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Friday, March 29, 2024 
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+ Donato Wharton - Body Isolations
+ Svalastog - Woodwork
+ Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet
+ Rosy Parlane - Jessamine
+ Jarvis Cocker - The Jarvis Cocker Record
+ Múm - Peel Session
+ Deloris - Ten Lives
+ Minimum Chips - Lady Grey
+ Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The U.K.
+ The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls Together
+ The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
+ The Places - Songs For Creeps
+ Camille - Le Fil
+ Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
+ Christina Carter - Electrice
+ The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
+ Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
+ Various Artists - Musics In The Margin
+ Rafael Toral - Space
+ Bob Dylan - Modern Times
+ Excepter - Alternation
+ Chris Thile - How To Grow A Woman From The Ground
+ Brad Mehldau - Live in Japan
+ M Ward - Post-War
+ Various Artists - Touch 25
+ The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
+ The White Birch - Come Up For Air
+ Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country
+ Coachwhips - Double Death
+ Various Artists - Tibetan And Bhutanese Instrumental And Folk Music, Volume 2
+ Giuseppe Ielasi - Giuseppe Ielasi
+ Cex - Actual Fucking
+ Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
+ Leafcutter John - The Forest And The Sea
+ Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
+ Barbara Morgenstern - The Grass Is Always Greener
+ Robin Guthrie - Continental
+ Peaches - Impeach My Bush
+ Oakley Hall - Second Guessing
+ Klee - Honeysuckle
+ The Court & Spark - Hearts
+ TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
+ Awesome Color - Awesome Color
+ Jenny Wilson - Love And Youth
+ Asobi Seksu - Citrus
+ Marsen Jules - Les Fleurs
+ The Moore Brothers - Murdered By The Moore Brothers
+ Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
+ The 1900s - Plume Delivery EP
+ Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror
+ Function - The Secret Miracle Fountain
+ Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
+ Loscil - Plume
+ Boris - Pink
+ Deadboy And The Elephantmen - We Are Night Sky
+ Glissandro 70 - Glissandro 70
+ Calexico - Garden Ruin (Review #2)
+ Calexico - Garden Ruin (Review #1)
+ The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
+ The Glass Family - Sleep Inside This Wheel
+ Various Artists - Songs For Sixty Five Roses
+ The Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
+ Motorpsycho - Black Hole/Blank Canvas
+ The Red Krayola - Introduction
+ Metal Hearts - Socialize
+ American Princes - Less And Less
+ Sondre Lerche And The Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions
+ Supersilent - 7
+ Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
+ Dudley Perkins - Expressions
+ Growing - Color Wheel
+ Red Carpet - The Noise Of Red Carpet
+ The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
+ Espers - II
+ Wilderness - Vessel States

44.1 kHz Archive



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Mark Eitzel
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Candy Ass
Cooking Vinyl
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The English newspaper's curiously exuberant quote "America's greatest living lyricist" will now accompany Mark Eitzel wherever he wanders, guitar strapped on back, wherever he lays his hat, and, thus, calls home. To offer a better reflection of Eitzel's two decades of bookish bleakness, the quote should probably be amended to "America's greatest living lyricist to have only made two great albums despite authoring 15 of them," but, well, that isn't quite as snappy in the press release. Last year, Eitzel openly courted such fanfaronade when he and his old-boys from the American Music Club celebrated their 20-year high-school anniversary with a most timely getting-the-gang-back-together; their bandname never seemed so ironic as it did when Eitzel authored an extended, extensive autopsy-on-America called Love Songs for Patriots, where he wielded his mightier-than-the-sword songwriter's pen like some scrupled scalpel. But, of course, as is par for the Eitzel course, the set, despite such sentiments, was a patchy affair. Despite all his lauded lyricism, rapier wit, and fine line in self-deprecating faggotry/drunkenness/depression, the monobrow'd miserablist has only truly harnessed his muse across two albums: AMC's magnum opus, 1993's Mercury, and his 1998 solo set, Caught in a Trap and I Can't Back Out 'Cause I Love You Too Much, Baby.

But, even though he's only done it twice, Eitzel's still done it twice. Meaning, each new disc brings the promise of a new day.

His eighth own-name outing, Candy Ass, starts out like blaze on the morning hills; Eitzel utterly on fire with "My Pet Rat St Michael," which, at first light, is instantly one of the songsmith's best ever songs. Spinning a story where he takes his depressed pet rat in to see a therapist, Eitzel hits on a profound metaphor; and, over a lone acoustic guitar, delivers droll, self-aware lyrics like "I tell him 'you should be happy'/ There's no reason to stare/ I play him Mariah Carey/ So there's butterflies and rainbows in the air." After that, well, his songwriting shine is soon obscured behind the dark clouds of densely layered home recording, Eitzel making opaque mélanges of beatloops, piano-preset, and miscellaneous keyboard noise. Some of which even come without words. Which raises the question: what's the point of being a great — or, even, "greatest" — lyricist if you keep your mouth shut?


by Anthony Carew




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