| Everclear | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | American Music Club |
| Cover: | American Music Club Everclear.jpg |
| Recorded: | 1991 |
| Label: | Alias |
| Prev Title: | United Kingdom |
| Prev Year: | 1989 |
| Next Title: | Mercury |
| Next Year: | 1993 |
Everclear is the fifth studio album by American indie rock band American Music Club. It was released on October 5, 1991, on Alias Records.
"Rise" was released as a single in 1991 via the Rise CD maxi-EP on Alias Records, which contained the non-album tracks "Chanel #5", "The Right Thing" and an alternate version of "Crabwalk". The music video for "Rise" received minor play on MTV's 120 Minutes late-night program.
On the strength of Everclear, Mark Eitzel was named Rolling Stone magazine's Songwriter of the Year in 1991. Rolling Stone also placed Everclear in their list of top five albums of the year.
In an article in the December 1994 – January 1995 issue of Addicted to Noise, the band recounted:
Eric Weisbard of Spin Alternative Record Guide (1995) wrote that Everclear marked American Music Club's failed attempt to "take over the world", adding that the album "was weirdly produced by Kaphan—imagine a pedal steelist's megalomanic fantasy—with the would-be modern rock hit 'Rise' especially cheesy." However, he praised several songs, including the mournful, AIDS-inspired "Sick of Food" and "The Dead Part of You". Pitchforks Chris Ott included Everclear in a list of albums common in second-hand stores. He wrote: "Hideously produced for Alias-- the same label that fucked up Yo La Tengo's May I Sing with Me-- Everclear is an overstuffed, underdeveloped album drenched in a plate of reverb on par with Queensryche."[1]