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Album Details

• Artist: Steve Earle
• Album: The Revolutions Starts Now
• Label: E2
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-12-15

Steve Earle has become one of the most consistent singer/songwriters of our time. The Revolutions Starts Now is the latest chapter in his prolific return to the folds and marks his seventh album in about 9 years, an impressive feat on its own. But the fact that there really hasn't been a really weak moment anywhere along the way is monumental. Although Steve Earle has always written some politically fueled songs in the past, it was the 9/11 events that really triggered the last couple of albums. Of course there was the controversial Jerusalem but The Revolution Starts Now takes a shot directly at George W. Bush and his whole congress. The album appropriately starts out with the title track with lyrics like "All our hope had come to be" referring to a dream. All this before he kicks into one of the countriest songs on the The Revolution, "Home To Houston" where Earle promises that if he every gets home to Houston alive, he won't drive a truck anymore. Then, one of the most moving songs on the album, a heartfelt story about "Rich Man's War". Then all of a sudden Earle gets all poetic on us with "Warrior", using words bigger than you or I would normally use in everyday conversation. Steve takes a crack at a bit of a reggae song with the love song to national security advisor Condoleeza Rice ("Condi Condi"). It's fun but really not Earle's strong suit. If Earle doesn't get audited after letting loose on the "F The CC" then the old government probably has stopped paying any attention to Steve. But this is the most rocking we have ever seen the man since El Corazon. Emmylou Harris makes her standard appearance with Earle on "Comin' Around". It's probably not their finest song together but it is still worth hearing. But one of the best ballads that Earle has ever written is present in the form of "I Thought You Should Know". It's more in a classic pop sense but man does it come across nicely. "The Seeker" almost sounds like it could be a Bruce Springsteen song. The Revolutions Starts Now is probably one of the most consistent albums Steve Earle has produced since El Corazon.

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