| [USA] | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Anamanaguchi |
| Cover: | Anamanaguchi USA cover.jpg |
| Alt: | The cover art of USA, depicting a paintbrush and hard-bound book, the latter of which has a screen showing the letters "USA" embedded into the front cover, and above it, the word "Anamanaguchi". |
| Released: | October 25, 2019 |
| Length: | 52:28 |
| Label: | Polyvinyl[1] |
| Producer: | Ary Warnaar, Peter Berkman, Luke Silas, Nathan Ritholz, Porter Robinson |
| Prev Title: | Capsule Silence XXIV (Original Soundtrack Vol II) |
| Prev Year: | 2017 |
[USA] is the third studio album from American chiptune-based pop and rock band Anamanaguchi. It was released on October 25, 2019 through Polyvinyl. It received largely positive critical reception.
After the release of their previous album Endless Fantasy, criticism about percieved cultural appropriation and a "point of reckoning" about the negative aspects of what the band described as literal "endless fantasy" lead Anamanaguchi to move in a less escapist direction. The band initially even considered moving away from the Anamanaguchi name, but decided that it would be more "authentic" to retain their previous identity.
The initial version of the album completed under the [USA] title was slated for release in 2015, but the band felt that it didn't "answer the question that the title poses". Instead, the tracks were released as a soundtrack to a semi-fictional video game, Capsule Silence XXIV, created in collaboration with indie developer Ben Esposito, who later created Donut County.
Thematically, the band conceptualised the album as more thematically "complete" compared to the "sugar all the time" of their previous work, with member Ary Warnaar stating that they incorporated themese of "happiness, loneliness, loss [and] connection".
Compared to Anamanaguchi's previous chiptune music, The Fader described [USA] as incorporating more aspects of pop music and post-rock. Co-frontman Peter Berkman described it as a version of "an Anamanaguchi album... not devoted to video games", with chiptune instrumentation incorporated in limited but "more intentional" ways.
For "Air On Line", the band collaborated with Porter Robinson. "Sunset By Plane" was initially written as a song for Luke Silas's then-partner, and later featured in Capsule Silence XXIV before being revised with vocals by Caroline Lufkin.
Pitchfork praised [USA] as Anamanaguchi's "most emotionally grounded record yet". AllMusic reviewer Paul Simpson described it as a "a more challenging listen" than their previous work, but stated that it was "filled with triumphant, transcendent moments". Holly Hazelwood of Spectrum Culture said that it didn't "reinvent the wheel", but the band "spend a lot of time looking for new ways to use that wheel".
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