It feels like the Eighties are beginning to drag themselves out of a mainstream doldrum with the albums of this year. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I’d heard of all of the artists, but I don’t think I’ve head of the Mekons before. Or have I? Something about the name seems familiar, but this album certainly wasn’t. I might be thinking of The Zutons.
It’s one that is wonderfully difficult to categorise; it carries bits of garage and country, but isn’t like Violent Femmes; perhaps it’s closer to Meat Puppets in terms of sound, but the singing is better (Tom Greenhalgh, the main writer of the tracks, and sometimes Jacqui Callis provides a female vocal for a bit of variety).
The album is roughly a kind of post-apocalyptic survivalist tale, fragments of the experiences of people in a broken world where army helicopters round people up and the hunt for food is a daily occurence. Some tracks are spoken-word diary fragments over the top of music noting the trials and tribulations of everyday living, and meanwhile there’s a sort of love story going on too.
It’s not one of those concept albums with a clear through narrative that starts at song one and concludes on the last song; instead it’s kind of non-linear and disjointed, which in a way enhances the sense of a world that has been fractured from normality. And this is further enhanced by the mix of musical elements that show through here – some country fiddle (Suzie Honeyman) permeates but can equally go scratchy and disturbed, giving wandering pizzicato. At times. the other artist from this list it reminded me of was Penguin Café Orchestra, if they had electric instruments as well and the Penguin Café was situated in a derelict city of broken glass and wild dogs.
I realise that I haven’t picked out any songs – Hard To be Human Again is probably a good example of what to expect on this album. I really liked it, a promising end to 1985 giving me hope that we’re shaking off the influence of MTV for a bit.
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