Son of America [Remastered & Expanded]

Archivist Mick Skidmore, assembling his fourth collection of largely unreleased Spirit recordings for the British Acadia label (following Sea Dream, Blues from the Soul, and Live from the Time Coast), "puts more of an emphasis on [bandleader Randy California's] songwriting abilities," as he reveals in his liner notes. In particular, California's political views come out on several of the songs, his views for the most part reliably left-wing, with the possible exception of "City of Angels," an acoustic ballad that sounds like it may have been written around the time of the Los Angeles riot of 1992. In the song, California laments the rise of gangs and sympathizes with the outnumbered police, while taking something of an anti-immigrant posture, noting that his grandparents came to the U.S. "through the front door," while later immigrants have overrun the country, arriving "through the backdoor." As Skidmore notes, this seems a change in attitude from the more critical view of the police