March 24, 2004

I (heart) Mekons

Nice article in TAP Online on my fave rock band, the Mekons.

I disagree with the thesis, though. It's not that since the collapse of socialism the Mekons have moved to "lamenting the fate of the puny and disenfranchised citizen at the brutal hands of power." That's what they've been doing all along--the first song on Fear and Whiskey is about trying to apologize to a friend after a night of awful drunken behavior, and even the political songs from back in the day were intensely personalized. That's what makes them so good.

(The real stunner with I (heart) Mekons wasn't that it was an album of love songs, it was that it was an album of happy love songs.)

Posted by Matt Weiner at March 24, 2004 08:53 AM
Comments

"I Love the Apple" isn't so happy. I think you're confusing bounciness with happiness.

Posted by: bza at March 31, 2004 12:48 AM

Dunno, it seems to be saying something like "Our material situation is awful and love may be fleeting, but it's fun for now," which is screamingly optimistic by previous Mekon standards. (Compare this wakeup with Beaten and Broken or Oblivion.) I will admit that Sally's songs on (heart) aren't happy at all, but St. Valentine's Day and Wicked Midnight are positively esctatic about the redemptive power of love, or something.

Posted by: Matt Weiner at March 31, 2004 08:37 AM