Reconstruction Site

by The Weakerthans

Overview

The title of the Weakerthans' third full-length LP is appropriate, because even if it's not meant to, Reconstruction Site is a great way to describe the most defined document yet of singer, principal songwriter, and guitarist John Samson's trajectory from the punk rock of Propagandhi to the Weakerthans' quietly determined indie pop. While his former group was as concerned with social change as it was with a lockstep drum beat, Samson's recent work has traded power-chord fury for the slow-burning -- but no less hot -- embers of fully realized, deceptively simple pop/rock that brings the songwriter's flair for metaphor to stage front. Like the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, whose intelligence and wit seep into every corner of his work, the odd, sometimes grandiose song titles of Reconstruction Site are headings for lyrics that revisit pet Samson topics -- the beauty/hell of life in Winnipeg, destructive/confusing personal relationships, and personal ethics as a reaction to the welfare state. The latter, detailed in "Our Retired Explore (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)," is some heady stuff, to be sure. But Samson just as easily personifies a pussycat in "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue," where his tabby takes him to task for "sleeping as much as I do." Though Virtue is afraid of Samson's sister's basset hound, he encourages his owner to stop "repeating the self-defeating lies you've been repeating since the day you brought me home." Musically, Reconstruction Site has more in common with literate indie types like Clem Snide or even the mature, clear-eyed work of Michael Penn. The dissonant chords of punk and hardcore have been replaced by plucked guitars with a country feel ("[Manifest]," and "Time's Arrows"); the harmony-laded "Benediction" even employs a full-on pedal steel guitar. The acoustic "One Great City!" is the album's most lyrically acidic track; an Edward Hopper-esque study of bitter characters in the city where Samson makes his home, for better or worse: it reveals the singer's own love-hate relationship with his country and city. ~ Johnny Loftus

Product Details

Release Date:	08/26/2003
Label:	EPITAPH
UPC:	0045778668212

Tracks

1. (Manifest)
2. The Reasons
3. Reconstruction Site
4. Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call
5. Plea From a Cat Named Virtute
6. Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)
7. Time's Arrow
8. (Hospital Vespers)
9. Uncorrected Proofs
10. A New Name for Everything
11. One Great City
12. Benediction
13. The Prescience of Dawn
14. (Past Due)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Weakerthans   Primary Artist
Sarah Harmer   Guest Artist
Steve Carroll   Keyboards,Pedal Steel,Lap Steel Guitar,Vocals,Piano,Guitar
John K. Samson   Guitar,Vocals
Christine Fellows   Piano
Jason Tait   Drums,Keyboards,Percussion,Vibraphone,Glockenspiel
John Sutton   Bass,Vocals

Technical Credits

Ian Burton   Producer
Ian Blurton   Producer
Sarah Harmer   Duet
Adam Kasper   Mixing
Rudy Rempel   Engineer
Joao Carvalho   Mastering
Cam Loeppky   Live Sound
Mike Carroll   Design,Layout Design
James Heidebrecht   Engineer
Marcel Dzama   Illustrations