Mark Eitzel is generally regarded as one of rock's great unloved
geniuses. Without any kind of claim to genuine fame, the 45-year-old
songsmith still can have Michael Stipe fawn all over his tunes, can have
a crew of amazing artists (Paula Frazer, Ida, Lambchop, Calexico,
M.Ward, etc.) contribute to a tribute record in his honor, can have Art
Alexis cop a bandname from an Eitzel-penned album and make a million
bucks off it, can have a sticker on the front of his compact disc
quoting a newspaper calling him "America's Greatest Living Lyricist."
As far as mopey, monobrow'd, miserablist mavericks of the American
songwriting idiom go, Eitzel is treasured; and, so, when American Music
Club announced that they were reforming, after being dead for 10 years,
there were those who turned cartwheels in anticipation. Which
seemed rather like setting oneself up for disappointment. See, even
Eitzel's most ardent admirers would have to confess that, over all these
years, over all these records — and, in American Music Club and solo,
I'm tallying it up as 14 longplayers, now — he's only made two great
albums: AMC's 1993 masterwork, Mercury, and his fourth solo record,
1998's Caught in a Trap and I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much,
Baby. The rest of the time Eitzel is a big tease, flirting with his
fans, promising greatness and never quite delivering.
It's no surprise, then, that Love Songs for Patriots has that same kind
of feeling: its fleeting moments of genius flanked by sketchy songs, its
curious, dense production burying Eitzel's amazing voice under layers of
maudlin instrumentation. Eitzel played a bunch of these songs when in
Melbourne in early 2002, and it would've been hard to believe,
then, that the mindblowing "Patriot's Heart" he played live could be so
sullied in the studio. But here it is, in neutered recorded version,
all Bad Seedsy dirge of lumpen piano-chords and tasteful
guitar-colorings, such dressing obscuring the raw genius of the song,
where Eitzel sings of being confronted by obnoxious patriotism in, of
all places, a rough-trade bar. Written amidst America's
post-terrorist-attack state of outright paranoia and misguided
belligerence, the album is filled with keen observations on the AOK USA;
Eitzel again uses his literary lyrics to tell those tales from the
underbelly-of-society on which he's long made his name. Yet, whilst
there's no doubting the ferocity of either songs or sentiment, Love
Songs for Patriots is but another frustrating affair for Eitzel fans, be
they famous or not.
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