Mark Eitzel
The Ugly American

It happens that Mark Eitzel, in order to get a free vacation in Greece, accepts a friend's invitation to create a project that revisits pieces from his repertoire (both with the American Music Club and solo) with a local traditional music orchestra.

The result is "The Ugly American". A record hated by Eitzel's own band, a record deeply despised especially by the fans. Horrible right from the cover.

I believe it is his best work ever produced. I'm comforted to know that he himself loves it!
I confess that I listened to the AMC only after "The Ugly American" and, perhaps, discovering gems like "Western Sky" or "Nightwatchman" initially in this guise has influenced my opinions… Those who have followed the path more correctly than mine will find them denatured compared to the original versions of the mother group. Understandable. Then they will also understand me if I invite them to experience this album as Eitzel's summer record on vacation.
It's amusing to think of a beachboysian version of the AMC and, indeed, this is not it. There's no California here. Not this time either. Rather, it seems that the most singer-songwriter Europe has always been the place of belonging for that "ugly American". Don't even think of a Nouvelle Vague type summer-groove diversion. Nothing could be further from the spirit of this work. The songs here don't go through a makeover based on Souvlaki and Tzatziki instead of olives with a Martini-Cocktail, but they are truly a different feeling, one that, perhaps always, they were destined to approach.

The summer of this noir work is transfigured as a sort of exorcism: its tan is bluish, its way of languishing seems made to match the music of the Aegean orchestra present in every track. The sound is fresh, airy, and very clean. The sea breeze is palpable. Of infinite sadness and not at all gloomy, but sunny, daylight, diaphanous. It starts with the gypsy violins (ahem) of "Western Sky": oh dear, it sounds like Demis Roussos, yet it is precisely the most famous song of the AMC. Eitzel talks about the sky, but it's the sea you breathe. Like a Sirtaki-Morrissey, if you can imagine it, or a Mark Kozelek singing with Beirut. Spine-tingling.
Then the ritual "Here They Roll Down": here we move away from the sea and it's the forest that sings. A whole buzz of bouzouki like mad insects with Mark who seems like a Peter Gabriel in the "Passion" and certainly "Us" areas.
A couple of Eitzel's lesser-known songs ("Anything", "Take Courage") mixed with another couple of immortal gems by AMC ("Jenny", "Last Harbor") benefit from such treatment, up to that "Nightwatchman" completely stripped of the urban wave anxiety of its parent record "Engine": here rendered so epic that for a moment it touches upon that kind of emphasis that fails to overwhelm. Dodging the danger.

Do you hate summer but find your most painful winter listens unbearable? Feel free to leave your rooms next season and set off because this record is for you. A last-minute escape for the soul: it costs little but takes you far.