Consumer Guide Album

The Mekons: Crime and Punishment [Sin EP, 1986]
Four stories that don't quite make sense about waking up with your friend's wife, going to hospital, failing, drinking. Actually the drinking one, a Merle Haggard song, makes sense on its own terms, but in the Mekons' world nothing makes sense, which in the least pessimistic construction is because all these songs are about drinking one way or another. In fact, all seem written from a permanent hangover. But it's fair to say that they've been driven to drink--by life, which is hard and then you die. A-