Sorry to upset Rage Against the Machine fans, but if you buy this album and expect to hear the type of face-melting guitar solos and wailing lyrics that Tom Morello became known for as the lead guitarist for Audioslave and Rage, you will be sorely disappointed. That being said, The Fabled City rocks as hard as everything Morello has done in the past — just in a completely different way.
In 2007, Tom Morello took a break from the earsplitting riffs that earned him a spot on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time list and reinvented himself as an alter-ego he deemed “The Nightwatchman.” He released a solo album as a singer-songwriter armed only with an acoustic guitar, a gravelly voice and some heavy political messages. The result, One Man Revolution, was a surprisingly folksy, politically-charged debut with an unsettling sense of urgency and desperation. Morello tackled everything from the plight of third-world laborers to the vanity of the Hollywood lifestyle, all in 13 tracks.
In his second solo effort, Morello lives up to The Nightwatchman’s reputation as a sort of reverse Bob Dylan — that is, his style has shifted from electric to acoustic. Fabled City continues in the same pattern as One Man Revolution, and, in my opinion, Morello’s solo efforts put his career on a whole new level. His stripped-down style is reminiscent of legends like Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash in the way that Morello manages to convey a striking political message in a distinctly understated way.
This time around, Morello’s sound is a bit more fleshed out. One can hear straight from the first track how much Fabled City benefits from the addition of a full band instead of just an acoustic guitar.
The opening title track kicks things off on an immediately political note. “The Fabled City” is a working-class anthem, as Morello croons “I’ve seen the fabled city / Its streets are paved with gold / But an iron fence runs ‘round it / Its iron gate is closed.”
The track that will likely garner the praise of fans and critics alike is “Lazarus on Down.” The hauntingly slow march is rife with biblical allusions, and back-up vocals from System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian add to the song’s dark feel.
My personal favorite moment of the album occurs when Morello does his best Tom Waits impression, complete with harmonica, on “Gone Like Rain.” The song’s folk influence changes the album’s sound just when it begins to run the risk of sounding repetitive.
Similarly, Morello injects some much-needed lightness into Fabled City with the second-to-last track, “The Iron Wheel”. While the lyrics are still decidedly controversial, the beat is reminiscent of an old Irish drinking tune and benefits greatly from the contribution of country star Shooter Jennings.
The most pointed political song on the album is by far “Midnight in the City of Destruction,” in which Morello calls for no less than President Bush’s head on a platter. He references both Guantanamo Bay (a “secret prison that keeps its secrets well”) and Hurricane Katrina, singing “I pray that God himself will come / and drown the president if the levees break again.”
It is this kind of bleak lyrical landscape that coordinates perfectly with the dark, blues-based arrangements of this amazing record. Because of his work with Rage and Audioslave, we all knew that Tom Morello was an amazing guitarist. Now he has gone and proved himself as more than that — he is a damn good songwriter and a voice of our generation.
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