Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Atwater Afternoon CD Review

Well, a month after I got my copy I have finally got round to doing a review of it. Atwater Afternoon is a Ltd Ed release of a couple of sessions recorded by the new look American Music Club. I say a couple of sessions as the first half sounds like demos for the new album while the latter half sound like it was recorded "live" in the studio.

There are 13 tracks in all. Of these, 3 are old country standards, one is written and sung by Vudi and one is by new band member Steve Didelot. There is definitely a bit of a country vibe running through the whole thing. Steve's song is a classic bit of country all about a book called "The Insiders Guide to life". It gets passed down from generation who admit that they have "never read it son, but I really think you should". the other cover of note is "I'm your Puppet" which has Mark reaching for the falsetto he last used on "Move on Up". "Long Long Walk" is supposed to be an out take from the Golden Age. Based on the evidence of this, the new version of the AMC could have a good country album in them. The new boys know their licks and as Mark is feeling mellower these days we could have another Everclear or California.

The last 3 tracks sound a bit more live than the rest. There is lots of Cymbals there but you can't really make out much other detail.

It is also worth noting that the ones sold on the current tour make up the very limited CDR run of 300. I managed to get one of these complete with a hand drawn cover by Vudi. The ones on the Internet will be a run of 1500 proper CDs with proper printed covers.

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