It’s telling that even though I’ve never listened to this record before in my life, I know every single word of the excellent title track. It’s not an accident that American Pie is still in heavy rotation on radio stations across the country–every word (of all six verses!) is perfect, and the shifting arrangement, from piano country ballad to honky tonk rock to acoustic ballad, mix together to create a song that’s as epic as it is intimate, and as timely as it is timeless, because let’s face it: how many people who love this song are still torn up about Buddy Holly?

Naturally, there’s nothing anywhere near as immediately memorable on the rest of the record–or as loud. McLean wisely avoids the full-band arrangements of American Pie, except on the sloppy rocker Everybody Loves Me Baby, which harkens more to Highway 61-era Dylan than to the McLean’s own opus. The rest of the album is quiet, featuring McLean’s voice accompanied only by his acoustic guitar or soft piano–The Grave is only track to feature any extra arrangement, with an excellent, mournful mid-song build with some tasteful, expressly non-honky-tonk drums. The result is a soft-spoken album with that would be more at home shelved next to Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman than James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James.