Founded in the mid-’70s as a fairly conventional post-punk outfit, Leeds’ Mekons have evolved over the course of nearly 50 years and half as many albums to incorporate elements of folk-punk and honky-tonkin’ alt-country, to say nothing of various other psychedelic experiments along the way. Today they return with their follow-up to 2020’s art-rock LP Exquisite, with this spring’s Horror—true to its name—drudging through topics of climate disaster and an unflinching war economy that only further exasperates it.
Along with another new single that happens to be called “War Economy,” the band is sharing a swelling, nearly Pogues-like ballad called “Fallen Leaves” today that pairs a desolate instrumental landscape with cooly recited, post-apocalyptic lyrics. The music video, meanwhile, channels the sense of human alienation found in the films of Michaelangelo Antonioni, with its crisp black-and-white cinematography recalling pictures like La notte and L’eclisse. “Our homage to Antonioni’s L’eclisse, made easy due to Rico [Bell]’s remarkable resemblance to the young Alain Delon and mine to an aging, blown-out Monica Vitti,” the band’s Sally Timms shares. “It’s an art house gamble.”
Check that out below, and pre-order Horror—out April 4 via Fire Records—here. You can also find tickets to their upcoming tour (touching down in the US on July 9 in Minneapolis) here.
