Everclear

Everclear Review

Mark Eitzel's voice ranks amongst the greats and his poetic writing is unique. It does often veer towards the desperate, the seedy and the hopeless on these American Music Club albums of the 1990s. There's much alcoholic despair but don't get the wrong impression; those may be the themes, but the atmosphere is dignified, infused with a vital touch by his stirring vocals and the understated virtuosity of the band.

Kicking off with a tender rock ballad, Why Won't You Stay, smoldering, with just the right amount of twanging guitar, the album proceeds into the rousing Rise with its escalating chorus a la U2 and then into the ghostly ambience of Miracle On 8th Street where the wonder turns out to be brandy turned into beer and the grievous Ex-Girlfriend that caps a catalogue of woes with the refrain "I guess you've got no one to take care of you."

The next wail of despair is carried on the up-tempo rhythmic sway of Crabwalk, a powerful riff with pedal steel guitar that climaxes in glorious dissonance, while The Confidential Agent is a spooky, atmospheric ballad that ill prepares you for the disturbing, even harrowing Sick Of Food or the intense rocker The Dead Part Of You with its lament "there's so little of you left." Phew! Hold on, only three more frames of the nightmare left. Those are the melodious Royal Café, a tremulous country song, the breathing space of the soft ballad What The Pillar Of Salt Held Up and the achingly sad Jesus' Hands where Eitzel moans "Hey brother, hey sister/Don't you see a crack form in the dam/For a loser, no one can touch him/He's slipping through Jesus' hands."

Everclear is like a musical expression of the work of the great confessional poets like John Berryman or Anne Sexton. Although the styles are different, this type of exquisite sorrow is also expressed in the work of a variety of other musicians. In mood, it reminds me of Nick Drake, while the exquisite melodies and elegant arrangements bring to mind Sufjan Stevens on e.g. Sister from the Seven Swans album. The obsession with Demon Drink is shared by another master of melancholia, ex-Swans leader Michael Gira now with Angels of Light. It's hard to decide which of California or Everclear is my favorite AMC album.

Everclear Overview

The difficult fifth album. Recorded for another label and well overbudget, Everclear both suffers and excels for its production shortcomings. A thick wash of reverb has been thrown over the proceedings and songs are either hopelessly buried in the ambient sludge ("The Confidential Agent") or enhanced to supersonic glory ("Sick of Food"). Singer Mark Eitzel's lyrics are increasingly more despondent, but he's spot-on beautiful loser territory for the most part. "Why Won't You Stay," "Ex-Girlfriend," and "Dead Part of You" are all haunting elegies to a past that no longer exists but where their weight cannot be discounted. --Rob O'Connor

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 12, 2010 01:45:04