Wreckless Eric, born Eric Goulden, is one of those guys who just can’t stop. Emerging in the ’70s as part of a Stiff Records roster that included Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, Eric was part of a faction of British songwriters punk in spirit, but not musically. He struck early and hard with “(I’d Go the) Whole Wide World” in 1977, but unlike his contemporaries, he never really repeated that early commercial success. Undeterred, he eventually left Stiff and plied his talents for a wide variety of labels and fronted a number of bands. But he never abandoned the Wreckless Eric guise, and in recent years he’s made several collaborative albums with his wife Amy Rigby. Goulden moved to the U.S. with Rigby in 2011 and his latest album, amERICa (Fire Records), his first proper solo record in a decade, is a look at his adopted homeland.

On amERICa, Eric turns a bemused and at times sarcastic eye to life in these United States. The album is peppered with imagery of daily life, and the songs read like mini-vignettes, with Goulden setting a scene or mood in a very economical way. For example, on “Sysco Trucks” he celebrates the ubiquitous trucks and their drivers, “Sysco trucks are rolling through the night, delivering the stuff that people like. State to state, along the interstate, catering for appetites they’ll never satiate. From truck to plate, across the USA.” A bit tongue-in-cheek, it plays out like much of the album, with Goulden shrugging with a “Hey, what can you say?” attitude.

But Eric also turns that keen eye on himself. On the opener, “Several Shades of Green,” he sings, “I was nearly someone back in the day. I was in the lower reaches of the hit parade. In between the pages of some stupid magazines, posing in a jacket that I wouldn’t be seen dead in or fit in today…. If I’d known then what I know now, but everybody says that it’s a fool’s game, I wouldn’t do it different. I’d just do it all again.” He returns to that theme of fame on “Boy Band,” which recounts the rise, fall, and reunion of a fictional boy band, and it’s not hard to imagine it as the tale of boy bands gone by and the future of One Direction.

Musically, amERICa is a nimble record. Reportedly, Goulden self-recorded the album in various rooms of his home and played most of the instruments himself with assistance from Rigby and the occasional ringer. As a result, it isn’t really stuck in one mode, shifting from jangly rockers to quiet acoustic takes, Beatles-esque moments, and even country story songs. Sometimes they all collide in a way that should be a trainwreck, but there’s lack of preciousness here so when the mix gets a bit messy, it’s easy to roll with because of the interesting way the songs are put together. Throughout, Eric confirms there’s no expiration date on talent.