At their height, American Music Club meshed blues, country, folk, R&B and post-punk rock to create some of the most idiosyncratic and beautiful music of the past decade. Front and center stood singer Mark Eitzel, whose intensely honest songs put him in the company of the English folk hero Nick Drake and American songwriter Tim Hardin. But while the San Francisco quintet was able to genre hop at will, its stylistic shifts guaranteed that its audience would be limited to a small, devoted core.

Eitzel crafted 60 Watt Silver Lining as a relatively straight album featuring a singer/songwriter backed by a jazz trio. He retains AMC bassist Danny Pearson and pianist and pedal steel player Bruce Kaphan while adding Simone White of Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on drums. Throw in a few guest appearances from adult-contemporary trumpeter Mark Isham, and you have an album that would almost be at home on VH1. But no matter how far you strip down or polish up Eitzel's sound, his cracked, aching voice and pointed lyrics still jab at whatever comfort the arrangements have found.

Set against a dignified piano and dance groove, "Cleopatra Jones" begins with the line "The people I was with said you were nothing but a fag hag and a dope fiend." Better yet is "Mission Rock Resort," on which, over Isham's trumpet and Kaphan's mournful, stark piano chords, the hard-drinking Eitzel turns to his friend to ask, "Hey, how's your margarita?" then morosely adds, "You won't be around very much longer." Jimmy Buffet he's not.

Eitzel's lyrical position remains bleak. Only "Saved," a song he says he would love Barbra Streisand to cover, comes off as too formal a songwriting exercise. For the rest, he struggles to stretch metaphor and meter in hopes of lending beauty and dignity to a world that he believes lacks both. (RS 730)

ROB O'CONNOR