The Nightwatchman

One Man Revolution

Written by: PP on 08/06/2007 22:58:42

The Nightwatchman is one of the rare moments you can experience Tom Morello, the innovative Rage Against The Machine guitarist, at his most vulnerable state. It is the cover name which Morello has been using to avoid the RATM fans showing up at his intimate solo shows, which basically consist of a spotlight, an acoustic guitar and his surprisingly confident baritone voice. He finally decided to reveal his 'secret identity' to the public and as a consquence, we now have a disc called "One Man Revolution" in our hands, thirteen tracks of Morello and only Morello, showcasing that he is able to write songs without his effects board as well.

As we have grown accustomed through his work in Rage Against The Machine, Morello is a political activist and uses his music to voice his opinions about things he feels are screwed up in the world. "One Man Revolution" is no exception and different parts of the US government get their fair share of criticism throughout the disc, not to forget the grand devil Mr Bush either. There are a few songs with catchy choruses but it is of course limited what you can do with just an acoustic guitar that he plucks softly. But even so, being as accomplished a guitarist as he is, he should be able to sound better than this. At its current form, The Nightwatchman reminds me of some random dude at a pub with an acoustic guitar at an open mic night.

Although many will find his low spoken word vocal style intriguing, it really isn't suitable for anything else than as background music during a date, preferably in a southern-styled restaurant. As such, The Nightwatchman is tolerable and perhaps even suitable, but I can't think of another scenario where you would be listening to this instead of having a RAGE song on instead. Terribly average from an amazing guitarist.

5

Download: One Man Revolution, The Road I Must Travel
For the fans of: Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Bruce Springsteen

Release date 24.04.2007
Epic

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