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''The Revolution Starts Now'' is an album by alternative country singer Steve Earle, released in 2004.

Earle received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album for this album at the 47th Grammy Awards held February 13, 2005 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. - Wikipedia

Though hardly arriving hot on the heels of 2002's hit-and-miss Jerusalem, The Revolution Starts... Now sounds like a bit of a rush job. That's partly because it is, in fact, a rush job-designedly immediate (not necessarily a great thing) and/or tossed off (not always a bad thing). Leftist hero Earle couldn't pass up releasing an album in this election year, so he and his band blew through the studio this spring with a batch of new material-mostly protest songs, mostly, according to Earle's liner notes, "recorded within 24 hours of the first line hitting the paper."

Under less time-pressed circumstances, a few of these heartfelt tunes probably wouldn't have made the cut. The title track, which undeservedly opens and closes the disc in the style of Neil Young, uses the decrepit "street/ beat" rhyme and is roughly half as galvanizing as it intends to be (the plutocracy is safe-for now). "F the CC" is similarly uninspired (though righteously hard-hitting drummer Will Rigby makes everything sound pretty urgent), while the overstewed "Warrior" is a poetry jam of the non-def variety.

In brighter news, the Calypso-flavored "Condi, Condi" is an odd and good-humored mock madrigal to the National Security Advisor, while "Rich Man's War" nicely complements Fahrenheit 9/11's central argument. Earle's vocal range (never Caruso-esque) is more compressed than ever, and he sometimes compensates with unconvincing histrionics or by inserting a few extra pebbles into his already gravely throat. When he confronts a pretty melody, though, like the one he thought up for the brokenhearted "I Thought You Should Know," he still belts it out purely and plainly. He might toss stuff off when he needs to, but he's rarely going through the motions.

"Though hardly arriving hot on the heels of 2002's hit-and-miss Jerusalem, The Revolution Starts... Now sounds like a bit of a rush job. That's partly because it is, in fact, a rush job-designedly immediate (not necessarily a great thing) and/or tossed off (not always a bad thing). Leftist hero Earle couldn't pass up releasing an album in this election year, so he and his band blew through the studio this spring with a batch of new material-mostly protest songs, mostly, according to Earle's liner notes, ""recorded within 24 hours of the first line hitting the paper.""

Under less time-pressed circumstances, a few of these heartfelt tunes probably wouldn't have made the cut. The title track, which undeservedly opens and closes the disc in the style of Neil Young, uses the decrepit ""street/ beat"" rhyme and is roughly half as galvanizing as it intends to be (the plutocracy is safe-for now). ""F the CC"" is similarly uninspired (though righteously hard-hitting drummer Will Rigby makes everything sound pretty urgent), while the overstewed ""Warrior"" is a poetry jam of the non-def variety.

In brighter news, the Calypso-flavored ""Condi, Condi"" is an odd and good-humored mock madrigal to the National Security Advisor, while ""Rich Man's War"" nicely complements Fahrenheit 9/11's central argument. Earle's vocal range (never Caruso-esque) is more compressed than ever, and he sometimes compensates with unconvincing histrionics or by inserting a few extra pebbles into his already gravely throat. When he confronts a pretty melody, though, like the one he thought up for the brokenhearted ""I Thought You Should Know,"" he still belts it out purely and plainly. He might toss stuff off when he needs to, but he's rarely going through the motions.

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