Folk
The Nightwatchman
One Man Revolution
**1/2
As the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, Tom Morello made some revolutionary sounds without ever opening his mouth. One of the most innovative guitarists of the ’90s, Morello’s also a dedicated political activist, and his first solo album (under the moniker The Nightwatchman) emphasizes the latter over the former. Unlike the intense hard rock of his two former bands, the music on Morello’s debut is soft and low-key, mostly just Morello and an acoustic guitar, with minimal flashes of percussion and keyboards.
It’s in the socially conscious singer-songwriter tradition of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, but neither Morello’s voice (his singing is passable at best, and without much personality) nor his lyrics come close to those he’s emulating. While Rage frontman Zack de la Rocha was always able to incite passion even if you disagreed with what he was saying, and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell sounded beautiful even when his words were incomprehensible, Morello is flat both in delivery and sentiment, couching his rather rote progressive politics in clumsy metaphors and awkward phrasing.
His guitar work, too, is uninspired, characterized primarily by placid chord-strumming, although a few songs (most notably “The Road I Must Travel,” featuring what sound like bagpipes) benefit from fuller arrangements. If Morello really hopes for a revolution, next time he’d do better to appeal to some of his comrades.