Songs of Love Live

Mark Eitzel went to London to play a show at the Borderline and release the concert as his first "solo" album. He was prepping his band's next record, the American Music Club classic Everclear, but only "Crabwalk" and the future b-side "Chanel #5" made the cut here. Eitzel's humorous concert repartee has been cut; the result is a better album than a document. AMC's debut album, The Restless Stranger, is represented here with "Room Above the Club," while the majority of tracks come from the band's landmark third album, California, with sad, passionate reads of "Western Sky," "Blue and Grey Shirt," "Last Harbor," and "Jenny" turning the concert into an emotional exorcism. Two new songs, recorded at the record label's office, were added to the end: the future single-only release "Take Courage" and an early take of Mercury's "What Godzilla Said to God," presented here as "Nothing Can Bring Me Down." The album could be considered a greatest-hits collection of American Music Club material up to that point, performed acoustic and solo. It's not a replacement for the real band, but it's a great alternate view.