American Music Club – Love Songs For Patriots
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Posted On November 1, 2004
If the Velvet Underground’s short-lived 1993 reunion was a noble failure, and the recent Pixies reformation was a crass cash-in, and the Stooges’ 2003 blitzkrieg fucking rocked, dude, where does that leave American Music Club, originally extant from 1983-95 (output: seven albums), in terms of artistic relevance?
Slightly left of center, it turns out, as befits a band that stitched together myriad threads of Americana and then delivered the goods night after volatile night. Vocalist and principal songwriter Mark Eitzel reconvened the group in late 2003; when recording and road-testing proved worthy, AMC returned to the boards full-time.
Much like Nick Cave’s recent work with the Bad Seeds, Eitzel’s tunes feel grounded and mature; where the self-styled prophet of gloom once railed against frailty and impermanence, he’s now compassionately introspective, as suggested in the atmospheric ballad “The Devil Needs You” when he sings, “You want to show me heaven/You assume that’s what I’ve lost/I don’t want to save your soul/I just don’t want to see it die.”
Eitzel’s trademark cynicism does rear its head in places, particularly in the craggy, synth-strewn “America Loves The Minstrel Show”, in which he addresses matters of stage-bound celebrity (“My life is a sham/I pretend that I’m me/I live in the dark/Where nothing can ever grow”). The AMC crazy-quilt musical aesthetic remains operative, however, and every song here bears idiosyncratic fruit. A jaunty, Band-like vibe informs “The Horseshoe Wreath In Bloom”; the stormy noir of “Ladies And Gentlemen” recalls the aforementioned Bad Seeds; “Another Morning” is a shuddery, melodic folk-rock delight.
Comebacks? Bah. Who needs ’em? Just say that Eitzel and company ran around the corner for a pack of smokes. Love Songs For Patriots is the product of an extended break that was worth waiting out.
