- Audio CD (Mar 3 2003)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Matador Records
- ASIN: B00005B9SN
- Other Editions: Audio CD
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14,935 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. The Boy With The Hammer In The Pape bag |
| 2. Can You See? |
| 3. Christian Science Reading Room |
| 4. Sleep |
| 5. To THe Sea |
| 6. Shine |
| 7. Steve I Always Knew |
| 8. Bitterness |
| 9. Anything |
| 10. Without You |
| 11. The Global Sweep Of Human History |
| 12. Seeing Eye Dog |
| 13. Proclain Your Joy |
Product Description
From Amazon.co.uk
As former singer of American Music Club, Mark Eitzel was one of the biggest critical hits of the late 20th century. Yet adulatory reviews don't necessarily lead to sales and so this soulful, inspirational artist remains a cult figure. The Invisible Man is his first new recording in some three years. It's said the delay is due to the death by overdose of his muse and closest friend, Kathleen Burns. Yet this is no fraught collection of primal screams and gothic thunder. Instead we have a wildly varied selection of mood-pieces. "Christian Science Reading Room" has a quiet acoustic guitar occasionally attacked by military drum-rolls, then engulfed by a strange keyboard recalling The Residents' Not Available. "Sleep" is a beautifully judged electronic lullaby (Eitzel actually spent the last two years producing the album on a Mac in his front-room, and his diligence shows through), while the closing "Proclaim Your Joy" is like a speeded-up take on Eileen Rose's "Would You Marry Me?", warm and countrified with Eitzel sounding genuinely (and surprisingly) uplifted. Being Eitzel, the album's often wordy and morose, like Leonard Cohen badly beaten and left to think and die in solitary confinement. But there is a truly human spirit on display which music lovers will appreciate. Everyone should have one Eitzel album. This one will do. --Dominic Wills
Chronique amazon.fr
À tort, l'ex-leader d'American Music Club a toujours rebuté le grand public, ce qui lui a fermé les portes d'un succès pourtant mérité au vu de ses talents et états de service de songwriter. Ce qu'on lui reproche, c'est probalement un sens aigu de la mortification qui confine au masochisme, une espèce d'auto-flagellation dont il serait devenu le chantre. Sur disque, et plus encore sur scène, que ce soit sur Sixty Watt Silver Lining ou West, il livre, comme ici, une poignée de chansons cultivant l'autodérision, servies par un accompagnement minimal et dépouillé qui renvoie à un désespoir palpable inscrit au plus profond de son être. L'humour est souvent macabre, et la séance de psychanalyse, pas forcément du goût de tout le monde. Dommage car ces albums ont une force singulière. Avec The Invisible Man, sans aller jusqu'à dire que le chanteur se serait métamorphosé en joyeux drille, on constatera qu'un effort louable a été fait pour se présenter sous un jour moins dépressif. Eitzel semble, après trois ans d'absence, jouer le tout pour le tout, renouant avec la délicatesse des ces classiques les moins discutables, "Johnny Matis' Feet" notamment. Bien que toujours tourmenté, l'ensemble, moins plaintif, offre de jolis tubes en puissance ("Christian Science Reading Room"), voire carrément une sorte d'hymne à la joie ("Proclaim Your Joy"). Aucun doute, l'état de grâce et la maturité de The Invisible Man en font des meilleurs albums de Mark Eitzel. --Hervé Comte
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
my sentence is the freedom of no passport...,
By
This review is from: Invisible Man (Audio CD)
i'm slowly working my way back through mark eitzel's work and started by picking up the invisible man a few years ago. a young kid then, probably floating around in the record store, partly terrified partly at home. i went up to the counter, tossed the cd on the counter and the older lady at the register just kinda looked at me. i said mark eitzel used to be in american music club thinking i prolly beat her to discovering an amazing artist. i had never heard anything by the guy but he was already mine. and looking like the biggest sixteen year old ever, i stepped out of the record store into my car, put eitzel on and didn't know what the hell was going on. the intro to the boy with the hammer sounded like someone just fell over and died on the piano. it was scary. this old drunken guy was whispering his stories of drunkely spewing "F**K YOU WORLD!" and then running out of the bar to sleep under the night sky at some random location in downtown s.f. "I'M ONLY SIXTEEN, MARK! JESUS..." so i safely placed eitzel near the bottom of my rotation and went back to safe, angry alternative, brit-pop or anything else that would keep whatever eitzel was singing about at bay. as time went, eitzel became more of a routine and then, without me noticing, eitzel was everywhere with me. after that, i picked up 'west', 'caught in a trap', amc's 'san francico', 'mercury', and 'music for courage and confidence'. all are phenomenal and give listeners the backalley treatment. there ain't no red carpet, there's not a soul in sight. it's just you and a drunken, depressed guy who just might be the most decent person in the world. enough has probably been said about the invisible man. i won't try to add anything new. to the sea is unbearably fitting to buckley. eitzel really knows what he's talking about (maybe that's what separates him from everyone?). certainly, like another reviewer mentioned, it is darkness visible.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully hypnotic,
By Stephen Doig (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Invisible Man (Audio CD)
The Invisible Man is undoubtedly one of Mark Eitzel's finest albums, with or without American Music Club. Very few artists can mine the inner soul quite as well as Eitzel with such staggeringly consistent results. I don't want to go on about how some music is more real than other music - however, when you listen to this record you don't feel shortchanged for quality and artistic integrity. 'Can You See', 'Shine', 'To the Sea' and 'Sleep' are all utterly spellbinding, ingeniously arranged and lyrically fascinating. Take the time to discover The Invisible Man, it'll be an *illuminating* experience.
5.0 out of 5 stars
"the dude's way sensative...",
By kevin mclemore (chicago, il) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Invisible Man (Audio CD)
Mark Eitzel is the greatest living songwriter, without question. In my mind, this album is a return to his glory, something that hadn't been seen since 60 Watt Silver Lining and before American Music Club split. Definatively different than anything he'd ever done before, either solo or with American Music Club. There is a little dance feel to it, with drum machines and synths adding some textures. But Mark's gorgeous, fragile guitar playing is not lost at all with this. The electronics merely add to the songs. "Sleep" is my favorite solo Mark Eitzel song. Maybe it's the line about the pedal steel guitar, I don't know. But just an absolutely beautiful song. "Anything" is a haunting little song, perhaps about his ex-girlfriend Kathleen Burns, who died of an overdose in 1998. Although they hadn't been together for a number of years before her death, you can tell that he knows he might never love anyone as much as he loved her. "I'd do anything to be where you are;" perhaps calling to Kathleen in heaven. "Without You" feels like it belonged on an American Music Club album, maybe "Mercury." I could honestly go one forever about this records. It's beautiful, amazing. It makes me cry. I listen to it in the car and imagine Mark standing before me, onstage, holding his acoustic guitar. A very honest man. This record is almost like he opened up his soul and let anyone see what was inside. It really, really is a horrible shame that Mark Eitzel and the American Music Club were never really recognized for their amazing talents.
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