1) Firefly; 2) Somewhere; 3) Laughingstock; 4) Lonely; 5) Pale Skinny Girl; 6) Blue and Grey Shirt; 7) Bad Liquor; 8) Now You're Defeated; 9) Jenny; 10) Western Sky; 11) Highway 5; 12) Last Harbor
Dry and desolate sign of things to come, more than a record that would fully support itself.
Key tracks: "Firefly", "Laughingstock", "Western Sky"
Normally when you namedrop California, you try to evoke something sunny, luxurious and Hollywood-gorgeous. When American Music Club evoke the state's name, they're still as grayscale and miserable as ever, downing another drink in some dingy corner bar as the night starts creeping towards dawn. But then, they were a Californian band - they probably know better.
American Music Club albums are relatively scarce in Europe (I actually bought this in California, and in the band's native San Francisco to boot), so my experience on their initial years is still quite limited and I might end up revising this review one day in the distant future. But I don't think it's been entirely coincidental that it's hard to find this group on this side of the bond. Theirs is a really apt name because they - and particularly Eitzel, lyrically - draw a lot of influence from America socially and geographically; I've been reading other people's thoughts on California while trying to organise my own thoughts for this review and the common thread I spotted through all the positive reviews is how closely the music is threaded to a certain kind of American being, that you almost have to have that cultural experience to really unearth its secrets. All AMC albums pirouette around this but California goes as far naming itself so directly, and even if the songs aren't explicitly about the state, they tie themselves to a very particular kind of inhabited context, and Eitzel isn't too bothered about trying to make his own voice more universal. Not to beat around the bush but California leaves me a little distant and I am genuinely wondering if that extra lived-in context is what I'm lacking - reading the lyrics and listening to the music I get the picture, but I don't get it.
But from what I've experienced from American Music Club, there's probably a more rational explanation for my opinion too. The rough idea is that you can somewhat split the American Music Club chronology to three eras: the classic 90s album trilogy, the 80s period that served as the build-up to it, and the reunion years long after. And from that, you can figure out where I stand with California. Apart from the odds-and-sods collection United Kingdom, California is the band's last album of the 1980s and so things have more or less clicked into place by this stage but we're still a step or two away from the albums that drew me into the band. They're leaning a little closer to americana than alternative at this stage, but otherwise this isn't far from what Everclear or Mercury would showcase and the right elements are all present: Eitzel's charisma is undeniable, the omnipresent melancholy is gripping, you've got the few lively rock numbers to break up the pace, and the subtle and dry textural work that's synonymous with this band is accounted for - particularly with Bruce Kaphan's gorgeous slide guitars that adorn so many songs on the record and are always a highlight whenever they appear.But California is just a shy step away from being in the same tier as the aforementioned next couple of albums. The majority of the songs here are teetering on the edge of great, and would just need a little bit of a push to get over that edge: "Somewhere" is the archetypical AMC early-album rocker but one that's still finding its feet, "Western Sky" is almost achingly beautiful, "Now You're Defeated" seems to get cut off a minute away from reaching its peak, and so forth. You can hear the potential and it's clear the band could go all the way with a little more push, but they're still a tad short of either experience or confidence. There isn't anything genuinely weak here either: "Bad Liquor" comes close because while it's one of the album's few jolts of energy, it comes across like a borderline parodic song by a fictitious band from a TV sketch (and Eitzel's bad guy act with the "what are you doing here, bitch" is so ill-fitting), and that's not an AMC tract I particularly care for. On the flipside there's a few times where the band reach something excellent, like when "Laughingstock" switches gears after its fake ending and becomes genuinely excellent, or just the entirety of the sweetly jangling and pretty "Firefly" which is arguably the best song here.
While you could argue that it peaks early, the further California descends into its second half where its wallowing becomes slower and slower, the more absorbing it becomes. It vibes better with the band's strengths and the barebones acoustic number "Jenny", the ghostly "Highway 5" and barren "Last Harbor" make for an effective ending. It's a dry and desolate record, and its closing steps drill that point across, whereas the first half is maybe more instant. I feel like I've not paid enough credit to California's strengths where they are due because if you do give it time and patience, it does leave an impact - but I'm always left at an arm's distance from the songs and they still slip out of mind too much, even while the record is on. Maybe it's because I'm not geographically equipped to handle the album, maybe it's because I'm still waiting for the band to assemble the puzzle now that they've found where the pieces go. But I find myself thinking about the other records whenever I listen to this one, and I find myself listening to a decently good album that mostly just reminds me why I really like the later ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment