UNITED contains a 200-page book of art featuring essays by Griel Marcus, Lester Bangs, Emma Boland, John Gill and others.
Included as part of the Mekons' book of the same name, United offers a fine soundtrack to the various chunks of fiction, tour stories, and beautiful artwork included in the small tome. Fans of the Mekons should enjoy the diverse, often intentionally ramshackle disc, which has more in common with the band's art-school roots than it does with its rock material. The exceptions, however, are quite notable. "Orpheus," later re-recorded on I Have Been to Heaven and Back: Hen's Teeth and Other Lost Fragments of Unpopular Culture, Vol. 1, is as fine a song as the band has composed, and elsewhere the found sound experiments and excursions into dubby electronica sample liberally from the Mekons' back catalog. ~ Joshua Klein
