California

#283 Heard Before? Other AMC, but not this album. Notes: - while it runs the gamut from Uncle Tupelo sounding country rock to Elliot Smith sounding songwriter fare, it never latches on to anything outstanding. it feels like music in the shadow of other music. Verdict: Fits nicely in the 90s alt-country scene, but not particularly special. Listen Again? Not feeling it, but you never know. I sometimes give pleasant things another chance.

The music press loved AMC and I was always keen to try them but it was harder in the 90’s… so now I’ve heard them and I enjoyed it but probably wouldn’t have in the 90’s. Country flecked, but mainly Mark Eitzels emotionally bare lyrics and skeletal guitar. It’s fragile and heart worn and that’s often a sweet spot for me

Not a fan of spiritualized rap. Not surprised I never heard of this band before.

Had to go to YouTube for this one and was surprised at some of the gushing comments. I’d never heard of American Music Club before. This album has a nice production, but musically I found it beige and uninspiring. Good for what it is…

Album was not available

Wordy, but not exactly literary.

He's trying to say something, but I have no idea what. Kinda sleepy and bland, then at the 20 minute mark, Reverend Horton Heat snuck in a song, because it did NOT fit the rest of the album. I was going to give it a 2, but I love The Rev, so 3 it is.

I was unfamiliar with this band and its creative force, Mark Eitzel. I found this to be a good listen. I probably won't return to it, but fans of this style will enjoy this album. This is between a 3 and 4 for me. I'll go with 3, simply because nothing really grabbed my attention and held on.

4.5/10 Late 80s indie rock by a band I've never heard of before. This album is ragingly mediocre - there is nothing of interest here in the slightest. At times it sounds like Wilco, or Sufjan Stevens, in that country rock and acoustic singer-songwriter kind of way, but it just isn't good enough for me to want to engage with in more depth. The death-knell of this album comes in the penultimate track, Highway Five: when singing about Los Angeles they say "highway five" rather than "the 5". I can't. While I can see a world where this would be 3 stars, I'm too bored to give it more than 2.

1988 no depression Firefly Blue and grey shirt

Could not listen

I enjoyed the first 2 songs and bad liquor, but after that it seems like they tried to go a whole different direction. It does not work imo

pissed off and sad that this isn’t on streaming. Loved firefly, Jenny, and last harbor

shoutout to whoever put the full album ad free on youtube. This album was whiplash to say the least. I loved the first song a lot and was like wow! I think im going to love this. what followed after that was... disappointing to say the least. They felt like recent taylor swift trying to fit as much whole lotta nothing burger 'deep' lyrics in as much as possible. I was prepared to give this a 1 when bad liquor played and I thought "oh one good song in a whole lotta bad album" and then jenny played and was like holy shit this is great I wish this was on spotify so I could listen to it more. And everything after that I was like this is kinda my shit. Feeling conflicted and confused as to how I feel about what I just listened to I give this a 2 because that feels the most right, maybe.

Relaxing and pretty diverse for what it's worth. I liked it, but I can see rating it lower

I liked the first song! and then nothing from the rest of the album really caught my attention but it wasn't bad to listen to for the most part. Didn't dislike it and it set a pretty alright vibe. Im saying that I would listen to it again because it seems like an interesting album that I would want to further appreciate but in truth idk when I am going to return to this. still, a 3 Likelihood that the members of this band lezzed out IMO: 4/5, theyre from san francisco and they have a bunch of pictures in cute little outfits. I think it happened.

ok so i had never heard of these guys before and on paper this is something that should really hit for me but it didn't for a reason that i really can't identify... i almost turned it off after the first track, godawful this project is making me see that vocal performances do actually impact how much i enjoy a piece of music, for the most part the instrumentals on this are good but not amazing but the singer and a lot of the lyrics being dumb really kind of kills it for me i do see how they influenced later bands and that like indie Americana sound but I'm not really a huge REM guy either, i prefer the more slowcore songs to the rest of it 2.5/light 3

Sympa

Not available on Spotify and I've never heard of them before. I'm having a hard time getting past the singer's voice. I just don't like it... "Blue and Grey Shirt" was the first song where I thought the vocal matched the music. Before that, it even sounded out of tune. I kept going, I kept not liking the singer. No fault to the music itself but I wouldn’t listen to this again bc of the vocals.

