Mermaid Avenue

From my limited exposure to Billy Bragg, I was expecting to love this. Disappointingly, I found this album tedious. Didn't sound anything like the Billy Bragg I thought I knew.

I didn't love this album. May owe it a second a listen.

Dear lord, there are some melancholy songs on this album. I'm looking at you, "Eisler on the Go."

Paskaa

Vuodelta -98 tällasta kamaa. Mitä ihmeellistä tossa oli? Beats me

couldn't finish it

Completely forgot to write a review, but not because I didn’t enjoy it. Simply because I forgot. Like how I’ve forgotten any songs that were in here, but I know I had a good time, so let’s just call it a two - it earns its place - and be done with it.

Ok I'm at almost 400 albums now and by my estimate, somewhere between 20% and 30% of them are some kind of folk rock. There is only so much you can take of one genre before you just start giving it all 2/5. And I'm past that point. Another 5 folk albums and they'll all be getting 1. 2/5.

Back to back Wilco... the previous one got three stars from me for being pleasant background music but very unremarkable. This one somehow sounded even less remarkable. Perhaps somewhat more accessible, but less interesting. I really couldn't hear a reason why this is worth listening to.

“Mermaid Avenue” by Billy Bragg & Wilco (1998) This album presents to the listener a collection of fine folk lyrical compositions by Woody Guthrie, set to music 30 years after his death, by collaborators (Britisher) Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco, at the behest of Guthrie’s daughter Nora. On the one hand, it can be said that Guthrie was a good writer of folk songs, and these songs are good—a fitting tribute to a fine artist. On the other hand, this project could be characterized as the last (posthumous) gasp of an undeconstructed Stalinist, concocted by his daughter to wring the last few pennies out of a legacy best left in oblivion. I hold both views simultaneously. According to Bob Dylan (Chronicles, vol. 1, p. 99): “On one of my visits [to Guthrie at a New Jersey hospital in early 1961] Woody had told me about some boxes of songs and poems that he had written that had never been seen or set to melodies—that they were stored in the basement in his house in Coney Island and that I was welcome to them. He told me that if I wanted any of them to go see Margie, his wife, explain what I was there for. She’d unpack them for me.” Well, Margie Guthrie wasn’t home when Dylan got there—only the babysitter and thirteen year old son Arlo, both clueless. So the songs sat for decades until younger daughter Nora Guthrie got them produced on this album. How music history might have been different if Margie had been home that day. These songs would have been much better curated in Dylan’s hands. Guthrie’s naive, utopian, millenarian, and anachronistic (i.e., Communist) politics are occasionally on display here, but they’re not in your face. A nice anti fascist and feminist sentiment (without the perversions of pink hats and Antifa) is expressed in “She Came Along to Me”: “Never could have it been done If the women hadn't entered into the deal Like she came along to me And all creeds and kinds and colors Of us are blending Till I suppose ten million years from now We'll all be just alike Same color, same size, working together And maybe we'll have all of the fascists Out of the way by then.” But the most serious political excursion is in the left-wing “Eisler on the Go”, which prompts thoughts of the horrors of both sides of the mid-20th century left/right political construct. This song will require you to do some homework, and it’s not for amateurs. [Research hint: siblings Gerhart Eisler, Hanns Eisler, and Ruth Fischer] Now what Bragg & Wilco do musically with this set of lyrics is another matter altogether. Basically, the weak attempt at imitating folk settings for more contemporary ears is formulaic—desperately so in “Christ for President”. Some tracks (“Walt Whitman’s Niece”, “Hoodoo Voodoo”) are musically quite disappointing. Others (“California Stars”, “Birds and Ships”) aren’t bad. But sadly, Bragg and Wilco set aside the best of their talents for this project. There are none of Bragg’s good lyrics (since, obviously, they’re all Guthrie’s) and very little of Wilco’s innovative colorings are present. And Bragg still can’t sing. Sometimes (“She Came Along to Me”) there’s a gross mismatch between lyrics and musical settings. And the workers’ union rallying song “I Guess I Planted” simply cannot be sung unaccompanied by amateurs—a fatal weakness for a protest song. That slight tremor I just felt must be Guthrie cringing in his grave. On the other hand, “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” (with good backing vocal by Natalie Merchant and mournful violin by Eliza Carthy) would have made Guthrie proud. And “Ingrid Bergman” is a hoot, with its procreative sexual innuendo and voyeuristic reference to camera work (or am I reading too much into it? No, I don’t think so). All in all, the album falls flat, and that’s a shame. I wish Margie Guthrie had been home that cold Coney Island day. 2/5

Folk, country, fesen

I remember pretending to like Wilco in high school... I don't think it's bad. It's just not the energy I'm looking for.

