American Music Club – The Golden Age (Merge)
Now consisting only of two original members, Mark Eitzel and guitarist Vudi, the second album into American Music Club‘s reformation finds them revisiting the more introspective moments of their past and they admirably succeed on The Golden Age.
This is an important rediscovery, particularly considering that I had pretty much written off Eitzel thanks to some fairly unremarkable solo efforts and that ambivalence carried over into 2004’s proper A.M.C. reunion, Love Songs For Patriots.
I almost let The Golden Age go too and, to be honest, my first spin of it was marred with too many distractions for it to fully take hold. So be careful: it’s subtle enough to discount and the allure is within that understatement. Eitzel and Vudi fall in together like a pair of well-worn jeans, and the moment you notice how agreeable their arrangement is the moment you begin to appreciate that they’re still making music together. It just may take a few spins to come to that conclusion.