Ry Cooder has a way with words, a way with song. He can catch a nasty groove, and toss off a ripped-from-the-headlines insult like nobody this side of Bob Dylan. Who can forget the way he cuffed around unscrupulous bankers last year?
Disappointingly, though, too often Cooder goes for low-road topics on his forthcoming Election Special, due August 21, 2012 from Nonesuch/Perro Verde. There’s a difference between calling someone out, and calling them names. Cooder misses that distinction with a tune titled “Mutt Romney,” sounding more like the tongue-wagging commentators on those pseudo-news cable channels than the rich social scrivener that he no doubt is.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: The terrific 2008 retrospective ‘The UFO Has Landed’ showcases Ry Cooder’s mastering of everything from blues to dust-bowl folk, Tex-Mex to soul, gospel to mid-century rock.]
Quite frankly, it’s beneath an artist of the stature of Ry Cooder, as are slap-stick eye pokes like “Going to Tampa” (about the Republican National Convention, natch) and “Take Your Hands Off It” (about the Constitution, double natch). “Cold, Cold Feeling” tries to make a blues, with unsurprising struggles, out of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions on voting issues.
Complex, often-times emotional issues like those deserve big thoughts, or at least — as was the case with 2011’s “No Banker Left Behind” — funny ones. Too often, the petty, schoolyard banter surrounding Election Special is neither.
It’s not all for naught, though. Skip over to “Brother Is Gone,” which has the shattering resonance of a wintry gust through an Appalachian valley, and a timeless story about those who are left behind. “The Wall Street Part of Town” and “Guantanamo” rattle along with a righteous anger, perhaps because there is traction around these indictments from both sides of the aisle. Then there’s “Kool-Aid,” which has the shotgun-shack rattling rhythms and serrated blues howl of a leftover Black Keys classic, as well as a core message we all should heed about blindly following any dogma.
I think this country’s citizens find their best selves when we speak truth to power like that. Not when we simply hurl epithets at it.
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