Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Shake The Sheets
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NATN Recommended
Ted Leo
Shake The Sheets
Lookout!, 2004
RiYL: The Clash, U2, Guided By Voices |
On the other hand, there's something about having waited 'til this point that offers a more advantageous perspective than to those who got to it straight away. See, Shake The Sheets is a deeply political record. A healthy majority of its songs conjure characters who are unsettled or disillusioned by their country's current political climate. Specific tracks directly address the Iraq war and the U.S. health-care system. And it was released Oct. 19, 2004, more or less on the eve of one of the most hotly contested presidential elections in memory.
The American public appeared to be split evenly down the middle with those fervently supporting the administration of George W. Bush on one side and those who vehemently opposed his actions and looked to unseat him on the other. The latter -- Mr. Leo clearly among them -- threw their support behind Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry.
At times, Shake The Sheets seems to be speaking directly to the impending showdown between the two sides. The title track is a call to arms in which the singer questions his powers. "I want to take it to the president / him and all the cabinet / with a broom / I want to sweep the Halls of Arrogance." But let's do it the proper way: "I respect and prize the covenant -- I respect the process, I respect the rules."
Elsewhere, the album takes issue with Bush's having led the country into multiple overseas wars. "The One Who Got Us Out" questions the motives that led to battle and the attitudes of "working people who would fight if they had time." As the rocker reaches its climax, its protagonist seems to be pleading to Kerry or whomever else might have the power to reverse the set course: "That look on your face -- don't let it go to waste! Take it to the floor of Congress / look into the core of rotten / turn into the one who got us out."
Well, the election is over. Leo's candidate lost. Whatever power the like-minded liberal masses had was rebuked by the very democratic process that the speaker in "Shake The Sheets" respects and honors. And given the post-election storming of Fallujah, it doesn't look like anyone's going to "get us out" anytime soon.
So the question is: does political music lose meaning when its intent is foiled? Will it age less gracefully as a result? Certainly a month isn't enough to evaluate an album on such merits, but to these ears, Shake The Sheets sounds no less powerful than it did before the election. Perhaps partly because of the result, Leo's words and message are just as resonant. And more importantly, this message is tied to affecting rock music, tight and focused like the best punk rock, but with enough searing choruses and sweeping hooks to qualify it for arena status.
Throughout 2001's The Tyranny Of Distance and 2003's Hearts Of Oak, it seemed as if Leo was adding colors to his palette as he went, trying out new song forms like the rhythmic jungle of "The Ballad Of The Sin-Eater" and the string-spiced stomper "The Crane Takes Flight." But on Shake The Sheets, he reins in his exploratory tendencies and presents a set of anthemic, energetic rock songs. The forty-minute album was written at one go, Leo holed up in a basement in his New Jersey hometown, focusing his thoughts, frustrations and musical ambitions.
The band is pared to a power-trio format with bassist Dave Lerner and drummer Chris Wilson, underlining the simplicity that makes songs like the one-chord vamp "The Angels' Share" so riveting. "Little Dawn" is the only cut whose running time tops five minutes, and it is also a highlight -- from the feverish riffing of the opening to the singalong choruses to the simmering breakdown and its incessant chanting of "it's alright / it's alright," Leo boils the track down to just the essential qualities of memorable rock and roll.
Likewise "Better Dead Than Lead," in which Leo's lyric conjures the ancient "art" of alchemy as a metaphor for overcoming shattered ideals and how manipulation or neglect can kill dreams or bring them to life. "I know gold is just a trick of the light," he avers, "and lead is light as a feather."
Regardless of how shattered Leo's own dreams of a fresh start for his country might be now (or over the next four years), he should feel blessed he has this music through which to express and release that tension. And as years go by, and the Bush presidency and our current wars pass into history, we will also have this document called Shake The Sheets whose power to move you shouldn't be diminished. It's a strong statement, and one worth listening to no matter what your own political or musical leanings. To the benefit of those of us who draw strength from music, Leo has clearly heeded his own call to arms in the title track:
"Roll out and make your mark / put on your boots and march .... if you do everything you can, well babe, that's more than a start."
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.