American Music Club Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
The news is that Mark Eitzel and Vudi have resurrected American Music Club for the first time since 2004's Love Songs for Patriots (which was in turn the group's first album in a decade), but they haven't gone terribly far out of their way to do it -- while pedal steel player Bruce Kaplan was absent from the Love Songs lineup, on 2008's The Golden Age, Eitzel and Vudi are the only holdovers from the band's original membership, with debuting bassist Sean Hoffman and percussionist Steve Didelot completing this new, leaner edition of AMC. While Love Songs attempted to evoke the grand, noisy soundscapes of albums like Everclear and Mercury, The Golden Age harks back to the more arid atmospherics of California and United Kingdom, and it does so quite well. Anyone hoping for a big dose of Vudi's fractured guitar heroics will go wanting as he aims for a more subdued tone on most tracks, saving his more outré effects for the codas of "On My Way" and "The Windows on the World." But this is easily the best set of songs Eitzel has offered since his 2001 solo effort, The Invisible Man, and his vocals are in superb form; while much of his work since AMC's breakup seemed to find him looking for a new direction, these 13 songs are just the sort of thing he does best, compelling tales of lost souls and busted hearts that reveal as much compassion as despair, and he delivers them with a weary but heartfelt authority that few others could match. And if this album doesn't break much new ground or challenge anyone's expectations of American Music Club, it also offers a clear and honest reminder of why this band made so much vital, lasting music during its original lifetime; The Golden Age may simply be the Eitzel and Vudi show, but that's more than enough to make this a rich and rewarding set of songs whose gentle surfaces belie their troubling strength. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Love Songs for Patriots'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 13
Label Merge
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What The Critics Say
Reunion albums are often tricky affairs, usually based around negative circumstances (typically solo career slumps) rather than positive ones, so it's neither uncommon nor unwise for fans to approach them with a degree of caution. When American Music Club called it quits in 1995, most folks were expecting an impressive solo career from vocalist and songwriter Mark Eitzel, but while he failed to capture the brass ring of a breakthrough commercial success (no great surprise, given the downbeat tenor of his music, though Warner Bros. seemed to be hoping otherwise at first), the greatest problem that's dogged him since AMC's demise has been his difficulty in finding a consistent set of sympathetic musical collaborators. Listening to American Music Club's first album in ten years, Love Songs for Patriots, what's most immediately striking is the way the fusion of beauty and chaos generated by the musicians so ideally mirrors Eitzel's songwriting, and how keenly their contribution has been missed in his solo work. While American Music Club was often regarded as Mark Eitzel and four other guys during their initial lifetime, the jagged panoramas of Vudi's guitar and the patient but ominous report of Dan Pearson's bass and Tim Mooney's drums create such perfect settings for these songs here that you sense this was that rare reunion prompted by aesthetics above all else, and this album truly succeeds on a creative level. The absence of Bruce Kaphan's evocative pedal steel work is felt (especially the way he at once buffered and strengthened Vudi's pillars of sound), but Marc Capelle's keyboards fill their space well enough, and while Eitzel's songwriting has changed a bit since the last time American Music Club went into the studio (the dark sexuality of "Patriot's Heart" and the first-person vignette of "Myopic Books" are the clearest examples), this band still knows more of what to make of his sensuous depression than anyone else, and both songwriter and musician bring out the best in one another on this set. Love Songs for Patriots isn't an American Music Club masterpiece in the manner of Everclear or Mercury, but it's certainly a stronger and more coherent effort than the group's last set, 1994's San Francisco, and while it's too early to tell if this is a new start of a last hurrah for AMC, it at least shows that their formula still yields potent results. Here's hoping Eitzel and Vudi have more where this came from. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'The Restless Stranger'
Release Date 1/1/1998
Tracks 15
Label Reprise
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What The Critics Say
