Rock 'n' Roll

Mekons, The

album cover

A Caustic Comment on the Wonders and Absurdities of . . .

In the jaundiced songs of the Mekons, rock and roll appears as a corrupter of youth and a path to salvation, an empty exercise and a possibly threatening cultural force. Sometimes it's all that at once: On "Club Mekon," Sally Timms proudly sings, "When I was just seventeen, sex no longer held a mystery/I saw it as a commodity to be bought and sold, like rock and roll."

Elsewhere on this state-of-rock missive released in 1989, the British band comments wryly on the messianic tendencies of rock stars ("Blow Your Tuneless Trumpet" wickedly skewers U2's Bono), and on rock as a form of imperialism. There's an indignant rant about the escapist excesses of America, "Empire of the Senseless," and a haunting little ditty called "Amnesia" that invokes Elvis Presley with its refrain "Bless my soul what's wrong with me, I forgot to forget to remember." ("I Forgot to Remember to Forget" is a classic Elvis title.)

The Mekons rely on the usual rock tools to serve up this delirium—guitars pushed to the melting point by Jon Langford, the group's sonic architect, and drums that pound like they're heralding imminent apocalypse. Also on hand are violins, which sometimes shred bluegrass fiddle style and sometimes bolster the guitar counterlines. The textures generally enhance the haranguing from Timms and Langford, who shout caustic dire rants knowing that the large ensemble is pumping out redeeming sweetness behind them.

The Mekons began in Leeds in the late 1970s; the group was part of the same sociopolitical punk underground that gave the world Gang of Four (see p. 298). But unlike most every other band of its milieu, the Mekons evolved in dramatic fashion: After forays into punk and danceable synth pop, the band delivered the astonishing Fear and Whiskey (1985), which approached Hank Williams–style country with the wild abandon of punk, and is generally credited with sparking the subgenre known as "alt-country." Rock 'n' Roll came next. It sold poorly, and was the only Mekons album made for a major label; its follow-up, the nearly-as-good Curse of the Mekons, was rejected by executives. That now looks like a blessing. The Mekons were—and are—too intense to thrive for long under any corporate thumb.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1989, A&M
Key Tracks: "Club Mekon," "Only Darkness Has the Power," "Cocaine Lil," "Amnesia," "Blow Your Tuneless Trumpet"
Catalog Choice: Fear and Whiskey; Curse of the Mekons.
Next Stop: Gang of Four: Entertainment!
After That: Meat Puppets: Too High to Die.
Book Pages: 494–495