As a whole it isn’t a bad album, just not as excoriating as one might hope.
Mark Stewart –Edit
http://www.konkurrent.nl/ http://www.myspace.com/markstewartmaffia
Sometimes a misheard lyric (dubbed a ‘Mondegreen’ by American author Sylvia Wright) can be as informative as what the lyric was supposed to be. Partway through Mark Stewart’s take on the Yardbird’s Mr You’re a Better Man Than I (a track bolstered by the talents of the Slit’s Ari Up) when the line ‘For King and country or must die’ turns in my befuddled mind to ‘Fucking queen and country’. The latter version is perhaps more indicative of his world-view.
The founder of the Pop Group clearly hasn’t mellowed much since he last released anything new over a decade ago. Whilst none of the song titles on Edit are as confrontational as For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? or We Are All Prostitutes. Lyrically, though, the songs fit right alongside those earlier releases. It would seem that his world is still a dark and disturbing one. ‘There’s low life/ in High Places’ he intones on the Puppet Master. A nice line, for sure, but hardly a novel idea.
Indeed, that is the central problem with the album. Stewart once said that ‘If you are trying to question things lyrically, you should also question musical orthodoxy’. Whilst there is the questioning of the establishment one would expect, there doesn’t seem to be the corresponding musical experimentation. There is a melding of styles which superficially suggests newness and innovation, but there really isn’t any true experimentation.
When the album works (as in the excellent Strange Cargo whose melding of African and dub rhythms is the kind of thing that Jerry Dammers was groping for 20 odd years ago, or the aforementioned Yardbirds cover) it is excellent. As a whole it isn’t a bad album, just not as excoriating as one might hope.
Words: Rover