The Restless Stranger is generally omitted from the official American Music Club discography; their first album, its existence was consistently disavowed by the bandmembers in press releases, interviews, and the like. Although it is by far the weakest release in the AMC canon, the album does have its merits; while the production and arrangements never gel with Mark Eitzel's songs, there are fleeting moments here which hint at the eclectic brilliance to come. And already Eitzel is a sharp storyteller -- years later, he would reprise the opener, "Room Above the Bar," to heartbreaking effect in an a cappella version on his solo acoustic outing Songs of Love: Live in London. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
'United Kingdom'
Release Date 4/25/1995
Tracks 21
Label Demon Midprice
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What The Critics Say
American Music Club's first indisputably great album, the import-only United Kingdom is also the band's most spare and unsettling work. Originally conceived as a collection of site-specific songs (hence the opener, "Here They Roll Down," which samples the sounds of a freeway off-ramp), the LP instead cobbles together leftover material and live tracks which fuse together into a remarkably cohesive and balanced whole. Among the highlights: "Heaven in Your Hands" ranks firmly as one of Mark Eitzel's most beautiful and unguarded love songs, while the lounge-flavored "Hula Maiden" finds the singer at his most perversely comic; the solo acoustic "Never Mind" details an emotional free-fall, while on the lush "Dreamers of the Dream," Eitzel clings to one of the record's few rays of hope as though his life depended on it. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Regrettably, with their final effort, San Francisco, American Music Club went out with a whimper, not a bang. An undeveloped, erratic collection of songs, the record suffers under the weight of overly slick, commercial arrangements, and production which renders tracks like "It's Your Birthday," "Wish the World Away," and "Hello Amsterdam" as bland alterna-rock; only the effervescent "Can You Help Me?" manages to absorb and transcend its glossy pop veneer. Still, Mark Eitzel goes down swinging, conjuring a handful of haunting gems -- the best cuts on San Francisco, from the luminous opener "Fearless." to the achingly tender "The Thorn in My Side Is Gone," are also the most simple; AMC never needed adornment, just a sympathetic ear. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With the erratic California, Mark Eitzel's songwriting skills blossom into full maturity. From the pedal-steel inflected opener "Firefly" to the luminous "Western Sky," the best of his compositions reveal uncommon depth and emotional heft: "Somewhere" cuts with the savage humor of a master storyteller, while "Blue and Grey Shirt," a memoir of a friend's AIDS-related death, is simply devastating. A number of the cuts don't work at all -- the muddy "Bad Liquor" is an indecipherable rant, while "Laughing Stock" is by-the-numbers melodrama -- but those that do are nothing short of transcendent. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
On their major-label debut, American Music Club continues to mine despair from Mark Eitzel's heart, and the results are captivating. Mitchell Froom's production polishes some of their rougher edges, but Mercury is by no means an easy listen. Eitzel's songs are beautifully sad, etched with grace and elegant suffering, as well as an often overlooked self-deprecating humor. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Put simply, Everclear is American Music Club's masterpiece. Benefiting immensely from improved production values, the album crystallizes the band's often erratic vision into a unified, endlessly complex whole. While the arrangements are typically diffuse -- "Crabwalk" is shambling rockabilly, "Royal Cafe" is sweet country-pop, and "Rise" is anthemic alt-rock -- there is a consistency of tone and a sense of place that runs through these songs that is absent from the band's other records. Similarly, Mark Eitzel's compositions achieve an uncommon emotional balance, never once slipping into pathos or melodrama; the atmospheric "Miracle on 8th Street" and "The Confidential Agent" offer cinéma vérité evocations of relationships at the breaking point, while the brute force of alcoholic laments like "Sick of Food" or the funereal "Why Won't You Stay" is staggering -- never before or since has this loser been quite so beautiful. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
AMC's sophomore release marks a significant advancement over The Restless Stranger, and offers more than a few of the band's definitive moments. Much of the due credit goes to producer Tom Mallon, who arranges the record with an intuitive grasp of the anatomical make-up of Mark Eitzel's burgeoning songcraft; the rest of the credit belongs to Eitzel himself, who offers up some of his first truly great compositions. Chief among them is "Outside This Bar," a chilling portrait of the hermetically sealed comforts of the drinking life. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
