The Mekons celebrate their 30th anniversary this year, and that longevity bespeaks no pursuit of riches or fame. The British collective has never sold many records or played to giant-sized crowds, and it’s a safe bet even principals Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh and Sally Timms aren’t recognized often outside their hometowns.
o what, then, has pushed the group onward as piles of punk, post-punk and alt-country peers have fallen by the wayside? Certainly, the members cherish the chance to record and perform music. But far more so, they treasure the music created in one another’s company, leading them to convene every few years, construct an album and tour a bit before retreating to their individual corners of the Earth.
Latest disc Natural—the first all-new collection of Mekons material in five years—celebrates that camaraderie, not with jubilant rejoicing (baleful opener “Dark Dark Dark” scuttles that prospect forthwith), but by saluting the band’s splendidly multifaceted makeup. One moment you’re skipping to pub shanty “Give Me Wine or Money,” the next languishing amid harrowing dirge “Burning in the Desert Burning,” yet it all feels distinctly Mekons—a folk-based, sometimes country-tinged/fiddle-forward rock essence, this time united by an organic production suggested by the album’s title.
Natural might not be as seminal as the best Mekons albums, but it’s rock solid, and that means, as with everything released by the group for the past three decades, it’s well worth a listen.
Mekons
Natural
*** 1/2