Really good album it kinda sounds like a indie album from late 90s early 2000s, I'd never heard of the band and never heard the album before it was a pleasant surprise I'll be listening to this one more

Perfection.

Felt meandery. Vocals were good but the music didn’t feel cohesive

Fine, but not particularly inspiring.

I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did based on the ratings, but I am pleasantly surprised! This is a low 4

Uplifting, relaxing country roadtrip. Fusion of multiple genres. Favorite track - Bad Liquor

This was pretty dull. Lyrics are corny. Music was blah. Nothing to get excited about.

Never heard of them before, but really liked this. Easy listening.

Not come across this before and can here how in some parts how it has influenced REM, Elbow etc...

This album sounds really good, as in it sounds like it could've been produced and released today. Sadly, much like the band's name, it's a largely forgettable and fairly average album with a few key moments that are pleasant enough.

Album No. 0212 on my list. To be perfectly honest, I had never ever heard of American Music Club to be honest, so "California" was something completely new to me. I'm not quite sure what to make of this album. It feels oddly connected to some of my favorite albums (there's some "Darkness on the Edge of Town" by Bruce Springsteen in there, as well as Radiohead's "The Bends"). In addition, there are some country influences, some folk stuff, some rock stuff, something that may generally be interesting and appeal to me very much. The songs themselves however don't stick all too much, I'm not the biggest fan of the singer's voice, and I don't really like the production/sound on this one. It's a solid album and I'm actually curious why it has not been a bigger hit overall, but I'm personally not super much into it. It's a shame this album is not on Spotify (found it interesting how much this impacted people's rating of "California"), so I can't add any songs to my playlist. If it were possible though, it would be "Firefly", "Lonely", and "Pale Skinny Girl". 3/5 stars.

Alt rock meets alt country. Sounds like a bunch of different records, so I guess it’s influential even if it’s not essential. Not even the best alt country album released that year.

This is kind of just a whole lotta nothing. Another filler album with nothing really terrible, but also nothing standout either. 5/10

day 13 of not rolling Aja by Steely Dan Has to track this one down on YT, but it was kinda fun. Nice thing to listen to while I cooked dinner. Doubt I’ll seek it out again but compared to how much I hated The Cure yesterday this sounded excellent

Couple of weird spots that I wasn’t super into (bad liquor) but good vibes overall. 3.5

Some interesting songs here and there, but I mostly tuned it out. "Bad Liquor" was a huge jolt when I was enjoying the sleepier vibes.

I’ve heard cover albums with more original ideas than this but, honestly, I found it pretty enjoyable. I will say, it's one of the only times that I've been fully confused by an album because there's nothing unique about it as a rock album and it doesn't even have the novelty excuse that some later albums have.

Really a "meh" experience overall. As soon as the album started getting some steam, they threw in this weird punk-type song, "Bad Liquor" - genuinely might be one of the worst things I've heard in recent memory.

A 3.5 not quite good enough to round up.

Really enjoyed this one.

Relaxing background noise.

Soothing in a way

Good

The experience of listening to this album was really funny. I started out rather liking the instrumentals of the first few songs ("Firefly" in particular started out very promising), but the singer's voice (accent? enunciation?) was not doing it for me. Still, an overall 3-star. Then in the more high-energy / rock-like songs like "Lonely" where he tries to throw his voice, it just sounded strained in an uncharming way ... so okay, a 2-star .... and then finally the SLOG starting with "Bad Liquor" and *especially* "Jenny." :/

Honestly underrated here. Disappointing I can’t easily add some of these tracks to my daily rotation

The album not being on spotify led me to a youtube video of the entire album. I have no idea if it was the right album, as I have no way to verify, but I assume it was. This was perfectly boring background music. You forgot it was there until you suddenly remebered it and thought: Wow, this is pretty bland.

