Customer Reviews

60 Watt Silver Lining

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It is sad to read some of the reviews here that want Mark Eitzel to do what he has always done and then read another review that mentions him self-destructing on stage out of embarrassment and self-loathing. Anybody see a connection here? ... Uh, I didn't think so.

Mark Eitzel is one of the greatest living songwriters on the planet. But he is also a great singer. He could do an album of Irish ballads and I'm sure it would be tremendous. But _60 Watt Silver Lining_ is one of the best combinations of great songwriting and great singing that you are going to find in the Eitzel/AMC catalog. I simply don't understand why listeners want this guy to always alternate between rock and roll and country folk all the time. He can do anything he wants; he is a musical genius.

"Sacred Heart", "Cleopatra Jones" and "Southend on Sea" are three of the best songs that Eitzel has ever written. They perfectly combine humor and pathos (or at least melancholy) to present a view of the world that anyone with the courage to actually pay attention knows is accurate. And the music really swings. I find myself humming these tunes all the time, years after the record was released.

The rest of the album is more contemplative and purely sad. "Mission Rock Resort" is a tale of a doomed person sitting the middle of beauty. "Some Bartenders ..." is about a stupid accident. There isn't a single misstep on this record. Listen to it when you are alone and need some perspective.

Long before the official word came down on the fate of American Music Club, enigmatic frontman Mark Eitzel released this lp, the first of two solo offerings for Warner Brothers. Gone is all that was musically characteristic of AMC. No pedal steel or wailing walls of dissonance here. Jazz percussions, bass, piano and a almost non-existent guitar take the listener through the 12 tales of heroic bartenders, vulnerable blaxploitation superstars and other assorted denizens of the dank San Francisco bar scene. With his deep, crooked croon, Eitzels voice is the voice for those with a thirst and a raw hunger for L-O-V-E! The production is less ragged then the early AMC lps and more spacious than the final two. This openness serves all of his trademark aches, pains, doubts and miserabalist shenanigans well. By your lonesome or with the person you love/hate the most, this is THE Summer evening record. A must! Unfortunatley this record is out of print and the future of this and all other Eitzel-related lps is in limbo. Seek this record out! Then search for the others. The legacy of one of the most important, potent and origianl voices of modern music depends on it.

...and we must all worship at his throne. Genuflect while getting lost in the aptly named 'Everything is Beautiful,' prostrate yourself before the sad initial track 'No Easy Way Down,' and deify the glory that is Mark Eitzel's deep, world-weary voice. I rank this as one of my top ten albums of all time, and hey, I'm 41, so I've heard alot! I've listened to this incredible, slightly jazzy piece of work too many times to remember (early on, several times in a row), and it still holds a very real emotional weight. A weight you too will be happy to bear.

I simply cannot begin to describe how perfect an LP this is. 'No Easy Way Down' and 'Everything is Beautiful' are touching enough to reduce anyone to tears.

I can only hope that Eitzel's life and songwriting career will not go the same way as that of Nick Drake. Having seen him perform live in Edinburgh, it amazes me that a man of such talent can remain relatively unknown for so long!

This - like virtually all Eitzel / AMC releases - is a must buy.

Of all the records in my collection '60 Watt Silver Lining' would have to be the ultimate slow-burner it even has one song that employs a sample of flames in the background. To me, it's Eitzel's finest solo recording. The charm of so many of these songs is that their beauty only unfolds after multiple listenings. 'Mission Rock Resort' I haden't really cared for on my first ten or so plays, but when that subtle chorus finally reveals itself - bingo -music geek heaven. 'Sacred Heart' and 'Always Turn Away' are just flat out stunning, crammed with emotional complexity and breathtaking musical accompaniments. A melancholy mood prevails - no surprise there - but the smoky jazz bar atmospherics add a new dimension to Eitzel's soul-searching and disillusionment. Personally I'd like to hear him make more records like this, but truly great songwriters don't often rest on their laurels.

Usually when the best cut is a cover, it spells doom for the balance of an album. But Eitzel follows up his stunning take on "There Is No Easy Way Down" with a passel of easygoing jazz influenced tunes that slowly warp your consciousness like a smooth dose of brandy. His lyrics continue to explore his well-honed themes of disintigrating relationships and social outcasts while the instrumentation lowers the emotional bar for the Eitzel rookie. As a hardened fan, I must admit this stylistic shift took over a year to finally gain acceptance. But the near perfect dichotomy of musical and lyrical tone in "Aspirin" and the joyous desperation of "Sacred Heart" have helped make this a permanent favorite.

Given this album by a friend, took a little while to get the hang of it, now one of my favourites - ever.

Eitzel sails across a landscape of heartache - sometimes ecstatically ("Sacred Heart"), sometimes bittersweet ("WIld Sea") and sometimes just plain miserable ("Some Bartenders"). There's not a single wrong note or beat on this sad, beautiful album. Do Mark a favour, and yourself a favour, and buy it.

I was in the mexican fast food restaurant when one of the protagonists of his songs was found dead of an overdose (at least that's the story I heard). It's easy to fall into his stories of loss, regret, and general human misfortune. I've seen of it and all of this makes sense to me. It's jazzy, quiet, and sad. This record makes all of those goth poseuers seem like...poseuers.

I was an American Music Club fan from the days when they were little known outside of San Francisco, so I bought this record as soon as it came out. I was pretty shocked by the totally un-AMC instrumentation and arrangements, but the "adult jazz/pop" ambiance takes nothing away from the brilliance of Eitzel's writing and interpretation. It may even put them in a better light. The man has the ability to find metaphors so stark and true that you can't believe that they weren't already a part of the language, and had to wait for him to pull them out of the mud, like lost jewels.

One can quibble about the relative quality of this album versus the best of AMC's output, but it is far and away his most consistent solo effort to date, looking back from 2010.

It's not my favorite song, but I was absolutely stunned by "Some Bartenders Have the Gift of Pardon" when I first listened to it, 8000 miles from San Francisco, because it is about a real bartender in a real bar, a guy I actually knew, and learning about his death from an Eitzel song was totally surreal.

This album never grows tiresome. I bought it when it came out in 1996 because I liked "Cleopatra Jones," and I thought it was just OK at the time. But I think maybe these songs are bewitched because as I age it's almost like they're growing along with me. They are full of pathos, longing, and hope. Mark Eitzel's singing is saturated with genuine emotion. The lyrics tell beautiful stories.

I can't believe 60 Watt Silver Lining is out of print. It is one of my favorite albums of all time.