Honky Tonkin'

This album marks the Mekons' last overt country-cowpunk record, as they slowly shifted into more guitar-oriented rock. "Named after -- but not including -- a Hank Williams classic, the Mekons' 1987 'Honky Tonkin' is the prolific group's folkiest and, arguably, best album. The apex of the long-lived band's mid-'80s fascination with folk and country music, the record at times sounds like Woody Guthrie at his most politicized (especially on the old broadside ballad "The Trimdon Grange Explosion" and the impassioned 'If They Hang You,' a caustic commentary on the '50s Red Scare) fronting the Pogues at their most unabashed (particularly the hilarious, woozy 'Sympathy for the Mekons' and 'I Can't Find My Money'). The liner notes namecheck related books, movies, and artwork for each song, a gambit that in the hands of, say, Sting would be unbearably smug and pretentious. From the Mekons, however, it just seems like some friendly suggestions from a particularly eclectic and smart group of friends. A remarkably thoughtful and entertaining record." -- MUZE