The insurgent '90s
R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 02/23/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"RETREAT FROM MEMPHIS ('94) might be the Mekons' second best album, after ROCK 'N' ROLL ('89), and the most similar to that widely acclaimed album. Why, then, is RETREAT unjustly maligned and neglected? Fashion trends, that's all. Most people never heard this album because the music press ignored it or damned it with faint praise. (We can thank the critics for the Waco Brothers, who Langford might not have formed if the Mekons had been more successful in the mid-'90s.)
RETREAT was ironically titled, because it showed that the Mekons hadn't gone soft in the head as Clinton and Blair replaced Thatcher and Reagan. This is as militantly anti-capitalist a recording as any they've made. After the defeated tone of the brilliant CURSE OF THE MEKONS ('91) and the personal-is-political turn of I LOVE MEKONS ('93), this was a return to fighting form. Sally Timms dominates RETREAT, with 3 strong songs of 6. (Her best: "Machine.") Jon Langford has 4 cuts, 2 good and 2 outstanding. (Best: "The Flame That Killed John Wayne," a reference to the likelihood that the Duke died of cancer caused by fallout from the Nevada test site). Tom Greenhalgh is 1 for 3, with more scorching: "Spinning Around in Flames." "Spirals of Paranoia" is one of the best tracks, and it's not clear who is singing -- a Jamaican rapper? (The credits are MIA, as usual, and there are no lyrics this time, which is frustrating since the Mekons always have something to say, and they're not always easy to understand.)
The best followup to RETREAT is not ME, the next Mekons recording, from 1998 (avoid it at all cost, it does not sound like the Mekons, and is unlistenable), but rather Langford's solo SKULL ORCHARD, the best recording of 1998 (see my 4/9/00 review)."