Yep, again. Not bad.

couple good songs

cant get into folk

2

It's cold and I'm outside all alone on this one. But if coming inside means I'll have to listen to this, I'd gladly die of the shivers.

Boring, repetitive, a bit painful on the ears at times.

This is evidently not where I am right now.

Corbyn and Owen Jones co

All a bit self indulgent and dull really. Nice but dull.

It’s a modern indy country album featuring many well known artists from the alternate rock genre. I liked it, and even saved a couple tracks to my favourites, but it’s not a keeper. I found most of the album is fairly unmemorable. I think you will too. 2 Stars!

Not without merits and pleasant enough but really not my thing. just couldn’t get to grips with it at all. Favourite song-Hang down your head

A little too country for my taste

Ganz okay, aber über weite Strecken auch ganz langweilig. Hoher Fetischwert für Genre-Autisten. 1.5

Nope

2.5 | Con trabajos ubicaba a Woody Guthrie por lo de "This machine kills fascists." Culpa mea no conozco casi su música. Desafortunadamente este disco no creo sea la mejor manera de iniciar tomando en cuenta que solo son sus poemas que nunca hizo canción musicalizados por Billy Bragg, a quien, de nuevo, solo conozco de nombre y como activista. A pesar de que estoy seguro que no puedo considerar que ahora conozco a Guthrie o a Bragg siento que de menos fue la elección correcta para el proyecto porque las canciones de verdad se sienten como si hubieran podido haber sido hechas a fines de los 60s, tienen un sonido contemporaneo-folk-psicodélico que raya de lo retro a sentirse realmente como una grabación perdida de la época. Las letras... bien supongo, nada maravilloso, algunas incluso con un buen grado de humor pero quizá hubo una razón sobre por qué de inicio estaban olvidadas en una caja y no grabadas en un disco. La música de nuevo, bien a secas pero tampoco sobresale. Estoy seguro que un fanático pensaría que es una chingonería de disco y pensar en escuchar música de tu artista favorito que lleva décadas muerto debe haber sido muy chingona y quizá históricamente tiene su peso y sentido hacer este proyecto y eso de que Dylan había intentado encontrar las canciones y creían que se habían perdido y blablabla pero el producto final final... bien a secas para mis gustos.

No entendí. No le encontré pies ni cabeza al disco. Comienza bien con las dos primeras canciones pero es narcótico y podría haberlo escuchado 13,827 veces y sabría lo mismo que se ahora. No le pongo 1 estrella porque la música es agradable, pero nada que me haya despertado el más mínimo interés. Songs: California Stars

Meh

one good song, the last one

No pues está chingón. Si el disco fuera de dos canciones le pondría 7 estrellas.

Me suena el nombre pero no recuerdo de dónde conozco a Bragg, me gustó su Folk pero hasta ahí

Cuando leí el concepto del disco se me hizo buena idea. Medio me gusta Wilco, medio me gusta Billy Bragg y eso de tomar letras ya existentes y hacerles canciones me estaba bien. Pero no. Resultó aburrido. No sé si tal vez leyendo las letras me hubieran dado más, o si quizá en otro mood o conociendo al poeta. En fin, rescatable un poquito de la música, pero hasta ahí.

Country music could do better. Half of the songs were garbage

First two tracks were great, the rest was ok.

Didn't hate it, didn't love it

country, rien de special

There is definitely such a thing as too much Billy Bragg.

This album of Woody Guthrie covers is mediocre at best, nothing essential. After multiple Wilco records now, I think I can say with authority that I am not a Wilco fan. Pleasant enough instrumentals, but everything always seems listless. Most bearable: "Way Over Yonder in The Minor Key", "Hoodoo Voodoo", "Eisler on the Go" Better albums from 1998 that are not on this list: VAST - VISUAL AUDIO SENSORY THEATER 12 Rounds - MY BIG HERO Tori Amos - FROM THE CHOIR GIRL HOTEL Massive Attack - MEZZANINE

Esse album é horroroso, e nem gosto do estilo musical Que que é esse começo mano, que horror, sério Nem acabar dá pra acabar

These sound like the songs a too American family would listen on a roadtrip. I hate it.

