One of the most literate albums to come out in 2003, I dare call John K. Samson the poet laureate of Epitaph records. The concept album opens in iambic pentameter and introduces the recurring melodic theme that weaves the binding to the book that is Reconstruction Site.
Are you too smart for this, or are you not smart enough? Samson’s esoteric references to Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton, name checks of French linguist Michel Foucault and Deconstructionist Jacque Derrida, his allusions to short-story writer Raymond Carver; all are signs of a well-read lyricist, but what is more striking is the affect his academic nature has on the stories in the lyrics. “Plea from a Cat Named Virtue” explores first-feline narrative and does so with more grace, elegance, and insight than you’d come to expect from such background animals.
The articulate lyrics meld with lovely melodic hooks in alt-country-tinged incarnations like the title track, “Reconstruction Site”. Filled with references, stories embedded in stories (“I’m broke like a bad joke somebody’s uncle told at a wedding reception in 1972”), and some of the most vivid imagery you’ll find in a pop song (“Well, I’m lost, I’m afraid / A rope tying down a leaky boat / On the roof of a car in the dark and it’s snowing”). Driving pop-rock tracks like “Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault)” bounce relentlessly and even if the dense subject matter means nothing to you and you don’t speak French; the song still has the catchiness to survive.
As with most things, this third album shows The Weakerthans mellowing with age, levity replaces despair, even the hardest songs of the album feel at home during a lazy-Sunday afternoon, like reading a book by the light of dusk before you start another week of work, Reconstruction Site illuminates and relaxes. |