This is, well ok. I was listening to a lot of US indie at the time and thing is this album doesn’t stand out in my memory. Shit the band name is only a vague memory. And that’s the point here it’s completely not worthy of a spot on this list. It’s ok for its genre, part indie pop rock, acoustic introspection, hints of past agitation post punk and Americana- ticks all the boxes. But this is just that an ok example, yes as per the list is subjective, but this just seems to me critic suggestion of the slightly obscure to be cool. There are better, and/or more successful from the time to represent. Ok but not worthy of the list 3 Star

Really good alternative, almost tinged with Springsteen; like The National but obviously far ahead of that time. Stripped down in just the right way, not too much. I couldn't stop listening.

got a lot more out of this than i expected after the first couple songs. the more stripped back songs are generally much more appealing than the camp country rock stuff that makes up like half the tracklist tho (except for bad liquor, that doesn't really fit into either camp but i liked it anyway lol) favorite songs: pale skinny girl, highway 5, bad liquor least favourite song: somewhere

Fav: Western Sky L: Jenny, Bad Liquor 3 It took me a second to get used to the singing, but besides that I think the songs were pretty solid. On the Youtube video I watched with the whole album it freaks out at 26:14. Cover: 3 Name: 2 Can't stop thinking about RHCP with a title like that Minecraft Parody: Green Tater (Bad Liquor)

Not much to chew on with this one. 2/5

Fuck all of y'all, this thing is beautiful. Solid 4.

Fun stuff

Unremarkable but pleasant enough. This is much more pure indie to me than country but I suppose there are tiny little Dave Matthews tinges in there. Sounds more talkings headsy than that though

Liked the country crossed with post punk. If I walked by a bar these guys were playing I'd go in and have 3.5 beers

2 pictures: AMC or an old high school acquaintances that formed an Americana rock band that plays a couple shows at the small town fests and bars. What's that? They're the same picture? What a waste of a spot on this list (1.5)

Pleasant and unchallenging, but hardly essential.

average

A cool mix of post-punk and alt country. I can hear their influence on a lot of the 90's bands I listened to a lot. Depressing or sadcore is not really my thing, it really has to be the right moment to land correctly. This isn't something you put on just to have some background music going. There is some really good songwriting going on and it deserves a more active listen but I can't rate it highly, to sad sack for my liking.

IMHO a bit boring. But solid. (Listened to it on YouTube)

Not on Apple Music. Rating based on other album.

Only on YT. To listen again. Really good.

Indy Rock as 'definite statement'.

