A Son (album)

A Son is Pan American's first studio album since Cloud Room, Glass Room (2013).^[3] It was written and recorded in Mark Nelson's home in Evanston, Illinois, and honed during a tour in Europe.^[3] For the album, Nelson took inspiration from June Tabor, the Carter Family, Suicide, and Jimmy Reed.^[3] He sings and plays guitar and hammered dulcimer on the album.^[4]

The album closes with an instrumental rendition of the traditional folk song "Shenandoah".^[5] Nelson began playing the song in the days after the Charlottesville car attack, where Heather Heyer was killed while protesting against a white supremacist/neo-Nazi rally on August 12, 2017.^[6] He said, "It is intended as a tribute to the hero she was and a requiem for the person she was not permitted to become."^[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Exclaim!	9/10[5]
Mojo	[7]
PopMatters	[8]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, A Son received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 77 out of 100 from 5 critic scores.^[2]

David Sheppard of Mojo commented that "A Son finds Mark Nelson recalibrating his long-standing Pan American alias, dialling down the gauzy electronics of yore in favour of an uncluttered, semi-acoustic signature, with prominent use of languid, spiralling guitar melodies and liminal, semi-spoken vocals that recall his contributions to '90s post-rock outliers Labradford."^[7] Paul Simpson of AllMusic stated, "Stepping back from the shimmering dub-techno and static-filled glitch of the project's earlier releases, A Son takes a sideways glance at country and folk traditions."^[4] He added, "A Son may be a return to Nelson's roots, but it still fits snugly within his catalog of spacious meditations."^[4]