Missing Link

A few reviews of the new Mekons Album here. As the title indicates, it's growing on me. I'm not the only one.

As I said, John 'Betty' Boocock penned a review won the Mekons-List which I particularly like:

I've just come back from a trip across Northern France and Belgium
visiting places where me grandpa pissed about in 1916 and seeing my
lovely child in Paris. I took Natural along as a musical backdrop.

This is the album that I always wondered if the Mekes had the guts to
make. An album which required musical competence alongside the
difficult art of songwriting. They've never had much problem with the
latter but the former is the bit that really needs talent. After the
Leeds gig earlier this year I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. I
may be a bloody nuisance but I have been listening for a long time.

Well they've done it. Two things stand out for me, one is the
individual contribution and the other is that for the first time ever
the sum of the parts is greater than the whole on every track. Ok I'm
not sure about the flying donkey reference but then the large eared one
is my favourite animal so fuck it!

Driving into Perrone to the Historial I was gearing up for an emotional
wander through part of my granddad John's past. How was mentioned in
dispatches at the Battle of the Somme (he should have been, he was one
of the few who survived) and I trundled through Dickie, Chalkie and
Nobby down the A1 from Lille. These were the names of people he stood
alongside in the DLI. I also thought of my dear, dear friend Nobby from
Germany. By the time I passed into the Historial I was twisted into an
indescribable mess.

Later on I drove towards Amiens past those wee white stones listening to
Eric's sublime start to Old Fox and for some reason my depression at the
thought of the carnage from 90 years ago was lifted. Eric's intonation
of the word tale seemed to lift me far more than the thought that RSM
John Sedgewick was a survivor.

One thing that kept coming through were Susie's parts. She has a unique
style which coming from the Highlands I can relate to. there are good
fiddle players and then there are the shite. Susie has a sort of jazz
come trad style which you constantly listen out for on Natural.

Steve's contribution is similar, you want to know what he'll do next -
there are little bits here there and everywhere which catch my ear and
make me smile. In the same way I listened to "White Stone Door" over
and over just to enjoy the rich vocals. And who'd ever have thought
that Jon would get worried about F sharp minor? Cockermouth has its
roots elsewhere but a trip from Embra obviously didn't go unforgotten.
I know the original song but can I fuckers like name it.

"Give Me Wine Or Money" is probably the nearest we get to a
"traditional" Mekes song but yet again it's the mixture of Eric and
Tom's vocals which lifted me as I struggled with the traffic through St
Germain De L'Haye. The Gallic frowns as I sang along at the top of my
voice through the forest must either mean that I was off key or they
didn't understand "fur and feathers"

By the time I got to Rueil malmaison (home of the fab cakes) I was in
grin overdrive. I pulled in to the Residence of L'IF de P shouting
Burning at the top of my voice.

I had driven from Zeebrugge to the West of Paris accompanied by one of
the few groups of people who make me feel inadequate and at the same
time very very happy. Sally's voice on Hope and Anchor slithering
across Susie's fiddle made me think that there just might be a way out
as I parked up.

The mekons have always written my anthems but Nature is now my Hymnal. A
Hymnal which is for me essentially European. A Hymnal funnily enough
started with the Olde Trip To Jerusalem................

Floreat Mekons

A good response to Gonzales resignation. An excellent subtitle, if nothing else. For all the hoopla surrounding Rove's departure, this one makes a bigger difference because the AG and the Justice department have a larger influence on everyday life.

Even having everything isn't enough: Owen Wilson? Hard To Be Human, indeed.