American Sunshine is the tenth studio album by Scottish-born Australian-based singer Colin Hay, released on 18 August 2009.

American Sunshine
Studio album by
Released18 August 2009
GenreRock, country rock, blues rock
LabelCompass, Lazy Eye
ProducerColin Hay
Colin Hay chronology
Are You Lookin' at Me?
(2007)
American Sunshine
(2009)
Gathering Mercury
(2011)

As with all of Colin Hay's music, American Sunshine contains largely personal songs; for example, "There's Water Over You" describes Hay's relationship with his parents.[citation needed] Unlike Going Somewhere, the tracks of American Sunshine are backed by Hay's band. This move away from minimalist, acoustic music is something Colin Hay established with his previous album, Man @ Work. However, Hay performs a great many of these tracks solo at his live appearances.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic     [1]
Popmatters          [2]

Allmusic called the album "a cheerfully mellow collection of easy rolling folk-pop", summarizing its mood by commenting that Hay "remains infatuated with what happens under the Southern Californian sun, whether it's rhapsodizing over the state itself or cherishing a flirtation with a shop girl, and it's easy to share his affections thanks to his easy, tasteful tunes."[1] Popmatters also gave a firmly positive assessment of the album, commenting that "Throughout his solo career, Hay has specialized in agreeable, comfortable pop rock in the better sense of the words, and it's safe to say he's been getting better as he goes."[2]

Track listing

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All songs written by Colin Hay.[3]

  1. "Oh California" – 4:02
  2. "Prison Time" – 4:05
  3. "There's Water Over You" – 3:57
  4. "I Came Into Your Store" – 3:17
  5. "No Time" – 3:02
  6. "Broken Love" – 3:55
  7. "I Can't Get Up Out of This Bed" – 3:31
  8. "The End of Wilhelmina" – 3:41
  9. "Baby Can I See You Tonight?" – 4:39
  10. "Pleased to Almost Meet You" – 3:00
  11. "American Sunshine (instrumental)" – 4:06
  12. "Love Is Innocent (new recording)" [*] – 2:46
  13. "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin (new recording)" [*] – 5:54

[*] Bonus Tracks (iTunes exclusive)

References

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  1. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: American Sunshine". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  2. ^ a b Andrew, Gilstrap (19 November 2009). "Colin Hay: American Sunshine". PopMatters. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  3. ^ "Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 17 May 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2012. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. OH CALIFORNIA