Righteous Babe
2003
Tough Love
About This Album
"I'm a self-righteous p****, with a great big mouth/But I'm sick to death of mediocrity and lies." So sings Ed Hamell (aka Hamell on Trial), the acoustic "punk" on the brilliant anti-idiot culture song "Halfway." It's a pretty harsh self-appraisal that nevertheless says plenty about where this guy's coming from. And on Tough Love, he's parlayed that ethos into a new personal high-water mark of creativity. On his previous albums, Hamell showed that he's uncompromising, insightful, fearless, and uniquely talented. But with Tough Love, all the planets are in alignment. Dare one say that this is his most "commercial" album yet? In the best sense of the word, it's definitely his slickest. This time out of the gate, the songs are a little more distinctive and a tad less about Hamell's ever-shifting thrash rhythms -- though few acoustic guitarists work their instruments with more manic artistry than Hamell. And while he gladly embraces the description, he's too musically skilled and wryly cerebral to be a true punk. Still, when he lashes out at state-sanctioned killing ("Don't Kill") or spits the venom on the aforementioned "Halfway," you can certainly see the punk attitude coming through.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,10 and 13)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.