The Nightwatchman
The Fabled City
Epic/Red Ink
By Jose Fritz
Tom Morello, in one role of another, has been one of the most politically outspoken musicians of our time. For most the ‘90s, he was an integral member of Rage Against The Machine, perhaps the most brazen political musical act to come around in decades. Morello, though, took a back seat as a spokesman for the group, at least on stage. For the most part, vocalist Zack De al Rocha understandably assumed this role.
After Rage’s initial demise (I’ll assume that you’ve heard about their reunion), Morello and a few of his fellow Rage-ers formed Audioslave with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell. While Audioslave enjoyed a pretty successful run, the members of the band certainly weren’t playing political music. This detachment left Morello hungry for the outspoken tunes that he’d been playing for so many years. Thus, The Nightwatchman was born in 2003. Initial feedback was positive, leading Morello to tour and subsequently release his solo debut, the fittingly titled One Man Revolution.
Succeeding Revolution is The Fabled City. Morello is once again playing decidedly political music, but his change in roles is both refreshing and potentially startling. Morello is the mouthpiece for The Nightwatchman, handling both guitar and vocal duties, and his voice alone brings an air of mystery to his act. Right from the opening title track, Morello’s voice is deep and powerful, and during the opening track’s bridge section, borderlines sensual.
“Whatever It Takes” is the record’s single, and it shows a Morello that references his other gig. The guitar line that our man Tom opens the song with is classically Rage, while the song’s lyrics are similarly defiant. Morello sings “Don’t let ‘em tie you to the stake, whatever it takes” during a chorus whose sentiment Bob Dylan would be proud of.
Morello and producer Brendan O’Brien, who also contributed some of the album’s backing instrumentation, manage to mix up the sequence of tunes to create a nice electro-acoustic ambiance. “King of Hell” is an acoustic and solemn slow-burning jam, showing what an accomplished Morello is. “Night Falls” is nearly a love song, while “The Lights Are On In Spidertown” is about as close to an all out hootenanny as The Fabled City comes. Morello strums his guitar hard and leads a group of vocalists in a “Di-Da-Da-Di” chorus, no doubt a tune intended to portray a unified group of everymen.
The Nightwatchman is hardly done at the album’s halfway point. He spends the album’s entire 40 minutes channeling Dylan and Arlo Guthrie on somber folk songs like “Midnight In The City of Destruction” and “Gone Like Rain.” Morello even uses his pull in the industry, serving up duets with Serj Tankian on “Lazarus on Down” and Shooter Jennings on “The Iron Wheel.” Jennings’ appearance seems appropriate; his dad, the late Waylon Jennings, himself a folk-singing outlaw, would be proud of what the outspoken Morello accomplishes, both musically and lyrically, on only his second record as a frontman.
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