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This time out, Eitzel has built his arrangements around spare keyboard lines, atmospheric electronic samples, and percussion loops that blend with his voice and acoustic guitar to create an effect that suggest a more spare, organic version of Portishead, or a Jon Brion production that's stuck in a blue funk. But the new surroundings suit the songs quite well...
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Again shows that Eitzel is a total gem of a singer/songwriter.
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Alternative PressAn album of mature pop that's more good-humored than its moping, acoustic-over-electronic arrangements let on. [Aug 2001, p.86]
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Eitzel’s written with genuine warmth before, but it’s been several albums since he’s backed it with sounds that stand on their own this well.
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MagnetEitzel is a far cry from Dido, but he still manages to find a proving ground where his nicotine-stained fingerpicking and tales of emotional erosion can make an uneasy peace with the precision of the Portishead crowd. [#50, p.90]
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Eitzel does doomed introspection with more wit than the average bear, however, and more tunefully, too.
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While the San Francisco-based songwriter is still crafting unmistakably Eitzel-esque gloom tunes, his latest, The Invisible Man, is his most eclectic outing to date, veering from the low-key electronica of the opening track to the understated atmospherics of "Sleep."
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SpinHis finest album since American Music Club split. [June 2001, p.145]
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A typically bruised and beautiful collection of lovelorn ballads, Raymond Carveresque character studies and darkly romantic confessionals.
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Eitzel's songs, at their best, could serve as fodder for the next Sinatra, should such a crooner emerge from a dingy bar on the far side of town. As performed by Eitzel himself, his compositions resonate with a mix of existential melodrama and black humor that cuts deep to the bone.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 3
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Mixed: 0 out of 3
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Negative: 0 out of 3
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HerveBSep 8, 2004
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BenjaminBunnyApr 17, 2004Not really a great album, but the closest he's come since AMC's "Mercury." The electronic elements, surprisingly, bolster this.