American Music Club - 'The Golden Age' (Cooking Vinyl) Released 04/02/08

Of all the reformed 90’s bands in the past few years, American Music Club are one to be most apathetic about. Forming in the late 80’s, they enjoyed success in the heady days of early 90’s, where plaid shirts ruled supreme and popular hobbies including gazing at your Converse all stars. How times have changed.
 
Or so it would be nice to think. Because annoyingly, the introvert dream pop throwback that is ‘The Golden Age’ sounds as out of touch with modern music as…well Converse and plaid shirts are to fashion now. 15 years have gone and we have come full circle. Yet what can be learnt from this album is how much the last 15 years of music has relied upon bands such as American Music Club. ‘The Victory Choir’ illustrates which part of the music landscape bands such as Embrace go digging about for ideas in. Meanwhile ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ shows that bands like The Shins also owe a debt.

But now ending this pat on the back for American Music Club for all they’ve done for nation and state. For while American Music Club demonstrate that they have musical talent with this album it is, regardless, intensely boring. It fails to grab attention in any way. Simply put, what we are witness to here is the mindless repetition of the same half-arsed dull sound across the majority of an album. Only ‘The Stars’ and ‘I Know That’s Not Really You’ part ways with the mumbled lyrics and picked guitar chords - and the latter of the two sounds like an inebriated Bavarian folk festival.

And thus reveals the crux of why American Music Club disbanded in the first place. Maybe what we owe American Music Club isn’t that much after all, considering from this effort they seem to put the listener through worse over the years. I doubt American Music Club ever really had a heyday, yet it is unlikely to come now on their return. For their ‘Golden Age’, this certainly is not.