American Anthems vol. 1

They Say...

Review by Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide

Since the get-go, the Milwaukees have pursued a dream of reinventing the music that rocked their childhoods, a populist sound that reverberated with all who heard it, smashing the subgenres that stubbornly separated rock fans. With American Anthems, Vol. 1, the quartet has finally achieved its goal. Along the way, the group has had to jettison the old. "I said so long to who we used to be, a new way of life for me," Dylan St. Clark emotively declares on "Highway to the Sun," "We're shedding what you've seen." That includes the band's early, engaging rawness and its more recent, unrestrained style; in its stead come a new musical maturity, more thoughtful lyrics, and more sophisticated stylings and arrangements. But life is change, and it's evident by the songs within that the Milwaukees have been taking a broom to their lives, with former friends and lovers swept to the curb. "Moonshaker," "Crown Royal," and "Breakup Song" all revolve around closing a page on the past before they hit the road. "I was born to be restless," St. Clark explains on "Save Me," the perfect cut-and-run cum touring song. And then the band is off, to chase down stardom. "You wanna live your dreams," the singer elaborates on the arena-bound "Bullet Train," adding, "You get to pay all your dues instead." Yet all that time spent on the road invariably heightens the awareness of what one's left behind, prompting the bandmembers to rue "Marigold," the girl who got away, and their now idyllically recalled childhoods in "Oak Ridge." The themes to all these songs intertwine, but two stand apart -- the happy homecoming of a WWII soldier eagerly finding his "American Girl," and the pop-tart smackdown of the "Rich & Famous." Musically, however, the album is all of a piece, a phenomenal rock set that's inspired by the classics, but not beholden to them. Moving from downtempo quiet numbers to rousing thumpers, across Stonesy blues and Springsteen-esque fists-in-the-air anthems, this album's got it all, a rock masterpiece for a new generation.