The Mekons au ‘Natural’
By Stephen Slaybaugh
If there’s anything definitive that can be said about the Mekons, a group of artists who formed a punk rock band in Leeds in the late ‘70s and has since morphed into more of a collective spread over North America and Britain, it is that they aren’t complacent. Over the course of their three decades together, they have continually challenged themselves and subsequently their audience. Along the way, they’ve dabbled in many genres and created plenty of landmark music, including 1985’s “Fear and Whiskey,” considered by many to be the prototype of alt-country.
While it’s been five years since the band’s last recording of new material, the rambunctiously clanking “OOOH!”, the band released “Punk Rock,” a collection of re-workings of songs from the band’s early days. Having cleaned the slate in a manner, “Natural,” the Mekons’ new album set for release on August 21, probably could have gone in any direction without anyone lifting an eyebrow. As it is, the group returns to its first love, a spirited take on Americana.
Living up to its title, “Natural” finds the band plying its trade in a largely acoustic setting. Still, cuts like “Dark Dark Dark” and “The Old Fox” are inhabited by a sense of unease, a sort of darkness for which the band has always shown an affinity. Similarly, “Cockermouth” is a reggae-tinted ditty that repeatedly comes back to Sally Timms sweetly intoning “That this is the end.” Elsewhere the band kicks up the dust with the hootenanny of “Shocking Curse Bird” and creates a backdraft of country dissonance on “Zeroes and Ones.” Through it all, the band exhibits the creative spark, as well the piss and vinegar, that has informed — and will most likely continue to inform — their stubborn immutability.
Originally Published: Issue 513 - August 8, 2007
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