Customer Reviews

Candy Ass

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Mark Eitzel is an amazing, one-of-a-kind songwriter, and an all-out heart-on-sleeve performer. There are songs he has written, both with American Music Club and scattered throughout his solo records, that make your knees buckle and your heart quake, no matter how many times you hear them. And all of that makes his latest solo record (released on the heels of a fantastic new reunion record with his old band) all the more puzzling. Things get started in typical Eitzelian fashion with opener "My Pet Rat St. Michael," a acoustic-guitar-and-vocal rumination on loneliness. The remainder of the record, however, is given to low-rent extended instrumental electronica jams, that
seem to want to go somewhere, but somehow don't. There are nice moments, to be sure, like the collaboration with Calexico on "Green Eyes," or the hypnotic textures of "Homeland Pastoral," but songs like "I Am Fassbinder," and "Cobh" are the sound of a man with a nifty home studio, a genuine appreciation of electronic music, but nothing really inspiring to add to the mix. This is an experiment missing his trademark dynamic songcraft and especially his under-appreciated black humor. He's never really needed more than a guitar and that voice, and having American Music Club behind him has certainly upped the artistic ante, but to have neither of those on this latest release is truly a shame.

I bought this CD for my niece for her birthday. She is a Lazy Diva, and was appearing in The Vagina Monologues along with about 30 other women. I called her up to ask what she wanted. She said that I should just pick something that I would like, and she would probably like it too. I was going to get her either the new Norah Jones (which is currently #1) or Regina Spektor. I like Norah Jones, but that is too obvious, it being the #1 selling album now, and Regina Spektor, I wasn't really commited to that, but just my MySpace friend is into her. I saw her latest, and then I saw another album that had a woman wearing a Soviet military officer's cap, drinking from a flask. One of the songs (or maybe it was a spoken word piece) was about Soviet Kitsch. I was surprised to learn that this was also Regina Spektor. But when I saw the Mark Eitzel CD, I knew I had stumbled upon the perfect gift. Listening to the samples, I heard a song about a rat that should have been happy being used for lab experiments, because they played it Mariah Carey music. What more could any rat hope for? My niece is going to love this. She said the last CD she bought was by Nick Drake, and this is like, if Nick Drake could have sounded this good, then he wouldn't have commited suicide. Mark must have used Pro Tools to craft the music he heard in his head, and it is really beautiful, intimate music, combining electronic instruments with guitar, voice, and other more traditional sounds.

But keep an eye out for a new release by Mark and his band, American Music Club. www.americanmusicclub.com It promises to be shattering of both earth and sky. The entire space time continuoum will be jolted by it.

I've followed Mark Eitzel's career for 20 years - Engine, California, and United Kingdom made up a large portion of my high school soundtrack. Sadly, this is not only the worst work of his career - it's one of the worst albums I've ever listened to all the way through.

With the exception of "Sleeping Beauty" (a nice song that stands up to his output of 1987-1993), the record is full of songs that are terrible, yet still remind listeners of Mark's brilliance (My Pet Rat St. Michael), and compositions that are simply not "songs" at all (the entire back half of the record). Mark's website says that half of the album is soundtrack material, but a soundtrack to what?

This "ambient" material communicates extreme jitteriness and sad-sack apathy, which would be OK if the music was good or even interesting. But it's not, and I'll never waste my time with it again.

I will, however, be buying the new AMC album hoping to be able to recapture that amazing happy/sadness that I get from Mark's best work.

Most of Mark's stuff is just great work, and though there is so much out there of his--including his work with American Music Club--one still often finds the "oldies but goodies" continuously recycled. For a long-time fan, they will probably enjoy just going back to those older songs, and not care too much for some of his more recent experiments. I probably fall into that category, though I do want to keep trying it out; surely there's some more gems to expect from Mr. Eitzel. This disc may provide those.