Not for me. 1/5

surprisingly so good

Il y a une imposture assez tenace dans les chapelles du rock indépendant qui consiste à confondre la neurasthénie polie avec le génie poétique. Dès qu’un type s’empare d’une guitare acoustique avec l’air d’avoir passé sa nuit à sangloter sur l’évier de sa cuisine, la critique s’emballe, sort les mouchoirs brodés et nous vend le nouveau messie de la douleur américaine. Avant tout soyons clair deux secondes, j’adore l’Americana, j’aime cette musique mais avec Mark Eitzel et sa clique d’American Music Club, j’ai toujours eu ce réflexe instinctif de recul, un scepticisme tenace qui refuse de céder sous les louanges convenues. Et pourtant, Dieu sait si l’on m’a rebattu les oreilles avec ce fameux California, sorti en 1988, estampillé par tous les gardiens du bon goût comme l’apogée indépassable du groupe, le chef-d’œuvre absolu du slowcore balbutiant et de la country alternative en trench-coat. Autant crever l’abcès tout de suite, ma réécoute attentive n’a absolument rien changé à l’affaire et pire, elle m’a conforté dans mon diagnostic initial. On nous vend un monument d’amertume crépusculaire, et je me retrouve face à un disque qui ronronne tranquillement dans son coin, confortablement emmitouflé dans son désespoir de salon. Attention, ce n’est pas une catastrophe intégrale, loin de là, et l’album mérite son 3 sur 5 parce qu’il aligne deux ou trois éclairs de grâce indéniables, des instants suspendus où le talent d’écriture émerge véritablement des limbes. Mais pour le reste, nous sommes face à un océan de torpeur, une mare sans la moindre ondulation. Le problème central d’American Music Club sur ce disque tient dans cette manie exaspérante de désamorcer toute prise de risque. L’Americana, pour fonctionner, a besoin de friction, et ici, la production préfère polir les angles jusqu’à l’usure. Dès que la batterie menace d’avoir un peu de frappe ou que la pedal steel pourrait déchirer l’espace d’une plainte poignante, le mixage étouffe la velléité sous une nappe de velours tiède. C’est tout simplement inoffensif. Parlons deux secondes de Mark Eitzel, le milieu indé a érigé ce chanteur en poète maudit définitif, l’archétype du loser magnifique qui contemple sa propre déchéance avec une lucidité chirurgicale. Sur le papier, le programme a de quoi séduire, mais à l’oreille, son registre vocal hésite constamment entre le murmure affecté et le vibrato chevrotant, comme s’il cherchait à nous convaincre de sa détresse par des effets de manche un peu trop voyants. Là où un Townes Van Zandt vous brise le cœur en deux accords et trois syllabes sans jamais forcer le trait, Eitzel semble constamment vous taper sur l’épaule pour vous rappeler à quel point il souffre. C’est du pathos bien emballé, parfois brillant dans les textes, mais qui manque cruellement de cette sécheresse tragique propre aux véritables géants de la musique de terroir américain. On a l’impression d’assister à une thérapie de groupe un peu chic où chacun s’écoute parler avec une complaisance infinie. Heureusement, au milieu de cette traversée en eaux calmes, le navire évite le naufrage grâce à quelques fulgurances que je ne peux décemment pas balayer d’un revers de main. Quand le groupe lâche enfin la bride à une mélancolie plus directe et moins boursouflée, la magie opère. Il y a sur cet album deux ou trois titres magnifiques qui justifient qu’on ne jette pas le disque par la fenêtre. Des moments où l’écriture folk trouve une résonance authentique, où les arpèges de guitare et les arrangements de cordes discrètes esquissent une Amérique fantomatique, rongée par ses propres chimères. Sur ces quelques perles, Eitzel touche du doigt ce qu’il prétend faire sur toute la longueur : capter l’essence d’un désenchantement sans fard, une solitude nocturne où l’ironie mordante se mêle à une tendresse désespérée. Dans ces parenthèses inspirées, la voix ne cabotine plus, elle se pose, les arrangements respirent enfin et l’on entrevoit ce qu’aurait pu être cet enregistrement s’il avait été tenu par une véritable vision incisive plutôt que par une mollesse érigée en système esthétique. Mais l’illusion ne fait pas long feu, et dès que ces réussites s’achèvent, le disque replonge la tête la première dans son marasme capitonné. Les morceaux s’enchaînent avec une régularité de métronome engourdi, se diluant les uns dans les autres jusqu’à former une purée d’accords mineurs où rien ne dépasse. C’est tout le paradoxe de ce cru 1988 : on nous parle d’un chef-d’œuvre incandescent, mais en vérité, c’est une œuvre qui ne prend jamais le moindre risque de se brûler. La formule reste désespérément la même d’un bout à l’autre, reposant sur un tempo ralenti à l’extrême et des arpèges qui finissent par tourner à vide. On comprend bien l’influence que ce disque a pu exercer par la suite sur une ribambelle de formations dépressives des années 1990. On y trouve déjà les fondations de ce que deviendront le mouvement sadcore et les lamentations en chambre d’écho de toute une génération de hipsters languissants. Mais avoir été une étape historique ne suffit pas à faire un chef-d’œuvre intemporel. En refermant l’album, je me retrouve exactement à l’endroit où je l’avais commencé : dubitatif. Ni complètement conquis, ni tout à fait déçu, simplement conforté dans mon impression que la réputation de cet enregistrement relève davantage du malentendu critique que du triomphe artistique. Les amateurs transis de Mark Eitzel continueront de crier au génie incompris et de vénérer chaque sanglot enregistré sur bande magnétique ; grand bien leur fasse. Pour ma part, je garde précieusement les deux ou trois pépites éparpillées sur cette rondelle, des titres qui méritent sans doute de figurer sur une anthologie sélective du genre, et je laisse le reste dériver au large, dans cette mer sans vagues et sans frissons. Trois étoiles sur cinq, c’est la note de la stricte équité, celle qui salue le savoir-faire mélodique indéniable de quelques morceaux choisis, tout en refusant d’applaudir une traversée en eaux si calmes qu’elle frise l’encéphalogramme plat.

I don't know why but I expected much worse, pleasantly surprised, although it didn't blow my mind or anything.

サブスクには無いです。

Had to listen on YouTube since it wasn't on Spotify at the time the album came up in the queue. Some catchy pop/rock songs that have a distinct late 80s sound. Really liked the songs "Somewhere" and "Lonely" among others. Think it'd be a fun album to come back to.

Nothing really grabbed me here, it wasn't bad though.

