US Mainstream Rock Tracks[18] 8
"Wiser Time" 7

References
  1. Morse, Steve (March 23, 1995). "The Black Crowes: Rock rebels take home-grown spirit on tour". The Boston Globe. p. 18.
  2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Amorica at AllMusic
  3. Eddy, Chuck (4 November 1994). "Music Review: 'Amorica' Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  4. "Black Crowes - Amorica CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  5. Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: The Black Crowes". RobertChristgau.com. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  6. Evans, Paul (3 November 1994). "Amorica". Rolling Stone.
  7. Rolling Stone, November 3, 1994, p96
  8. "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994". GuitarWorld.com. July 14, 2014. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  9. "The Black Crowes - Amorica". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-03-08.
  10. "Australiancharts.com – The Black Crowes – Amorica.". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  11. "Dutchcharts.nl – The Black Crowes – Amorica." (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  12. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Black Crowes – Amorica." (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  13. "Charts.nz – The Black Crowes – Amorica.". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  14. "Swedishcharts.com – The Black Crowes – Amorica.". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  15. "Swisscharts.com – The Black Crowes – Amorica.". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  16. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  17. "The Black Crowes Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  18. "The Black Crowes Chart History: Mainstream Rock". Billboard. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  19. "The Black Crowes Chart History: Alternative Songs". Billboard. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
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