Music Review: Erin McKeown, Manifestra

By Chelsea Spear

In 2012, musician/activist Erin McKeown made headlines for crowdfunding the production of her latest album, Manifestra. Unlike many artists whose crowd-sourced work becomes a three-ring circus, McKeown has strong musical bona fides. For almost two decades, the singer/songwriter has released a compelling body of work and dabbled in jazz, electronica, and folk. The spine of her work has always been her great skill at songwriting, which blends the tunefulness of Tin Pan Alley songwriters with her own irreverent charm, and her confident, minimalist guitar playing.

Manifestra extends the democratizing concerns of crowdfunding to some of her most explicitly political material to date. While I find many protest songs challenging—mostly because of the need to simplify complex issues into a three-minute time range and force them into a difficult format—McKeown escapes this trap by finding the human scale within the societal problems she describes.

“The Politician,” the album’s opener, sets the tone with its acerbic lyrics. McKeown has written from the perspective of a corrupt politician, but the way she spits the words out adds to the disgust listeners may feel while listening to it. The descending melody, the crisp production that drives the song, and the double-tracked guitar and horn section suggests a rewrite of “Taxman” from the perspective of the proletariat. The allegorical lyrics of “The Jailer”—which remind me of Los Tigres del Norte’s animal-themed protest songs—looks at the events set off when a person is incarcerated. The horn-driven arrangement and handclaps at first seem ironic, but McKeown’s chorus of “You can’t keep us out . . . try to stop a culture!” gives the bright melody a triumphant feel.

The production of Manifestra has a spare feeling, similar to that of McKeown’s earlier album Sing You Sinners. Unlike the playful approach of that previous album, the guitar- and percussion-driven mix has an almost snarly feel at times. (On the title track, McKeown’s guitar riff billows like smoke around her chanted vocal.) On other songs, she retains the lush beauty of her previous work. The string section and analog synths that ebb through “Histories” sound limn the song with a mellifluous rhythm. Towards the end of the album, McKeown is joined by Ryan Montbleau, who matches her with his trumpet-like yelp and deadpan one-liners on the widescreen ballad “Instant Classic.”

Album closer “Baghdad to the Bayou” has gotten the album its greatest press, but it may be the weakest track on the album. McKeown co-wrote the song through text messages with Rachel Maddow, and it does fall into the trap of trying to convey a lot of information in rhyming couplets and compress it into a three-minute time. While the lyrics lack the focus of the more pointed political songs, the second-line horn section and chorale joining McKeown in the closing moments of the song work a little better than one would expect.

With an artist like Erin McKeown, who has released a substantial body of work in a short period of time, finding the right place to start listening can be a challenge. Manifestra brings together many of McKeown’s strengths as a singer and songwriter and presents them in a cohesive package. If you’ve been wondering how to start listening to Erin McKeown, Manifestra is an excellent choice.

Manifestra was released on January 15 via TVP records. You can stream the songs and purchase the album on Erin McKeown’s website.

Tour Dates:

1/17: Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
1/18: New York, NY @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
1/19: Brooklyn, NY @ Littlefield
1/20: Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
1/21: Arlington, VA @ Iota
1/23: Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe
1/24: Cleveland, OH @ Beachand Tavern
1/25: Chicago, IL @ The Hideout
1/26: Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
2/07: Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
2/08: Ames, IA @ Iowa State University [The Maintenance Shop]
2/09: Indianapolis, IN @ The Irving Theater
2/10: Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark
2/12: Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme
2/13: Louisville, KY @ Uncle Slayton’s
2/14: Barnesville, OH @ Albert S. George Youth Center @ Barnesville Memorial Park
3/03: Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
3/04: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
3/06: Berkeley, CA @ Freight & Salvage
3/08: Los Angeles CA @ McCabe’s Guitar Shop