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Mother Tongue | Streetlight

Stuck at only being very good.
CD, Noisolution/Konkurrent

Tekst: Manuel Aalbers

Publicatiedatum: 15 augustus 2002

In 1994, Sony released one of the best records ever: Mother Tongue's self-titled debut. It contained twelve small monuments to urban life in the end of the 21st century. Both the songs and the lyrics were surprising and full of hooks and edges. At the same time, they felt pleasantly familiar, like an old friend you haven't seen in years, and who changed a lot but the chemistry is still there. The record contained songs about where the world is going — and that did not make you happy. But it did, because those songs were so well written, and played with so much feeling, you had no choice but to play the CD over and over again. But like all new records, it got older and was lost somewhere in a pile of many CDs. But every time you cleaned up your house, or at least you record collection, you would play the record again, wondering if it sustained the wear and tear of time. And, yes it did — and how! The Seed, Damage, and Burn Baby not only sustained the test of time, they even got better.

So, you can imagine my enthusiasm when I got news that the new Mother Tongue record, Streetlight, was released this year. Eight years of waiting, but I expected it to probably be worth it. Surprise! It wasn't. To cut a long story short: Streetlight is big disappointment. Okay, the tunes are not bad, the lyrics are still among the best in urban trouble tales and social criticisms, but something's missing. What is missing are the classics, the little monuments. Streetlight is not a bad record — far from — but the expectations were so high. And what do we get? Thirteen songs: half of them average, half of them good, but nowhere brilliant. Trouble Came, Modern Man, and F.T.W. come close but get stuck at only being very good. If it had been a debut, it would have been classified as "very promising." But since their debut was already one of the best records of the 21st century (I'm not exaggerating), this record is a step down. But then again: I prefer a step down from the top, over a step up from the gutter.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/mother-tongue/streetlight/1768/
Meer Mother Tongue op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/mother-tongue