Review: Mark Eitzel, "The Ugly American"
Following last year's covers album of other people's music, Mark Eitzel has recorded an album of covers of his own songs, this time with a group of classical Greek musicians with largely Greek instrumentaion and arrangements. Probably the weirdest album of his career, The Ugly American is hit and miss: "Take Courage" is robbed of it's gravity and sounds tacked onto too jaunty a tune, and "Here They Roll Down" has all new lyrics and sounds forced ontop of an entirely different song; but versions of "Jenny" and "Anything" rival the previously released takes, and on these songs the bazouki manages to deliver something of the exotic flavor of AMC circa Everclear. Like Music for Courage and Confidence, this isn't a major statement from Mark, but it's an interesting foray into interpretation and his voice has never sounded better. With United Kingdom and California in OOP limbo, this is the only (non-downloadable) way to get ahold of non-live version of songs like "Last Harbour" and "Western Sky" these days.

Labels: american music club, mark eitzel, reviews