Dispatch was a huge presence in my life between 2004 and 2012. In my high school and college years, they were the hopelessly romantic soundtrack to long walks with headphones and the relaxing sound to my drives back home from school. I fell off the Dispatch train right around when they released Circles Around The Sun In 2012, though tuning in to America, Location 12 in 2017 just feels like the right time to get back on.



With the passage of time, Dispatch has grown up over the years. Where 2000’s Who Are We Living For? was rife with energetic ballads and protest songs, and 1997’s Bang Bang was a raucous surf party, America, Location 12 showcases a band at peace with where its members are in life. All in their forties, the world has become a much more volatile place since the first three Dispatch albums. America, Location 12 is a sobering look at age, the country we’re living in, and coming to peace with all the problems life throws at you.



Dispatch, America Location 12

As with every previous Dispatch release, the band consists of multi-instrumentalists Chad Urmston, Brad Corrigan, and Pete Francis Heimbold but America, Location 12 is the only Dispatch album to date written entirely by guitarist and vocalist Chad Urmston. If you dig through the credits of the album, you’ll also find Mike Sawitzke, who engineered the soundtrack to Russell Brand’s 2010 film Get Him To The Greek, and who is credited for odd things such as “clapping” and “tom tom engineer.”

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