Album Review: Alabama – ‘American Pride’

Alabama’s fourteenth album for RCA, American Pride, was their third produced in conjunction with Larry Michael Lee and Josh Leo. The album, released in August 1992, spawned four singles.

Slick rocker “Take A Little Trip” previewed the record and hit #2. A tale about a couple with ambitious dreams planning a staycation, the song employed heavy drums and guitars and allowed for a gravely lead vocal from Randy Owen. Final single “Hometown Honeymoon,” which peaked at #3, continued in this theme. While the latter features a fiddle-laced production I love, neither song is lyrically memorable and all but forgotten today.

The hometown theme spreads to “Homesick Fever,” which is a love-where-you’re-from mid-tempo southern rocker that’s good but nowhere near great. A more generic focus on Americana is found on the title track, the album’s most personal song thanks to Owen’s sole writing credit. He keeps the details generic, but the ballad has heart.

While listening to American Pride for review I was surprised to learn “Richard Petty Fans” was a tender ballad and not the rocker the title suggests. It certainly works, but the results feel like a typical Alabama piano ballad but with a tight focus.

The dreadful “You Can’t Take The Country out of me” has the vibe of “Pass It On Down” mixed with a lyric that mirrors “Down Home.” From the token banjo that opens the track to the southern gothic rock atmosphere, I genuinely dislike everything about this song.

The second single, and the only chart topper from American Pride, is arguably their most iconic radio offering from the 1990s. “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why)” is brilliant commercial contemporary country music – an engaging melody (featuring drums and guitars with ample breathing space) mixed with a memorable chorus and distinct harmonies. It’s also a great song, built from a premise seemingly without promise.

For the requisite ballad single, the band offered “Once Upon A Lifetime.” The #3 peaking song tries to update their watered down slow jams from the previous decade but fails to give the listener anything interesting or exciting. I give them points for attempting to give radio a sincere love song but they shouldn’t have so blatantly mailed in their efforts.

The ballads only get worse from there. Jeff Cook co-wrote and takes the lead on “Pictures and Memories,” a track that feels like a left over from the early 1980s. I would’ve enjoyed it more had the overall vibe leaned country in even a slightly noticeable way. “Sometimes out of Touch,” which features Teddy Gentry on lead vocal, also has a dated sound. But the piano flourishes and Gentry’s interesting vocal tone keep the track from joining the others at the bottom of the remainder bin.

“Between The Two of Them” appears on American Pride in its original form. A deep album cut for the band, it would be a single from Tanya Tucker in 1994. There’s no arguing that she has the better version. Alabama’s take on the ballad is far too slow and lacks any country signifiers to make it interesting.

I had been gunning to review American Pride since I love “I’m In A Hurry” and “Hometown Honeymoon” so much. It’s also one of the first Alabama albums I purchased when I began listening to country music about twenty years ago.

But neither of those things excuses the fact that American Pride is nothing more than a bizarre album. Listening thru, it’s obvious this is nothing more than a commercial album frontloaded with the four offerings suitable for radio while the remaining seven tracks have little to no value for the listener. In most respects, it’s hard to even categorize American Pride as a country album at all.

Grade: C+