Review Summary: "Who the hell booked this guy? He's drunk so much he's started slurring...well whenever he isn't bellowing like a wounded hippo that is - he's scaring off my guests. Next time you book someone to play the lounge make sure you get a reference first. Idiot"
A song writer breaking away from a long lived parent band must feel an immense sense of freedom and opportunity, all those ideas that were shot down by former band mates can be resurrected and any sounds that were deemed unfitting before can now become the framework to something altogether fresh. For Mark Eitzel back in 1996 this translated as a chance to move away from the sounds of alt country and slowcore that had come to define his output fronting American Music Club. In a stroke of genius that had perhaps been long in the planning Eitzel turned to the genres of lounge, jazz and pop to fashion a totally different sound that was at once both genuinely unexpected and at the same time an obvious fit. Mark had always written about losers drinking their pay cheques only now he was finally making music that sounded like he was playing directly to half empty dives and cheap hotel bars.
This is not to say the music here is uniformly downbeat, in fact 'Sixty Watt Silver Lining' affords Eitzel the opportunity to show an altogether different side of his personality only previously hinted at. Up to this point Mark's sexuality was never a defining part of his artistic persona; his lyrics for American Music Club were always vague in this regard, romantic songs usually addressed to a nonspecific 'her'. Here he effectively 'comes out' as a gay artist, as there's no way a straight man could write or perform a song such as 'Cleopatra Jones' in quite the same way. This song reads almost like a daydream of an alter ego for Eitzel, he more than respects this woman, he clearly would like to be her. Similarly the outstanding 'Sacred Heart' is downright peppy, sporting vocals that move as close to 'cute' as this self confessed 'ugly American' could ever let himself go. An all time top ten Eitzel song and as with all his best material the lyrics read as a non stop roll call of perfect soundbites. The warmth he infuses the line 'Here in the city of love' with is disarming for an established fan...until you realise he follows it up with the more typical deadpan aside '...no one wants to meet here.' Boo hoo, ha ha.
If this frothier material comes as somewhat of a shock then the fact this solo freedom also enables the man to write darker songs than ever before is perhaps even more surprising. Yes, material darker than American Music Club, a band who themselves were hardly a day at the funfair in case you'd forgotten. Exhibit A is the bleak as buggery 'Mission Rock Resort', the second absolutely essential classic on the album. It details the crumbling friendship between two drinkers sinking margaritas in the daytime, written from the perspective of the first judging the second, a man worried that he 'didn't use bleach on a needle' and 'won't be around very much longer'. Eitzel purposefully adds a relentlessly grim chorus to the storytelling verses, repeating the phrase 'nothing changes' over and over until you can hardly stand it. He drags us back to the bar again for another standout track 'Some Bartenders Have the Gift of Pardon', a song that brings the album's romanticising of the barfly life to its ultimate conclusion, making outrageous claims like 'a bar has a longer history than a country' and 'drunks seem saint-like in their dissolution'. Quite simply this album conjures one of the most evocative drinking atmospheres ever committed to tape, teetotallers need not apply.
If the album has a weakness it's that when Mark isn't operating at these two happy and sad extremes the material that deals in more mid range emotions can occasionally blend into mere pleasant scenery ('Never Turn Away' and 'Aspirin' are the guiltiest parties). Still, none of these twelve songs could be considered anything less than well written and the unified feel is certainly part of the album's charm. Indeed Eitzel himself would struggle to release another album quite as consistent as this one, getting closest only after reforming American Music Club and releasing the return to form 'The Golden Age'. In terms of capturing a true portrait of Mark Eitzel the man however, 'Sixty Watt Silver Lining' remains unrivalled among his discography. Chin chin.
