The Mekons, Ancient and Modern

TM-AAM

TM-AAM


The Mekons, Ancient and Modern – I’ve followed the Mekons since about 1990, when the “I Heart Mekons” album came out. Since then they’ve become one of my favorite bands, and I’ll regularly buy their new albums when they come out, as I would with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Boris, and a few other bands I really love. The band’s output has slowed down a bit in the last decade, though: our prolific gang, which has been together since 1976 (!!!) put out an album every year or two until Punk Rock in 2004, but held of until 2007 to put out Natural, and now Ancient & Modern in 2011.

Starting with a somber Tom Greenhalgh threnody “Warm Summer Sun”, the album takes many listenings to get a thread on, something that wasn’t always the case as nuggets would stand out on first listening – although perhaps the second tune, “Space In Your Face”, does qualify as a nugget with its driving Jon Langford rock, as well as its crazy arena electronics and Sally Timms background vocals, all of which make it sound pretty big indeed. “Geeshi” is a piano honk, with Sally Timms pouring on her lush, dramatic and vampy voice, having left her gorgeous soaring splendor behind many many albums ago (pardon me, but I’m not exactly a fan of this development). “I Fall Asleep” is another simple piano tune, sung by Tom with some Sally backup vocals (she’s busy this time around), that has a throwaway feel to it for a while, until the production kicks in and the song gets into orchestration, a capella, electronics, violins, and other experimental gook. “Calling All Demons” is one of the better songs on the disc, with a whispy Jon Langford providing vocal grooving and humming along with some righteous warmth when Tom cuts in; even the electronics sound pretty groovy. Nice one, guys. “Ugly Bethesda” starts off droney and industrial (as in “the Industrial Revolution”) to evoke steam trains and gin mills, with Sally vamping out another molasses funk, tinged with fiddles. “Ancient & Modern” is a strange tune, starting off with mandolin pluckings, then some vocals, and eventually a musical crescendo, building up with groovy tunage, multiple voices, fun hooks, and a deep emotionalism. Very nice, of course, and then Sally’s voice comes in to narrate some more as she does over all the other albums nearly. The longest song on the album at 6:52 is topped off by a men’s choir for that perfect capper to make this album sound perfectly 20th century, or like some soundtrack to a stage musical of sorts. “Afar & Forlorn” is an acoustic singalong, led by the drunken voice of Tom Greenhalgh of course. “Honey Bear” is a bit of angry rock ‘n’ roll grit, led again by Jon Langford, a short song that sort of sounds like it could have been on an earlier rock album from the band, with some conventional pop and rock touches along the way. “The Devil At Rest” is minimalistic, glockenchiming and sung by a spry Sally Timms, dull and silly. Album closer “Arthur’s Angel” is a throwback of sorts to a glorious dreamy old Mekons song, it takes the album out in subliminal style.

The album comes in a handsome digipak with leaves that fold out and reveal lyrics, which are generally stream of conscious and surreal, but somehow make more sense when melded with the sombre, old-worldedness of the album.

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