Mercury - American Music Club

American Music Club recorded 7 albums between 1986 and 1994, and "Mercury" was the sixth. Their first album on a major label, it has a slightly more commercial, produced sound than the earlier work.
Mark Eitzel, who now has a solo career, was AMC's frontman and songwriter.
Here comes the warning - American Music Club can be a little on the depressing side, and you don't get a lot of chorus-laden pop songs.
What you ...
...thoughtful alt.rock, with emotional songs that can also be very beautiful.
Stand out tracks are "If I had a hammer", with it's jangly guitar in the background; "Johnny Mathis' feet"; and "The hopes and dreams of heaven's 10,000 whores" (don't you just love the titles?).
For an even less happy mood, check out "I've been a mess", where Eitzel sounds so utterly anguished and desperate that he must ... more

American Music Club recorded 7 albums between 1986 and 1994, and "Mercury" was the sixth. Their first album on a major label, it has a slightly more commercial, produced sound than the earlier work.
Mark Eitzel, who now has a solo career, was AMC's frontman and songwriter.
Here comes the warning - American Music Club can be a little on the depressing side, and you don't get a lot of chorus-laden pop songs.
What you do get, though, is music worth listening to nonetheless - thoughtful alt.rock, with emotional songs that can also be very beautiful.
Stand out tracks are "If I had a hammer", with it's jangly guitar in the background; "Johnny Mathis' feet"; and "The hopes and dreams of heaven's 10,000 whores" (don't you just love the titles?).
For an even less happy mood, check out "I've been a mess", where Eitzel sounds so utterly anguished and desperate that he must have really experienced this himself, been rejected in love himself, so it can be almost painful even to listen.
"More hopes and dreams" is an odd 2-minutes electronic beeps, and that's all - the kind of thing that's usually an extra track tagged on the end. It is evocative, though, of many people's hopes and dreams - especially now in the answerphone age.
"Challenger" is a song that's… well, challenging… discordant guitar, and I find it hard to listen to.
Other than that, "Mercury" is a very rewarding listen - if a little bleak. If you're interested in American Music Club, it's a good place to start.
 

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