Love Songs for Patriots

“My life is a sham,” American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel sings to open a pained, ethereal cut from the band’s eighth album. This isn’t a rhetorical device: Despite seven albums that made AMC cult heroes in the '90s, Eitzel really believes it. His songs, which have lurched from country-rock and folk-jazz to lo-fi electronica and orchestral anti-pop, have fed consistently off this self-loathing, and it’s still the principal ingredient on Love Songs, AMC’s first album since 1994. Even when his targets are essentially political, as on the caustic post-9/11 reckoning “Ladies and Gentleman,” Eitzel’s anger at the country and its power brokers often feels like another metaphor for hating himself. Those who never cottoned to Eitzel’s tales of loneliness and despair certainly won’t be turned around here, but few can make the inner life of a beautiful loser sound this good. (With the obvious exception of Nick Lachey.)