Search - American Music Club :: Engine

Cathartic

Thomas D. Ryan | 06/24/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am too close to this album to review it... I'll just say that if you find complete, utter dispair cleansing then listening to this album is like showering in a waterfall of tears."

Well what can I say about this album that hasn't been said

chris morgan | UK | 05/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Actually quite a lot. It's genuinely one of the great undiscovered rock albums of our time. In fact all of AMC's first 4 albums would rank in that list 4 me.For Engine think REM sound about the time of Document, hard-edged, but considerably darker.The album opens with Big Night, a stark but quite beautiful song which sets the tone for the rest of the album, quite dark and melancholic.The album is not without it's lighter moments, although it's very black comedy - the drunken bar rock of "Gary's Song" - 'And if we sit here and drink enough beer, we'll be two inflatable dolls in a hooker's bad dream', and the opening lines to "Outside this Bar" - 'Hospital wouldn't admit you, so we go home again' being notable examples.'Nightwatchman' and 'This Year' are classic examples of life passing you by songs, 'The Nightwatchman, yeah he's asleep, Nightwatchman, I can't wake him up'.Clouds and Electric Light are very difficult to listen to, really powerful emotional songs, for instance on Clouds 'You want to get excited, so I'll push you too far'.If I remember right these songs were written around the time the singer Mark Eitzel's father died, and this comes across very clearly. A difficult listen but ultimately a rewarding one."

An All-Time Great Album

Thomas D. Ryan | New York | 11/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Engine is the American Music Club's second album, and it is the first that fully realizes the vision of drunken paranoia, separateness and longing that defines their best output. Such a description can sound pathetic, but it is the strength of this band, and most notably lyricist/vocalist Mark Eitzel, to convey such a pathetic state of mind while maintaining an underlying sense of dignity, and even humor. "Outside This Bar" presents a world where the only safe place is within the predictable confines of the neighborhood bar, but Eitzel's description is decidedly not a place where everybody knows your name. Instead, it is a place to take refuge and escape from the horrors that exist beyond the door that prevents the rays of sun from penetrating his consciousness. "Gary's Song" is just as paranoid, but also funny, as it conveys two loser drunks, only one of whom apparently recognizes the inherent downfall that their inebriation will almost certainly make inevitable. "If you drink too much, you will drown" is the warning refrain, but drunkenness prevails, when he sings, "If we sit here and drink enough beer, we'll be two inflatable dolls in a hooker's bad dream."



The hangover's a bitch, though, and the self-mocking reflection of "Mom's TV" and "Big Night" portray the dark side of irresponsibility and careless revelry. Undoubtedly the two most moving songs here, though, are "At My Mercy" and "Nightwatchman," since they stare unblinking into a void of sadness that no amount of alcohol could possibly quell. All in all, Engine serves as a theme album for bar crawlers and lonely hunters who believe they'll find romance in the night, but always wake up feeling more lonely than before they started.

A Tom Ryan"