Ehhhh California stars was ok but overall not my cup of tea

Snnnzzzz....

Quite possibly the most sauceless folk album I’ve ever listened to. The vocals on this album, both lyrically, and especially musically are profoundly lazy. Folk is at its best when it’s introspective, deeply saturated in the ideology and experience of the singer and musicians behind it. So perhaps this shit is so uninspired because they’re unreleased songs by a different artist that they refuse to emulate in the slightest. It genuinely does not sound like they gave a shit, which is reductive and impossible to be true, but so much of the music comes off as flat, in message and tone. Guthrie was a far more talented singer, guitarist, and harmonica player than anyone gave a shit to try and match in this album. THAT BEING SAID, guys, maybe big dawg didn’t put some of these lyrics on a track for a reason? California Stars is a classic, but this shit is so limp. 1.5/5 I enjoy Wilco but this ain’t it

Billy Bragg and Alt-Country are the perfect fit. They are both shit.

If I could make my review then sound of a very long exhaled breath in relief of this finishing, I would. It didnt even sound like Billy Bragg's voice, when did he learn to sing in tune? Ad for the source material, why bother? It wasnt even listenable. File under shit. Wilco. Over and out.

boring

Did not enjoy this

Average country music done by very unskilled musicians and some insufferable monotone singers. This list is so full to the brim of such americana mediocrity, that I'm starting to question the musical tastes of the people that made it. I would respect an aural abomination like De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem a lot more than this generic elevator music: At least that horrendous album took some courage to be released in the first place.

Incest musik

1. niece - 0 2. ztarz - 1 3. minor - 2 4. birdz - 2 5. vodoo - 0 6. came - 1 7. zad - 2 8. ingrid - 2 9. chrizt - 0 10. guezz - 0 11. one - 1 12. go - 2 13. beauty - 0 14. another - 1 15. guezt - 1

I wouldn't be Bragging

I ended up giving up on this as I wasn’t enjoying it. I like some of Billy Bragg’s own material but guess I’m not a fan of him doing covers. I don’t know, this just didn’t work for me.

It doesn't matter how good the lyrics are when the music is boring and the singer is whiny

Didn’t enjoy this album. Was folk music that I didn’t connect with

Lo escuché mientras me bañaba

I really didn't like this :(

1.5 - Bad

nope

Fuck Wilco, already... they don't have one essential song, let alone this many "must hear" albums....

Wilco for a third time?

This might be one of the more annoying albums I've ever heard. I read that this was a collection of songs based on unrecorded lyrics by Woody Guthrie, but either way it was really lame.

I cannot be bothered with this. I’m trying not to write albums off after a few tracks but this is really dull. (I did power through to the end)

Every song sounded the same

Not my thing at all

not my cup of tea

Not my thing, and worse yet, really boring.

I’d generally avoid Billy Bragg and this album reminded me why.

Limp wristed shite.

This is country. Idc. It's boring enough that I didn't even finish the first song. If I somehow missed a piece of generational art, I'll die a rube (or the opposite I suppose). Instead I listened to the amazing 2024 record "The New Sound" of Geordie Greep. An amazing record I expect with time to only ripe and become better. It mixes prog-rock, samba and elements of jazz. It's a thrilling ride following one mans descent into insanity as he loses his grip on life because falls in love with a lady of the night. It is an album with energetic highs such as the amazing "Holy, holy", but most songs will have me moving. Only "Motorbike" is a little bit meh. But by the time you reach the last three songs you might, like me, be an emotional and physical wreck. Then is the exact moment Greep hits you with the most touching songs "As if Waltz", "The Magician" & "If you are but a Dream". The first time I finished this record I felt my brain synapses make new connections and I knew my life was changed. That is the power music can have. 10/10 Of course unless its a country record which I'll give a 1.

Nah.

наче саундтрек головного героя підлітка з фільму про дорослішання, який приїхав з маленького містечка в Каліфорнію. короче зовсім не relatable

Snoozefest

Couldn't finish it

Alt det værste på ét Album. Langt, kedeligt, belærende, grim cover art.

Jeg syntes det var ret ringe folkish country lort. Så hørte jeg en sang der foreslog at gøre Jesus til Præsident. At ønske mere medmenneskelighed fra sine politikere er da et dybt sympatisk synspunkt. At personificere det ved en religion der har misbrugt, dræbt og undertrykt flere end nogen andre i verdenshistorien giver mig kvalme. Der klemmer sig et par fine melodier ind, desværre er det alt for få til at trække det her album op af sumpen.

