Thursday, March 20, 2008

Album Review - American Music Club

American Music Club – The Golden Age
[Merge; 19/02/2008]


American Music Clubs’ 2004 comeback, Songs for Patriots, had its fair share of moving lyrics and fitting acoustic sounds that are raw enough not to cater for the masses. After all, Mark Eitzel has been an artist that’s flown under the radar ever since his involvement with music, failing to engage himself in any kind of ‘scene’ and reaping the rewards for it.

The Golden Age is a sparse affair that experiences very few peaks and a profusion of troughs. The cutting edge and the urgency that made the band’s previous album a solid listen seems to have departed this time around, with a sound template that very rarely moves out of first gear.

The album’s title is ironic enough, but it begs one question; what’s it really all about? In an era that was glad to see Eitzel get his band back together, one feels that this time around he could have done the job all by himself without the assistance of his hombres. For every intriguing moment The Golden Age provides (‘All My Love’ and ‘The Sleeping Beauty’), there’s two or three dull moments just around the corner, which insipidly brings the album to a grinding halt.

By Simon K

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