Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
Lee Fisher discovers a defiant, intrepid rocking new record by Mekons
Fire Records
Released: 04.04.25
Almost 50 years into their drunken, spirited campaign against the forces of capital, Mekons are also the only band certain to survive the increasingly imminent nuclear war. This was one recorded in a fairly ad hoc fashion in Valencia, with a thread running through the lyrics about colonialism, imperialism, slavery, seafaring and love in the face of horror.
As with all Mekons records, the lyrics can be gnomic, the historical settings slippery, but the meaning still lands. Opener The Western Design could have made it on to London Calling, Sad & Sad & Sad is a defeated sea shanty, Fallen Leaves a country lament, Mudcrawlers just rocks. Bloody but unbowed, and always magnificent, the Mekons keep on keeping on, and you should too.
