Mekons Rating: 8
Journey to the End of the Night (Quarterstick)
There is a cynical French novel called "Journey to the End of the Night" by
Celine, the likely inspiration for the song on the Doors first album called "End of the
Night". Celine finds no hope in the human race, while the Doors sing about dread as
outsiders looking in, Jim Morrison as a narrator of a gothic movie. "Journey to the
End of the Night" is now also an excellent album by the Mekons. They have been in the
business for over 20 years now and have a right to be both cynical and bored. They are
neither.
The Mekons have no interest in being narrators or bystanders. Instead of merely telling the
tale of a crumbling city, they take part in the movie. The songs are about life during wartime
(the Mekons have been here before), literally in the case of "Last Weeks of the War"
though every song seems to be set in a city under siege. The band plays with a commitment worthy
of teenagers who have just discovered rock and roll. Listen to the singer
in "Neglect" pleading to his mirror for money, pleading as if he can
really get it, desperate because he's hiding his failure from someone far away,
singing "please" with such longing it sounds like he might actually get
the money somehow, even if he has to steal it. Listen to Sally Timms, who might have
rock's most bittersweet vocal, burying London in one song, in another drinking in a bar
while the flood arrives. Listen to "Powers & Horror" where it's last call,
and the band gathers around a piano to sing "The more you stray, the more you're
saved." A time to die, a time to drink.
This is a soft record that speaks loudly, lots of acoustic guitar and fiddle, original folk
songs about fighting despair over and over again. Then the Mekons close the album
with "Last Night on Earth," in which they turn defeat into victory by dancing on
their own graves.
- Peter Gorman
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