Turns out that 2004’s Love Songs for Patriots wasn’t just a one-off reunion record for San Francisco’s now quarter-century-old American Music Club. With original members Mark Eitzel and Mark "Vudi" Pankler still joined at the hip--at least when it comes to recapturing the lovely studio sound that carved out the band’s niche--AMC’s second second-life album (recorded with L.A. musicians on bass and drums) is as gorgeous and disorderly as any in its nine-album catalog. Eitzel’s panoramic songwriting ranges from a crush ("All My Love") and a hometown vignette ("All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco"), to a World Trade Center memory ("The Windows on the World") and a call-out to the 18th-century patron of altar boys ("The Victory Choir"). His emotionally unaffected vocals and Vudi’s jagged guitar work weave those ideas into a melodic and atmospheric formula that sounds as fresh and influential today as it did in the early 1990s. --Scott Holter
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
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