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Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2
06/19/2000 5:21 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor
I love gimmicks. I love novelties. I love when a "serious" singer finds a way
to lighten the load and have some fun. I love when a band can break out of
their expectant role and do something weird. Whether it's the Cure deciding
to write little pop ditties, Metallica deciding to be a Misfits cover band, or
Henry Rollins deciding to be a stand-up comedian, I like it when they take a
chance.
Billy Bragg is one of those commie-pinko singer-songwriters who can sing
"I've got a socialism of the heart" and make it sound both sincere and
catchy. In one sense it was only natural that he take the unrecorded songs of
Woody Guthrie--another ol' time commie-pinko (in the best sense of the slur)
--and put them to music. Wilco, being an alt-country band looking to prove
its Americana mettle, signed on as well and the first volume had critics
salivating like you'd just said "Harry Smith's Smithsonian Folkways
Anthology" 10 times fast.
Now it's round two. Wilco emulates Tom Petty ("Airline To Heaven") and the
Byrds (in the surprisingly powerpop "Secret of the Sea"), and succeed best on
moody pieces ("Remember the Mountain Bed," "Someday Some Morning Sometime"). Bragg sings the less melodically interesting tunes and Natalie Merchant
sounds like she's ready to record an album of her own mountain ballads.
Allegedly, Guthrie left behind hundreds of these unfinished tunes. Only a
matter of time then before Volume Three.
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