This is simply not my musical genre. I couldn’t listen to it. The droning vocals do absolutely nothing for me. A few faster tempo songs would have been ok as instrumentals.

First listen Saved 1/15 Top track: One By One

sooooo boring

Country music sucks.

Beautiful playing on this record. However the voices do not mesh. Bragg is an acquired taste and Wilco are Americana personified and just not very interesting. A lot of the time I wished for less vocals not more. Not a case of what might have been but just what should not have happened!

Not my cup of tea

Horrible voice, awful lyrics, terrible genre

1 star

Like woodie guthrie, didn't like this, sorry billy.

i dunno man. Sometimes I get tired. Im open minded but this tested me. Im not a wilco fan I like some of Billy's stuff but i didnt enjoy this one bit.

Jeg er veldig glad i Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, men dette gidder jeg ikke. Etter å ha trykket skip på 11/15 låter er jeg fortsatt litt glad i Wilco (Jeff sang på alle jeg endte opp med å høre) men ikke noe glad i Billy Bragg.

It's more folk than country, but the country influences are too strong for me. No thanks

Country music automatic no stars.

Umrijet ću od dosade. 1/5, 1/10

First song, i hate it. Im just not gonna listen to the rest.

A little m'eh for me personally. You might like it though.

Tiresome

This list has made me dislike country more than ever before.

No thank you

Where dad and I diverged on Wilco. If A Ghost is Born is not on this list the whole thing is a crock. Music was fine. Billy Bragg just doesnt do it for me. It's protest music for liberals who still believe in 'the power of art' and think their witty rhymes on signs are gonna stop a fucking genocide.

Not sure why I need to hear this

Did not like at all 😭.

i cannot be arsed with all these wank folk rock albums anymore

Not really sure what to say about this. Some catchy tunes, reminds me of a folk album from the early sixties and sounds like it was recorded in someone's basement. Maybe this place on Mermaid Ave. Definitely a roots rock, vibe a la The Band. I guess a cool side project collab with these two bands. Never really understood the Wilco fascination, myself, but that's neither here nor there.

A for me rather boring Country Album. Sorry!

Yeah, thats not for me

Terrible. Don't even know why he's considered classic.

Folky twaddle.

Meh

BORING

Way Over Yonder in The Minor Key is ok. And I like Natalie Merchant’s vocal on Birds and Ships. But too much of this is plodding, b-grade alt folk or featureless Americana or Keir Starmer country. Background music for eating a rack o’ribs at a mid-price smokehouse chain. I remember seeing Billy Bragg performing To Have and to Have Not on The Tube (the TV show not the underground railway) back in the day and he was so angry he could barely get the lyrics out. Yeah, we’re all older now but that’s no excuse for mid-Atlantic twanging.

Apparently, California Stars became a big deal. Not sure why. Hoped for much more from a Guthrie/Bragg work. Bored. Very bored. Favourite tracks: Birds And Ships, gave up

Billy Bragg with Wilco? No thank you.

Country. No me gusta

That was worth a listen, but just once.

Gear: Aür Audio Aurora Artwork: 🏠🏚️🏠 Production: 😐🙂👌 Music: 🙄🙄🙄 Rating: 🙄/5

What a boring album. Lyrics like nonsensical poetry, no meat to it whatsoever. It’s not the worst instrumentally, as I do like folksy music, but nothing there to bring me back.

Excellent stuff

Not a Billy Bragg fan unfortunately. I like great vocalist and melody, and he brings neither to the table.

My god i hate it

Holy shit is this bad. I made it about 20 seconds into any given track. While I’ll give Tweedy a partial pass for being a third-rate musician, Billy Bragg should be banished a long, long way away. Can’t sing, can’t play and can’t write songs worth a damn. This is an album that owes me some time back.

Rubbish. This is not the Billy I know. Boring meh.

Not for me

Definitely not my taste in music. In all fairness, that was a pretty tough album to get through, However, i didn’t mind track 2 “California Stars”. The riff and melody were pretty catchy but unfortunately, that's the only highlight on the album. 23/100 ⭐️

I don't know a single Bragg song. When this album came up, I didn't see that it's him AND Wilco - not that that makes a difference, to be honest. But I don't get it. Only one track really stands out: Hoodoo Voodoo. The more I listen to it (though at this point, I'm just sampling bits from each song), I think I get what I don't like... he's got that Bob Dylan apathetic drawl in his voice. I'm not engaged.

