Winter in America - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Winter in America earned retrospective praise from music critics, who cite it as one of Scott-Heron's best albums. It has been regarded by music writers and critics as Scott-Heron's most cohesive and artistic work, and also a highlight of Brian Jackson's recording career. Uncut's Barney Hoskyns praised the album, calling it an "introspective seasonal offering from black poet-singer and collaborating pianist". He also lauded its critical content and called it "a masterwork of ghetto melancholia and stark political gravitas". Ron Wynn of Allmusic wrote of Scott-Heron's performance, in that he was "at his most righteous and provocative on this album", while acknowledging Jackson's contributions as well. BBC Online's Daryl Easlea called the album "an affecting work" and wrote that its title track "should be played as standard on all modern history courses as a snapshot of the stilted hopes and aspirations in the post Watergate and Vietnam War mid 70s America". The Washington Post's Richard Harrington cited "The Bottle" and "H²Ogate Blues" as "classic Scott-Heron works" in a review of its reissue. Los Angeles Times writer Mike Boehm viewed that its title track "sounded a sad death-knell for '60s hopes of transforming change", while calling it a "wonderful mood piece, capturing what it's like to feel oppressed in your soul by outer-world events that seem out of control". Danny Eccleston of Mojo called it an "alloy of Rhodes-laden souljazz with 's razor-sharp beat-poetry" and quipped, "Anger, radicalism, humour and funk from the proto-rapper, thankfully restored to health and liberty."

Dream magazine columnist Kevin Moist stated that the album "further jazzified his mixture of street poetry, soulful spirit, political commitment, and Black cultural expression." He also noted the history of the Strata-East label, and summed up Winter in America's significance, stating "Radically charged but musically mostly stark and low-key, melodic and soulful as hell, sometimes full band flow while at others just voice and piano, all hanging tight under a melancholy cloud of belatedness Thematically, the album reaches back even further than its predecessors in drawing on Black cultural energy as a source of power for facing down the coming political/cultural Ice Age in America. But Scott-Heron was never a one-dimensional ranter, and his pen is as double-edged here as it ever was, slicing into the growing self-destructiveness and sell-out/buy-in tendencies that were fragmenting the Black community, as incisively as it stabs at the jowls of evil in the White House. As badass as it is understated, and really hasn’t dated just a little bit." The Observer called the album a "jazz fusion pillar stone, with a social conscience to boot". Music writer Karl Keely praised Scott-Heron's vocal maturity from his previous work, and noted Jackson's influence for improving and expanding the music's melodic content. Keely commented that it demonstrates "the evolution of Scott-Heron from politicised poet to soulful singer". Music historian Piero Scaruffi dubbed the album Scott-Heron's "first musical statement."

However, Houston Press writer Paul J. MacArthur expressed a mixed response towards its production quality and called Winter in America the "most dated" of the Scott-Heron reissues. In his 1974 consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the album a C+ rating, indicating "a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork", and quipped of Scott-Heron's decision to sing jazz rather than orate it, "he had a better beat and just slightly less melody when he was reading." In a 1975 article for The Village Voice, he commended the album's title track as "an evocation of our despondency that is as flawless as it is ambitious".