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- Summary: Check out the latest album from the British punk-rock band formed in 1977.
- Record Label: Quarter Stick
- Genre(s): Rock, Punk
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 18
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Mixed: 4 out of 18
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Negative: 0 out of 18
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If you don't know much about these 30-year veterans except that they're legendary, this probably isn't where to find out why. If you have any idea what I'm talking about, however, partake.
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Natural sounds like the band's familiar, idealized dust-bowl Americana sound, with a little reggae, a little marimba and thumb piano, and strong overtones of Thomas Hardy. This was a good idea: For a British band that's fundamentally anti-commercial, it’s productive to dive into brambles and think about ancient ritual.
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Some things get better with age: The Mekons' latest features acoustic, pub-ready stompers such as 'Give Me Wine or Money' and 'Dickie Chalkie and Nobby.'
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Natural, the latest in the group's long line of records, is, per Tweedy's dictum, truly post-apocalyptic folk, music for when the lights go out and hope burns only dimly. It's the Mekons unlikely "unplugged" bid.
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Natural is their prettiest album; in spots it's almost pastoral.
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[The band] is at its most subdued and simmering here, with relatively little of the anthemic moxie it's normally so good at. Unfortunately, this means a lot of the songs blur together, even up close.
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The overriding element of Natural is the band’s sense of experimentation, merging punk with semi-transcendentalist folk.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 1
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Mixed: 0 out of 1
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Negative: 0 out of 1
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JH.Sep 22, 2007Poetry life art money death hope despair.
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