Post-humous music really rubs me the wrong way. Taking Woody Guthrie's unreleased lyrics feels like peeling back a curtain we weren't supposed to see. I understand that his daughter asked for this, but it still feels like plundering incomplete ideas for the sake of money.

So far, it's started off awful. At song 3.. it's still awful. And there are a lot of people who can sing like you because lots of people also sound terrible, just like you. No, this is just terrible.

3/10. This album really bored me. It felt never-ending. I think that it's cool that this album revived some of Woody Guthrie's old works, but it doesn't make the album any more pleasant to listen to. Just because it's an important record doesn't mean that it's a must-listen.

Incredibly boring album. Not a single song grabbed my attention for long

Not for me

nah

Modern folk music is still just that - folk music. Not for me, thanks.

Another day, another dull album. Surely there are at least 1001 better albums than this.

Trash. I’m sorry to the artists but I hated everything about this. Boring, Christian, nothingness. Get this tape out of my face.

Dit is de Gordon van Amerika. 0 points.

very rustic

Too much folk for me, folks. I think maybe one song caught my ear…for a minute.

No me gustó.

I feel like for most matchups, I tend to like british interpretations of what "folk music" is, compared to americans', so there was a part of me like "man what are you doing" at Bragg doing American-style on this

"A girl took down a book of poems (Not to say which book of poems) And as she read, I laid my head (But I cant tell which head) Down in her lap (And I cant mention which lap)" The songs called "Walt Whitmans NIECE" Fucking puke This is the first song of your album? This is how you want new fans to hear your music? Fucking hell. Old perv singer songwriter country shlock fuck you NOTHING will be lost if this album just vanished from existence. Significant 31/97 Liked 15/97 Added 4/97 No, No, NO NOOOOO

I hated that. I don't know Billy Bragg, I don't know Willie Guthrie, but I have zero interested in hearing anything else by them.

This is the exact type of music I would throw canned beans and tomatoes at if I ever saw it live. Get outta here, I don't want to listen to your stupid fucking yoinky sploinky country for people who clap when an airplane lands. Billy Bragg is annoying, Wilco is boring, put the two together and I want to rip my ears out. 0/10, find another hobby. Grow some carrots man. Go on a hike man. Learn integration by parts man.

Painfully boring

nah doesn't do it for me, smacks of rich kids who squat 1.4

Songs were kinda wack

I'm honestly just not interested in this style of music, regardless of how cool the backstory is behind this record. It does nothing for me at all.

Nope.

I hated this album. I'm sure it has good qualities, but not for me.

Not for me

Naaah

Reminds me of someone

One time to listen too…

Really really awful.

Meh. Country.

Must be the worst opening bars to any album. Terrible drums, terrible singing, mad false accent, poor tune, just nothing to make me want to listen past the first 30 seconds. I loveBillyBragg. His first 4 albums wsre the soundtrack to my coming of age, but this is just awful. Hugely disappointing.Let's be kind and put it alk down to the inclusion of Wilco - I realky didn't like Wilco's own album and now they've ruined this one. Sorry Billy.

Ah man I should love Billy being a full on leftie and I'm sure what he's saying is great. However the music was just frankly horrible like someone punching you in the face with a wet fish. At first it doesn't hurt that much but by the end it's unbearable.

Like Guthrie..Like Wilco…this is absolutely terrible, waste of my time

I didnt make it two songs in. too much. twang, blech. such a good name too.

Personally this album was a bit slow for my liking, did listen to the full of it but not for me.

“Previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco.”

Dreadful

Crap

Meh, te Hill Billie voor mij

nem ideia do que eu ouvi, foi ruim.

Awful. Just Awful. Uninspired and boring songs. Hesitating beauty is the crappiest on the album. "You're itching to get married and I am twitching for the same thing" was the cherry on top of this album. If she wants to get married, how is she hesitating?? If you hate this album after 3 songs, just skip this one. The only mercy on this album is that the songs are short.

Folky rubbish. Sorry Billy, would not listen again.

Hate it. Hate the artist.

gaat zacht

idk, kinda meh

Not my cup of tea...

Beginning of the first song made me think of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer... Never got into it at all.

Excellent Woody Billy And Tweedie