Blending industrial sampling, New Wave techno beats, Hard Rock guitars, and spoken-word poetry, Meryl Streek’s Songs For The Deceased (Venn Records) puts you in front of the most ardent liberal soapbox speaker since Eugene V. Debs. The single “Rags To Riches” delves into the emotional turmoil that is life under modern capitalism. I’m glad I got to review this one, because I’m politically aligned and probably most sympathetic to Meryl’s message. Fortunately, it’s also quite danceable.

The only singing is occasional back-up vocals. Streek’s vocals urgently deliver Punk spoken word. Those words introspectively opine on life; the bleak life in “Council Estates,” or the hopeful yearning of someone with “Depression.” Guest artists from other UK-based acts contribute vocals, also in spoken word. Swinging wildly between urgent rage and self-flagellation, Streek’s opinions and soul-scraping POV provide the entirety of his motivation behind every song.

His lyrics and concepts frequently provide only oblique language indicating the target of his ire, unless he’s turned his sharp tongue on himself. The pace of his delivery and the lack of direct wording also prevent most of the lyrics from finding purchase in my brain. As much as I’m enjoying the journey, it’s almost as hard to keep the ideas straight or coherent beyond the song.  

These eleven songs and a “Welcome” prologue deliver a gut punch of modern-day anxiety, anger, frustration, depression, and generalized angst; basically the default feelings we’ve all arrived at in today’s predatory capitalist economic hellscape. Each tune is powered by different levels of pure Punk to New Wave, but the strident delivery does flatten the soundscape to a degree. The messages imparted, the ideas behind them, deserve a wider audience. If we were all more like the people Meryl Streek yearns for, the world would be a better place.

Buy the album here:
https://merylstreek.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-the-deceased

8 / 10
LARRY ROGERS
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