Album was hard to find. The music was pretty pleasant but I was unimpressed with the lyrics. Lots of repetition, which is generally a sign of lazy writing.

I don't really see what makes this an essential album. The music is fine, but the lyrics and vocals are really nothing special. The band seems to be overly occupied with holding back and being subdued, and I found the faster tracks to be much more interesting.

Really quite good. Very enjoyable

Not bad

This was quite good. A pretty melancholy album with lyrics that feel personal and drew me in. Not sure it has many tracks I'd pick out as highlights, but if I can be bothered with looking it up on Youtube I may revisit

Broken link

???

not on spotify, so will not listen to :(

Álbum apresenta belas canções de andamento lento e climas melancólicos. Bom disco!

2026.09.06.

It wasnt too bad, it wasnt great and at times I forgot it was on.

Well, it's fine. It's music. Nothing to report.

This is the second time I’ve listened to this album because of the project. Were it not for a directive, I would never have gone on over to YouTube to listen to the bootleg. But am I ever glad I did! This is beautiful! My brother has a record collection that takes up a whole room with special shelving and thousands of dollars worth of equipment to go along with it. I subscribe to a music streaming service and have a few pairs of pretty nice headphones. My way is the ONLY way I could go in for a project like this. But it is built on the album. And I think it’s good to, at times, have to do a little work for that album, particularly when it’s an amazing gem. And one I found out is NOT in my brother’s collection. So now I am going to do more work to procure a physical copy. Love to the 1089! 5 Boolean: True

Standard Americana that definitely got a little worse as the album progressed.

Meh, kind of good but not sure why it's on this list. I like me my indie-rock so it's getting a 3 but if it were in a genre that was less up my alley, it'd have been a 2 I think.

Could have got into this big time if I caught it when I was 15.

The guy really sounds a lot like the singer from Okkervil River, which in theory should please a lot. As I love Okkervil River. The album sounded a bit mid tier. Nice songs, but doesn't have too much oomph to me.

This guy sounds like he’s singing through a stuffed nose. “I have a cold, but we booked the recording studio, so we’re using it.”

Generally good but not quite rocking enough for me most of the time.

Wasn’t available on Spotify sadly.

Listening session: september 2nd, while getting ready in the morning Listened to before: no Thoughts: unfortunately this album was not available on Spotify so I had to listen to it on YouTube. I expected a boring Americana album, but some songs surprised me with their melodies and were actually quite enjoyable Favourite tracks: Firefly, Blue and Grey Shirt & Last Harbor

