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┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Mark Eitzel
Title | Don't Be A Stranger
Genre | Alternative Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 43:37
Label | Decor Records Store | 2012
Catalog | DECOD030CD Rip | 2016
Bitrate | 211 kbps Size | 69.85 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. I Love You But You're Dead 4:35
02. The Bill Is Due 3:12
03. All My Love 5:07
04. Oh Mercy 4:03
05. Costume Characters Face Dangers In The Workplace 2:30
06. Why Are You With Me 3:19
07. Lament For Bobo The Clown 4:57
08. Break The Champagne 3:36
09. We All Have To Find Our Own Way Out 4:19
10. You're Waiting 4:48
11. Nowhere To Run 3:11
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
One of the most celebrated and idiosyncratic American songwriters of his
generation, Mark Eitzel is best known as the leader of the iconic indie
rock band American Music Club, who spun beautifully chaotic webs of guitar
from Eitzel's gloomy but compassionate studies of lost souls and alcohol;
since striking out on his own, Eitzel has embraced a number of different
musical approaches, while his witty but downcast lyrical style has remained
constant.
"Don't Be A Stranger" appeared after a difficult period for the eternally
gloomy Mark Eitzel - following the release of American Music Club's fine
but overlooked 2008 album "The Golden Age", the band fell apart, presumably
for the last time, and after Eitzel's solo album Klamath was (barely)
released in 2009, little was heard from him until the spring of 2011, when
it was revealed he'd suffered a severe heart attack. So the mere fact that
Eitzel is alive, well, and recording is encouraging news, and though "Don't
Be A Stranger" is a few steps short of a triumphant return to form, it's
easily Eitzel's strongest solo effort since 2001's "The Invisible Man".
Time has begun working some changes on Eitzel's voice, smoothing out the
grain of his instrument, easing up on its physical force, and suggesting a
bit less control on numbers like "The Bill Is Due", "I Love You But You're
Dead" and "Nowhere To Run". But the intelligence of his phrasing is as
impressive as ever, and his ability to inhabit his lyrics is complete.
Eitzel's songwriting remains his greatest strength, and if his last few
solo efforts were unfortunately inconsistent, this shows the excellence of
the material on The Golden Age was no fluke (and he revives one song from
that set, 'All My Love', found here in a jazzier piano-based arrangement).
Eitzel's witty but pointed self-loathing takes center stage on "Why Are You
With Me" and "Oh Mercy", while his portraits of lives in the balance on
"You're Waiting", "Lament For Bobo The Clown" and "Nowhere To Run" confirm
he hasn't lost his vision, or his flinty but sincere compassion. And fans
put off by Eitzel's (sometimes if not always successful) experiments with
electronics will be encouraged by the warm, organic sound of this material,
which suggests the spare, eloquent surfaces of AMC's more subdued work
(Vudi even pops up on one track).
Emotionally powerful, darkly beautiful, and troubling yet genuine at the
same time, "Don't Be A Stranger" is the sort of album only Mark Eitzel
could make, and if it's not always as strong and as focused as one might
hope, it honors his muse better than he has on his own in some time, and
shows this master songwriter still has some worthy stories left to tell.
┌────────┐
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