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View attachment 13764
rate 3.5/5
Rage against the machine guitarist Tom Morello pulls a reverse Dylan-at-Newport on his debut solo album by unplugging and writing thirteen songs about how shitty Bush's America is. Backed by acoustic guitar, harmonica and the occasional drums and keyboard, Morello -- recording under the name "the Nightwatchman" -- paints himself as a ghostly figure wandering the country pointing out wrongs, whether they are "Colin Powell's lies" or "dirty scabs" crossing a picket line. On the best song, "One Man Revolution," the Nightwatchman takes us on a trip from the streets of Havana to Los Angeles -- all the while (consciously?) nicking Bruce Springsteen's haunting riff from Nebraska's "State Trooper." Morello's baritone voice is surprisingly expressive, and he even manages to sell potentially cringe-inducing lines like "the Nightwatchman giveth" and "three times I shot the sheriff and did not spare the deputy." Living up to the legacy of Nebraska is tough; Springsteen himself hasn't been able to record a great sequel. Hopefully, for his next album, Morello will get his old band back together and make a Born in the USA.
By ANDY GREENE(Rollingstone)
Editorial Review from Amazon.com:
For more than a decade, Tom Morello used earsplitting riffs to make his point, first with Rage Against the Machine, then with Audioslave. But on his solo debut as the Nightwatchman, the man named one of Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists of all time tries a different approach. Taking cues from six-string radicals such as Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash, Morello reinvents himself as a singer-songwriter armed only with an acoustic guitar, gravelly baritone, and renewed political fervor. The lyrics are unavoidably blunt, whether tackling the plight of third world workers or being a member of two of the biggest rock bands of the past two decades: "On the streets of Havana I got hugged and kissed/ At the Playboy Mansion I wasn't on the list," he sings on the title track. The real discovery is that he's capable of making the same old racket at just a fraction of the volume. --Aidin Vaziri
Track listing:
* California's Dark
* One Man Revolution
* Let Freedom Ring
* The Road I Must Travel
* The Garden Of Gethsemane
* House Gone Up In Flames
* Flesh Shapes The Day
* Battle Hymns
* Maximum Firepower
* Union Song
* No One Left
* The Dark Clouds Above
* Until The End
rate 3.5/5
Rage against the machine guitarist Tom Morello pulls a reverse Dylan-at-Newport on his debut solo album by unplugging and writing thirteen songs about how shitty Bush's America is. Backed by acoustic guitar, harmonica and the occasional drums and keyboard, Morello -- recording under the name "the Nightwatchman" -- paints himself as a ghostly figure wandering the country pointing out wrongs, whether they are "Colin Powell's lies" or "dirty scabs" crossing a picket line. On the best song, "One Man Revolution," the Nightwatchman takes us on a trip from the streets of Havana to Los Angeles -- all the while (consciously?) nicking Bruce Springsteen's haunting riff from Nebraska's "State Trooper." Morello's baritone voice is surprisingly expressive, and he even manages to sell potentially cringe-inducing lines like "the Nightwatchman giveth" and "three times I shot the sheriff and did not spare the deputy." Living up to the legacy of Nebraska is tough; Springsteen himself hasn't been able to record a great sequel. Hopefully, for his next album, Morello will get his old band back together and make a Born in the USA.
By ANDY GREENE(Rollingstone)
Editorial Review from Amazon.com:
For more than a decade, Tom Morello used earsplitting riffs to make his point, first with Rage Against the Machine, then with Audioslave. But on his solo debut as the Nightwatchman, the man named one of Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists of all time tries a different approach. Taking cues from six-string radicals such as Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash, Morello reinvents himself as a singer-songwriter armed only with an acoustic guitar, gravelly baritone, and renewed political fervor. The lyrics are unavoidably blunt, whether tackling the plight of third world workers or being a member of two of the biggest rock bands of the past two decades: "On the streets of Havana I got hugged and kissed/ At the Playboy Mansion I wasn't on the list," he sings on the title track. The real discovery is that he's capable of making the same old racket at just a fraction of the volume. --Aidin Vaziri
Track listing:
* California's Dark
* One Man Revolution
* Let Freedom Ring
* The Road I Must Travel
* The Garden Of Gethsemane
* House Gone Up In Flames
* Flesh Shapes The Day
* Battle Hymns
* Maximum Firepower
* Union Song
* No One Left
* The Dark Clouds Above
* Until The End