With the release of its fifth proper full-length, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens, Georgia, collective the Mendoza Line leaps from the merely ambitious to the conceptual. Fortune, released domestically in August after months of positive press in England, examines the American socioeconomic landscape from various narrative points of view, some home-grown, others fomented by foreign characters emigrating to the United States. Sound dull? Anyone familiar with the Line's previous work -- witty, loosely arranged songs that, despite being the products of a number of distinct songwriting voices, show no signs of musical or lyrical compromise and every sign of instinctive craft and unself-conscious intellectual heft -- knows better. The band rises to the thematic challenge with a set that's wry, bitter, funny, poignant and tuneful. It's not the Line's best album, but it's the band's bravest, and it might also be the season's most subtle political treatise in any art form. But if pre-election gray areas are too much to consider, let alone leave the house for, the Line's live show pulls the lever on a compelling array of catchy, apolitical numbers; really, this outfit should be bigger than the Bush twins at a Florida State frat party.
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