Product Description

SAN FRANCISCO was AMC's final album, as leader Mark Eitzel quit the band before it ever received the inevitable boot from Reprise for disappointing sales. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli, who mixed the beauteous EVERCLEAR, it combines that album's lushness with the sophisticated, overdub-heavy arrangements of MERCURY. Characteristically, the band opens with a ballad, "Fearless", a touching, straight-ahead love song (!) that ranks among AMC's finest works. "Can You Help Me" and "I Broke My Promise" incorporate the band's burgeoning interest in R&B in the service of Eitzel's typically self-effacinglyrics.
A low-key rhythmic throb that's nearly danceable(not to say funky) runs through the otherwise downhearted "The Revolving Door" and the absurdist poetics of "How Many Six Packs Does it Take to Screw in a Light". The rocking "Hello Amsterdam", a humorous account of the group's failure to impress the Dutch, is as close as AMC comes to accessibility. The harrowing acoustic ballad "The Thorn in My Side Is Gone" bears the naked emotional honesty of John Lennon's finestsolo work, while the hazy, surrealistic "In the Shadow of the Valley" and "What Holds the World Together" find the bandat its most impressionistic, foreshadowing Eitzel's subsequent solo career.

Track Listing

1. Fearless
2. It's Your Birthday
3. Can You Help Me
4. Love Doesn't Belong To Anyone
5. Wish The World Away
6. How Many Six Packs Does It Take To Screw In A Light
7. Cape Canaveral
8. Hello Amsterdam
9. Revolving Door
10. In The Shadow Of The Valley
11. What Holds The World Together
12. I Broke My Promise
13. Thorn In My Side Is Gone
14. I'll Be Gone
15. Fearless Reprise
16. I Just Took My Two Sleeping Pills And Now I'm Like A...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40731 in Music
• Released on: 1994-09-12
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

AMC's seventh album from 1994...
San Francisco was the last American Music Club album...well, until the band announced they had reformed (with a minor personnel change) last year and a new album and tour are on the way. San Francisco isn't viewed particularly well- I've read some fans' perceptions that it's patchy and even poor; while the mail-order only AMC-compilation '1984-1995' selected by the band doesn't have anything from it- plumping for demos of songs like Sleeping Pills and LA is My Woman instead of anything from San Francisco. This I feel is slightly unfair to SF- which is a good, sometimes great album- though perhaps one that ought to be contrasted to Mark Eitzel's solo debut 60 Watt Silver Lining (1996- which featured some AMC-members) than an AMC-classic like Everclear or Mercury.

At 15-tracks (including a hidden instrumental reprise of Fearless at the end) perhaps SF is too long an album- something that was common in the 90s. There are several attempts at pop here, most of which are succesful, but were probably done to appease the commercial pressures on AMC as "the next big thing." How Many Six Packs...predicts the sound of Shelby Lynne's breakthrough album (This is...) a few years ago and the sound of Liz Phair's underrated Whitechocolatespaceegg (1999); while Love Doesn't Belong to Anyone attempts to balance Vudi's sonics with a Californian-percussive feel. Single Can You Help Me? has Eitzel's typically black comic lyrics, but a sound close to Crowded House (not necessarily a bad thing); the only poor pop-song attempt here is Hello Amsterdam. This sounds like a b-side- perhaps it's the references to Abba and Jonathan King?- one of the least AMC songs, though I suppose it was for fun...

The rest of the album is fine- opener Fearless showing a sound that has more in common with Daniel Lanois production of Bob Dylan (Oh Mercy) and Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball)- the vast guitar-sound making sense alongside those albums and the Tom Verlaine-produced Jeff Buckley album (Sweetheart My Drunk). It's Your Birthday and Wish the World Away (the latter giving the name to the fairly exploitative book on AMC of the same name) are slightly harder songs- though the former has a jazzy-sound that recalls late-period Talk Talk (while the latter is like AMC colliding with The Replacements & fits well with the Nevermind-generation!).

The latter half of the album, excepting Hello Amsterdam, is of more interest- Cape Canaveral and The Revolving Door are wonderful transcendent songs that are most definitely AMC. In the Shadow of the Valley remains one of my favourite AMC-songs, with its epic guitar assault and its take on a dark-California tying in with things like Keroauc's Big Sur and Denis Johnson's Already Dead. The end piano/pedal-guitar section is great, one of those songs to get lost in and worth buying the album for alone.

What Holds the World Together is another gorgeous acoustic-based ballad that nods to Gena Rowlands and cinema; while I Broke My Promise is another favourite- a gorgeous song to Eitzel's muse that is very knowing, "I Broke my promise that I wouldn't write another song about you..." It's a song of love and has some great pedal-steel from Bruce Kaphan and sits well against The Thorn in My Side is Gone which has an ambient-sample on (though I prefer the alternate take on the b-side of Can You Help Me). The final song is I'll Be Gone, which is like AMC's take on Wish-Cure or some New Order- or perhaps that's just me...

San Francisco is the worst AMC album, but still good, often great and well worth getting; though perhaps someone ought to reissue the deleted (in the UK) AMC-albums The Restless Stranger, Engine, California, United Kingdom and Everclear? Whichever way you cut it, with Hello Amsterdam programmed out, great stuff and ideal music for the wee small hours...

Eitzel's shiny 'pop' album!
I think a lot of AMC fans saw this album as the big 'sell-out' attempt at mainstream pop success. I wish that it had been successful, because it's a lost gem. Songs like 'Fearless', 'What Holds the World Together' and 'Cape Canaveral' display Eitzel's knack at writing heartbreaking tunes. But there are a couple of fine pop songs on this CD, namely 'Can You Help Me' and 'I Broke My Promise'. And the single 'Wish the World Away' was an angry howl, with a great video. Musically, the band have never sounded better. Bruce Kaphan's pedal steel is used especially well on 'Fearless'(surely one of the best opening tracks on any album ever).

Overall, I love this album. The only thing wrong with it is that it goes on a bit too long, and whenever I listen to 'Revolving Door', I'm reminded of Bryan Ferry, for some strange reason!