ART IN AMERICA

Art in America were a family case since their early formation in 1977.Based in Detroit, Michigan, the band built around brothers Chris Ruetenik (aka Chris Flynn) on guitar/vocals, his brother Dan on drums and their sister Shishonee on harp/vocals.The original crew featured also bassist Jim Kuha and the odds for a good career were always there, starting from the collaboration with T Lavitz of Dixie Dregs, who filled up the spot on keys for the recordings of their debut.These would took place at the studio of Eddy Offord in Atlanta, Georgia, the same man behind the early works of Yes and ELP.In 1983 the self-titled debut of Art in America saw the light on Pavillion.

In 1983 much had changed around the Prog Rock scene.Art in America had started apparently as a Symphonic Rock outfit, but by the year of their debut their sound had transformed into a Prog/Pop amalgam similar to ASIA and YES of the same period.Still the influences from YES, GENESIS and KANSAS are evident throughout an album, that could have been really better if some more risks were taken during the recordings.Instead the Flynn family had chosen the easy way of typical song-structured compositions with plenty of AOR-flavors akin to JOURNEY or BOSTON, characterized by heart-felt melodies, intense choruses and sensitive guitar work, wrapped up in melodious and emotional pieces.This way, the work of Lavitz on keyboards is rather buried and limited in soft piano lines and atmospheric, background layers.The only symphonic thing about this album is the similarity with an ex-symphonic group like YES and the progressive elements are limited to some nice breaks, the RUSH moves in some guitar parts and a few more bombastic moments in the choruses.Otherwise, this is a standard product of the time, which will please all fans of melodic Rock and proggy AOR, as the melodies are quite nice and the group's songwriting is pretty great.

Not really a recommended album beyond the fan base of Melodic Rock/AOR.The connections with the prog movement have to do only with the dark years of the classic bands, but again anyone interested in accesible and easy-going pieces will find plenty to like in ''Art in America''...2,5 stars.