It came out in 1988 and sounds curiously detached from 1988. If it belongs anywhere historically, perhaps it sits somewhere off to the side of the Paisley Underground, but it keeps opening doors into the following decade. There’s some of Tindersticks’ melancholy here; more importantly, it feels almost like a permission slip for Wilco: proof that country instrumentation, indie sensibility, sophisticated production and completely plainspoken emotional writing can coexist without any of them cancelling the others out. That last part is the mystery of the record. Mark Eitzel is extraordinarily direct and unselfconscious. Yet the music surrounding him can be exquisitely polished: jangling guitars, fingerpicking, immense reverberant spaces and Bruce Kaphan’s astonishing pedal steel. Usually production this beautiful puts glass between listener and singer. Here it somehow makes Eitzel sound more exposed. “Firefly” establishes this immediately. It has a chorus I could hum after one listen and a gorgeous steel guitar that seems to extend the glow of the fleeting moment being described. The music preserves something the lyric already knows cannot be kept. Then “Somewhere” gives us what I can only call magic-realist Americana: ordinary buses, cocktail lounges and hospitals inhabit the same world as surreal, impossible images. Everyday America develops a fever. “Laughing Stock” reduces everything again. Sparse electric and acoustic jangle, rim shots, yearning, eventually finger clicks. Its opening idea is devastatingly simple: being a laughing stock proves the world is made of rock; some people manage to grow on it and some don’t. The world is hard, and it is particularly hard when you’re the butt of everybody else’s joke. A simple truth put simply. “Lonely” got me personally. Its central thought is essentially: if I have to be this lonely, I may as well be alone. I’ve known that feeling. Hearing somebody else articulate it so plainly doesn’t resurrect anything dreadful; it does something much nicer. You discover that your experience wasn’t particularly special after all. Someone else has sat in the same emotional room. The middle of the record becomes unexpectedly dark. Alcohol stains California, but there’s nothing remotely romantic about drinking here. “Bad Liquor” sounds like a terrible busking act playing through blown amplifiers: distortion, a harmonica nagging at the song, angry drunken fragments. It lasts less than two minutes and then simply stops dead. It is the sound of judgement failing in real time. The hard edit into the jangling country waltz of “Now You’re Defeated” is brilliant. Here defeat itself becomes dangerous: once somebody is diminished enough, their fallibility can become something another person uses to control them. Affection, dependency and possession become horribly difficult to separate. Elsewhere, “Pale Skinny Girl” opens from delicate melancholy into a vast canyon of sound, a snare reverberating across an apparently endless wasteland. “Blue and Grey Shirt”, with that keening steel guitar, is merely a tiny vignette of disappointment — someone waits all morning for somebody who never comes — until Eitzel quietly enlarges it into singing songs for people who are gone. Then the album starts looking west. “Western Sky” is spacious Americana about defeat and reinvention: new name, new face, somewhere else. Everything good must surely be over there on the horizon. Except the western horizon is also where everything disappears. “Highway 5” destroys even geography as an escape route. Jangled, rambling verses give way to repeated refrains surrounded by distant crashing feedback, like dread travelling several miles behind you but never falling away. I once slept for two hours on a Greyhound travelling Interstate 5 through the San Joaquin Valley and woke to scenery that seemed absolutely unchanged. California felt too big to escape from. That is this song. Finally “Last Harbor” retreats into extraordinarily delicate fingerpicking while Eitzel stretches out the question of whether another person might finally become his last harbour. After an album full of failed attempts at escape — drink, lovers, roads, parties, reinvention — perhaps another human being can provide somewhere to stop falling. Perhaps. Neglect. Escape. Futility. Reinvention through other people. That’s California: gorgeous music wrapped around people who keep trying to escape themselves, only to discover that wherever they go, they have brought themselves along

3/5

The first album not available on streaming! I enjoyed this more than I thought. Has to be said I enjoyed the mellow moments a lot more than the heavier content here

This is #day753 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… right from the get-go, the album isn't available on Spotify. Nor is it on YouTube Music, except for a single track. That's not the best first impression, is it? What about the music itself, though? Must-hear-before-you-die late-'80s indie/college rock. Well, I don't think so. The slowcore-adjacent numbers are fine. I'd rather have included anything from, say, Red House Painters or Mark Kozelek, though. This is a 2 out of 5. Looking forward to #day754.

I don’t know why I hate this album. I think too many people are going for a like very acoustic every instrument is kinda plinky and country and indistinct. No energy. And I hate his voice. Reminds me of Creed or one of the other late 90s sincere post grunge bands which are all awful. The backing sounds like REM but it doesn’t feel as smart or edgy or energetic.

Oh nice, an album I've never heard of, this is why I'm here! Let's check Wikipedia for it's claim to fame! Oh cool, its signature success is "The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Oh great, then I guess I should listen to it because it's on the list that says I should listen to it. Fuck this circle jerk list. I'll give it 2 stars, because it's not the artist's fault they got dragged into this circle jerk.

Absolute milk toast sad boy western folk. Boring as all hell and these guys seem pretentious as shit for assuming we’d even care.

Pretty good rock record. Bit of a somber, lo-fi tone, but they certainly sound ahead of their times seeing this was released in 1988 - it fooled me into thinking it was more recent. Good harmonies and musicianship. Decent record.

Variously reminds me of a few bands and albums I really like but this one didn't do it for me

American Music Club’s California feels like a masterclass in wasted potential, weighed down by flat production and uninspired musicianship. While moments on tracks like "Firefly," "Jenny," and "Last Harbor" showcase faint glimmers of folksy charm and strong lyricism, the vast majority of the tracklist devolves into a monotonous grind. The most glaring flaw is the amateurish, paint-by-numbers drumming that strips the songs of any dynamic range, leaving the entire project feeling structurally hollow and deeply one-dimensional. Between a grating mix, forgettable hooks, and a frustrating lack of ambition, the record never manages to be offensively bad—just deeply, profoundly boring. It’s a tedious 2/5 listen that fails to justify its place on any must-hear list.