Well, Mark, there's a related theory on that one. The recent Maniacs
stuff, with John back, has been quite limp as well -- not as limp as
Natalie by any stretch, but still pretty awful. My excuse for this
is that Natalie and Rob (but surely mostly Natalie) wound up dragging
the band into adult-contemporary territory, pretty much forever
cementing their audience there and ruining any chance for a return to
anywhere near the fringe. So I'd argue that (a) they've gotten old
and lame, as so many artists do, and (b) they weren't offered much
choice other than running with the old and lame fan base they'd
accumulated after "Because the Night."
Seriously: give me a problem with the world, and I'll figure out a
way to blame it on Natalie. Although I must admit, I was watching a
documentary last week on the Billy Bragg / Wilco / Guthrie project,
in which she appeared, and I got to remembering why I liked her so
much to begin with. So well-meaning . . . but I liked it better back
when she was awkward and spinning in circles while Buck beat "My
Mother the War" out of his guitar.
― Nitsuh, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link