20,000 Streets

Novelist and sometime music critic Nick Hornby knows what he likes and knows why he likes it. Take Marah for example. Hornby likes them, even going as far as saying “I can hear everything I ever loved about rock music in their recordings and in their shows,” in The New York Times. Big words from a brilliant man.  

A few years ago my long-time music mentor attempted to put me onto Marah’s Kids In Philly album. I couldn’t even begin to get into it or their 1998 Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later On Tonight debut. At that point, I didn’t like Bruce Springsteen one bit, and I had just started to get into The Replacements and Paul Westerburg.

Over time I began to look back to Kids with good memories. Their follow up Float Away with the Friday Night Gods came out in 2002, and once again I was totally put off. Time kept right on passing until, about two months ago, I received an e-mail from a label rep describing the new Marah album to be released on Yep Roc Records. Sounded good to me; so now I sit with Marah’s fourth album, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, in my lap. That pretty much brings us up to date; now on to the “roots rock.”

Much like Springsteen and Westerberg, the Bielanko brothers work out roughly textured, always edgy story songs that rarely fail to stick. Streets is the result of 11 months of recording after leaving Artemis Records and beginning their own PHIdelity records for Yep Roc. Long recording sessions often end in overdone albums that tend to be overly elaborate and ineffectual. I’m not sure what the Bielkankos were doing for 11 months, but judging from their latest work they were taking their time to work out their arrangements and perfect their latest canon of American rock.

Most of Streets sounds like an all-out party. A mixture of stripped-down guitars, a typically bouncy rhythm section, gargle-vocals, Billy Preston-esque keys, soulful backup singing and plenty of city moods create an accurate picture of modern American city life. Where Cut the Crap was often considered to be their Exile on Main Street, Streets is poised to be the Goats Head Soup portion of Marah’s career. If you don’t dig the Stones comparison, Marah at the very least manage to be the bridge from Springsteen to the blossoming modern day Americana scene (in fact, thesong “Sure Thing” may as well be The Boss).

With a bar-buddy attitude that is both charming and comforting, the Bielanko Brothers’ music reflects their genuine attitude just as their hero Westerburgs still does to this day. Sure there’s the clichÈ swagger, but there’s also genuine street heart, melody and a real knack for that great “American” sound. The purpose of an album like 20,000 isn’t to be the album of the year, or even the month. Marah’s sole purpose is to remind listeners why rock n’ roll can be so great. Just ask Nick Hornby.  7/10

Written by G. William Locke