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Love Songs for Patriots isn't an American Music Club masterpiece in the manner of Everclear or Mercury, but it's certainly a stronger and more coherent effort than the group's last set.
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Alternative PressAmerican Music Club are as morose as ever. [Dec 2004, p.150]
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Proving that reunions can be a good thing, "Love Songs for Patriots" is a nice addition to this band's highly influential catalog.
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BlenderEitzel sounds like he's finally emerging from the murk. [Nov 2004, p.128]
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Little of the album fails to impress in its striking melodic strength or its lyrical intelligence---which shouldn’t surprise Eitzel’s long-time fans. But the album does have one recurring flaw: overextension of its ideas.
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'Mercury' from 1993 is widely regarded as AMC's finest moment, albeit their flawed masterpiece. This new album is right up there with it, and 1990's 'Everclear', too.
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This isn’t so much the first AMC record in awhile as the sturdiest, most bottom-heavy Eitzel record in awhile.
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Entertainment WeeklyAs before, there are hints of redemption and humor even in Eitzel's most downbeat tunes. [22 Oct 2004, p.96]
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Love Songs for Patriots picks up exactly where American Music Club last left us: producing uniformly excellent music filled with heartbreak, loneliness, and - yes - politics.
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Love Songs for Patriots sounds just as one would expect an aged AMC to sound: with mature, yet loose arrangements with an edge but without balls back up Eitzel’s gloomy, brooding voice, taking wry bitterness to familiar but novel highs and lows.
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New Musical Express (NME)Funny, heartbreaking and at glorious odds with the world. [4 Sep 2004, p.73]
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Their best since 1991’s Everclear, and a glittering statement of purpose from an institution reinvigorated.
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A uniformly strong collection of sharp-eyed, sardonic allegories.
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I can't stress enough how brilliant this record is, how pertinent and valuable its songs are to our lives.
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Q MagazineStrong and melodic, atmospheric and creative... a powerful work. [Oct 2004, p.120]
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Spin[Eitzel's] best album of closing-time kvetch since 1993's Mercury. [Dec 2004, p.124]
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There is no shortage of understated brilliance on Love Songs for Patriots.
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Far, far better than it has any right to be, an album that sounds like a natural progression of the band’s career and one that, if they’d made it instead of San Francisco, might just have held them together for a bit longer.
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The songs are heartfelt and witty, with the kind of deep sweep that makes listeners happy to be sad.
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Exudes the kind of focus and cohesiveness most bands only achieve after years of playing together.
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Under The RadarThese are Eitzel's purest confessionals to date. [#8, p.108]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 1 out of 5
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JohnCFeb 5, 2005
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darkrazorOct 26, 2004