CD Odyssey Disc 959: Uncle Tupelo

I’m tired and a little stressed but I’m reviewing this album anyway because music is my salve. Also, I want to listen to something else tomorrow, and the Odyssey is a harsh mistress: I don’t get to move on until the review is in the books.

Disc 959 is….March 16-20, 1992

Artist: Uncle Tupelo

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover? I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t like it. I think it is some rusted out old barrel or box or something. Maybe it is supposed to represent the “rust belt” of the American mid-west. That would go thematically with a lot of the songs, but doesn’t make the cover any better.

How I Came To Know It: My friend Brennan introduced me to the band and this is just my latest foray into their back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up:  I have three Uncle Tupelo albums. “No Depression” (reviewed back at Disc 867) is easily the best, but the other two are pretty close. I’ll put “March 16-20, 1992” in second for now.

Ratings: 3 stars

“March 14-20, 1992” is Uncle Tupelo at their most folksy, an album that represents indie rock ten years before they called it that. Back in the day they called it “alternative.” I guess every generation has its own word for hard-to-categorize music, maybe so they can feel like they invented the idea.

The record (which I’m going to call “March” because…really, we get that you recorded it in a week) relies heavily on acoustic arrangements. It has an old timey feel that evokes a thirties religious revival show as much as it does a nineties protest. I like the way it feels like it comes from a simpler time and lets some of the best parts of Uncle Tupelo (their ability to write subtle and soothing melodies) shine through easier. In fact, I would have been happy to have this production applied to their first two albums more often.

Just like a folk album, the boys cover a lot of old traditional songs. The best of these are “Coalminers” and “Lilli Schull.” “Coalminers” is a union protest song about working for the company for a pittance and struggling to get ahead. “Lilli Schull” is a slow and mournful song about a murder. It is full of disturbing imagery of a man committing a heinous crime, and thinking back on the grisly details as he awaits the hangman’s noose. Both songs are reminders that folk music has never shied away from the hardest topics, long before rock and roll ever took up the mantle.

Other songs like “Atomic Power,” a cover of a 1946 Buchanan Brothers song do not age so well. The novelty of nuclear destruction is long gone, and other songs have covered the same material better in the intervening years. Also, the song suggests some old time religion will get you through the holocaust, which isn’t much of a solution to the burgeoning Cold War. Maybe less thinking about what comes after we’ve all murdered each other and a bit more thinking about how the hell we’re going to prevent it.

So what about the original stuff? It is pretty solid, although I tended to prefer the tracks where Jay Farrar sings lead. The best of the originals is “Moonshiner,” a sad song with a beautiful guitar strum and the story of a man being slowly destroyed by alcohol. The title suggests the man’s occupation is making the booze but the song quickly makes it clear that being a drunk is as far as it goes, and for this poor soul, as far as it is ever going to go. Lines like:

“Let me eat when I'm hungry

Let me drink when I'm dry

Two dollars when I'm hard up

Religion when I die

The whole world is a bottle

And life is but a dram

When the bottle gets empty

Lord, it sure ain't worth a damn”

Showcase how Uncle Tupelo have learned the stark lessons from those early standards they recorded, and are able to put a fresh and modern twist on the same old demons to make them their own.

Despite all this good stuff, the album feels self-indulgent in places, and it feels at times like the band is trying so hard to be authentic they lose the plot. Songs like “Grindstone” and “Criminals” are OK, but they seem to be pushing themselves on me, rather than landing naturally. The instrumental “Sandusky” is pretty enough, but in order for it to hold my attention for the 3:44 it requests I think it needs...words.

The worst part is the five bonus tracks at the end, which combine to add almost 20 minutes to my version of the record. Three are just live versions of tracks I’d already heard that just didn’t sound all that different, and one of those (“Moonshiner”) is marred by an extra two minute “hidden track” of the band playing the theme from “The Waltons.” No, Uncle Tupelo, this is not nearly as much silly fun as you think it is. There is also a cover of the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” which has a nice original sound, but isn’t interesting enough to warrant a place on the record. Know when to say when.

Overall, still a strong album, though, and one I’m glad to have in my collection, even if just for the five or six standout songs.

Best tracks: Coalminers, Shaky Ground, Moonshiner, Lilli Schull, Wipe the Clock