Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/03/06
Label: Drag City

The clues, of course, are in the name and the title. As America's Christian Right attempts to smite all rationality and reason before it, there's a sense that ideological battle lines are being drawn forcefully in the sand. Indeed, like Springsteen's similarly named 1984 album, Loose Fur - the side project of producer Jim O'Rourke, Wilco's mainman Jeff Tweedy and drummer Glenn Kotche - find America less a land of dreams and more a haven of nightmares. However, rather than offering an outright riposte a la The Boss' previous efforts, Loose Fur's response is somewhat more esoteric.

The delightfully upbeat strumming and whistling coda of "The Ruling Class" may evoke the halcyon days of the first Summer Of Love but this is a deceptive smokescreen for what's contained within as Christ hits the West Coast toking like Pete Doherty between arrests. A disturbing image for sure, but it's difficult to shake the feeling that the Son of God would be driven to crack if He saw what was being committed in His name. Conversely, the twisting, strangled guitars of "Apostolic" are more in tune with Tweedy's cogent points of view, that are at extreme odds with those who sit in office. It's a trick that's repeated deftly on "Thou Shalt Wilt" wherein the Ten Commandments are dissected to offer a humanist - if on occasions, overly materialistic - counterpoint.

Laudable intentions indeed, but clocking in at just over 35 minutes the prevailing feel of the album is one of extra-curricular activities that seems rather like sketches for the next Wilco album. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; the rambunctious opener "Hey Chicken" - all push-and-pull riffing and driven by a percussive groove full of intent from the incredible Kotche - is vintage Tweedy and sears itself into the brain, but the instrumental "An Ecumenical Matter" is mere filler with rag-waving sentiments, while elsewhere the O'Rourke-sung "Answers To Your Questions" could easily sneak onto Beth Orton's latest without jostling for space.

Thematically, "Born Again In The USA" is a bold album that tries hard - perhaps too hard - to bind together the inter-related twines of culture, politics, history and entertainment. Loose Fur certainly succeeds on the first three counts but sadly, is too musically erratic to claim the last point as their own.

    by James Marshall