1994’s San Francisco is American Music Club’s best album. Their seventh album, and the last before a long hiatus, finds the band with a polished sound that tightly holds to Mark Eitzel’s tremendous lyrical work.

I’m always ambivalent on my fave track on this album. I hold it dear to my heart as it’s the one AMC album my dad liked, mostly due to their cover of California Dreaming, unlisted on first pressings, and a rather fetching version that holds the longing of the original but adds a slight feeling of detachment, perhaps as acceptance of a situation that can no longer be corrected.

Wish the world away is pure unfiltered Eitzel pessimism. Filled to the brim with gallows humour, the song reveals the inner dialogue of a loner in dire straits. The lack of social life is really the least of his troubles and by song’s end, not only do you sympathise, but actually feel identified.

-Sam J Valdés López