Some albums are of their time, and some are for all time. This record, originally released in 1985, is both. It was made in mid-'80s England, when Margaret Thatcher's government was carrying on a pitiless war against the nation's own less fortunate citizens. The corrosive stink of broken miners' strikes and dole-bound desperation suffuse the album like toxic perfume. The former punks from Leeds (now split between Chicago and London) sing about covert military operations in foreign lands, feeling like exiles in their own country, other people's shattered lives, and their own hangovers. But they never sound hopeless; indeed, their ragged-voiced defiance is quite uplifting, and their barbed music is just as irrepressible. In a move that seemed crazy at the time but now looks inevitable, the Mekons made their saw-toothed guitars (including some played by the Pretty Things' Dick Taylor) dance with lilting country & western fiddles; the record closes with a rousing scorched-earth cover of Hank Williams's "Lost Highway." Sixteen-plus years down the road, Fear and Whiskey sounds as great and relevant as ever. Hard economic times and military adventures in faraway lands seem to be making a comeback, the indelible tunes endure, and let's face it--nowadays it's as "Hard to Be Human" as it ever was. --Bill Meyer
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