The Mekons

Some Mekons records come with lyrical themes rather than musical ones. This one examines love -- a subject they'd previously dismissed as either a commercial transaction or a doomed illusion. Since they're conscientious intellectuals, they still allow for those possibilities, but these 12 oddly rocking, melodic and memorable tracks strongly hint there might be more without once sounding like Paul McCartney. It helps that they're most convincing (and joyous) when Sally Timms sings, "I love a millionaire." The record works because you think she really might.

Unfashionable survivors of England's safety-pin-and-guitars era, the Mekons have turned
contrariness into a career despite 15 years fraught with bad timing, bungled record deals
and countless personnel changes. When punk was at its apex, they authored "Never Been
in a Riot" in response to the Clash's "White Riot." Long before the Garth Age, the Mekons
were drenching their mid-'80s albums in fiddles and twisted honkytonk. Now in t... More >

Right, love songs, laid out casually across disc and lyric sheet--a country album without a happy ending. Jon and Tom are too cynical, but they're not too callow, so their scenarios generate recognizable permutations of lust if not ecstasy, emotion if not devotion, and when Sally Timms sings about that "Millionaire," they sound like the great old pros they are. Too often, though, love just doesn't seem like their subject--the only time the music achieves carnal knowledge of the message is on the sarcastic "Special" and the confused "I Don't Know." (Grade - B+)