Customer Reviews

Hat Trick

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of their best is you like harmony and flowing music with that California folk rock style.Rainbow Song is the best.Only one minor hit with Muskrat Love.

The soulful, spiritual quality of this album is unsurpassed. Every song is a gem. I bought this as an LP when it was first released in the '70's, and it continues to be one of my all-time favorites. This was a TREMENDOUSLY talented group in this time period, and this album is usually overlooked. Worth its weight in gold. I'm afraid they lost their way a bit after this, though some of their later work is excellent as well (and of course their earlier work).

Even Muskrat Love (the only track that's not an original tune of theirs, and later tarnished by the saccharine cover by a later artist) has its charm due to the wonderful harmonies of this group. My only small quibble is the guitar on Green Monkey, which is over the top - but again, that is played by another artist. This is a real master work!

A great album that may have been sterotyped by its first single, Muskrat Love. The album was produced by America and rivals their later work with George Martin. They run the gammit on this one, from harder rock (Green Monkey), to soft pop (She's Going To Let You Down), to folk rock (Windwave) and everything in between (Hat Trick). If you are an America fan this album is a must.

This is a good, not great album, though the I think it could be the most underrated--at least at the time--of all of the America albums. Some of the songs on this album, in my opinion, are great, and some just don't do it for me at all. It's kind of an all-or-nothing sort of thing. Hat Trick has something special to it in that it's really the very last album they made that doesn't have that sort of George Martin polish to it, a polish that remained in one form or other, even when Martin left the band around 1980. From their eponymous debut record until this one, America got more and more musically sophisticated. Not a bad thing, except that it doesn't automatically make for great songs. Great songs are: "Wind Wave", "It's Life", "Rainbow Song". Good songs: "She's Gonna Let You Down", and "Goodbye". The rest--and this is just me and my two cents--are really not very good.

I didn't buy anymore America CD's after this and it is my favorite album of America's. Fairly original and the tunes are variable enough to keep listing to the entire track. Since America is defintely a "70's" band, it probably would help to keep it in perspective of the time period. But I love it.

However, it is important to at least buy the first three albums to see the development of the group. After these three albums, it is mostly schlock, and overboard commercial -