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American Music Club ReturnsThe Golden Age Finds Band Settling Well into Middle AgeAmerican Music Club's The Golden Age turns down the volume and switches on the late-night reflection on one of the year's best albums.
American Music Club (AMC) is as storied a band as any in rock music. The San Francisco group released a slew of critically successful albums in the 1980s and early ’90s that delivered a potent mix of post-punk musicality and heart-on-your-sleeve lyricism, leading the way for indie music’s “sad core” movement and garnering a worldwide cult following. Then, in 1994 the band imploded amid internal squabbles and exhaustion. Singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel went on to establish himself as a solo artist in his own right, releasing several albums under his own name. Fast-forward 10 years to 2005: AMC reemerged intact and with an excellent new album, Long Songs for Patriots. Picking up where it left off a decade earlier, the album was a welcome return to form, offering more of the highly literate rock that the band had made its stock and trade. The Golden Age, AMC’s second album since its heralded return, shifts gears in more ways than one. It’s the first record that does not feature the band’s core line-up (the original drummer and bassist were replaced). And, it is perhaps AMC’s most understated record. Gone is the dissonant guitar clatter of its previous releases. Instead, The Golden Age is a slow burn, middle of the night rumination, one best experienced with a bottle of red wine. A More Grown-Up American Music ClubNot that AMC has lost any of its old tricks. Anchored by Eitzel’s gentle acoustic finger-picked guitar and smooth tenor, The Golden Age sounds more than ever like AMC, just an older, wiser AMC. “I wish that we were always high / I wish that we could swim in the sky / If we believe, then we won’t fall / We’ll leave our lives and rise above it all,” Eitzel sings on “All My Love,” the album’s first track. It’s a spare and beautiful start, employing little more than brushes on a snare, acoustic guitar, and an ethereal electric guitar loop. Eitzel visits familiar lyrical territory here—pining for missed opportunities with a lover, and finding hope in the unlikeliest of places. “The John Berchman Victory Choir” lightens up the mood with Eitzel’s sardonic take on an early morning choir consisting of singers who “stink of sweat and last night’s beer” against an animated 6/8-time rhythm. Backed up by a cadre of background singers, the listener could almost believe Eitzel actually loves The Victory Choir. Keen Observations Fuel The Golden Age Eitzel has been always been a keen bystander, ably shooting barbs to deserving characters and saving a few for himself. “The Decibels and the Little Pills” depicts a social climber who has worn out her welcome, while “Sleeping Beauty” remembers a friend who loves “with the blind purity of a honey bee, but now that sweetness feels like a mistake.” But Eitzel isn’t without a sense of humor. On “All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco,” he channels his inner Randy Newman by mocking his own penchant for self-loathing. “Years ago my soul went missing, looking for a life no one would mourn,” he sings against Rhodes piano-fueled soul. “Now it stumbles like the smile of a fool, looking to the sky for shelter from the storm.” With the exception of a few keyboard flourishes and whimsical guitar solos, The Golden Age is primarily a contemplative affair. Eitzel is one of the best American songwriters working today. The Golden Age is a fascinating peek at a writer forgiving past injustices and embarking on a more hopeful middle age.
The copyright of the article American Music Club Returns in Indie Rock Music is owned by Lee Simmons. Permission to republish American Music Club Returns in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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