On One Man Revolution, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello debuted his alter ego, the Nightwatchman, with a well-intentioned set of lefty-folksinger blues. But with not much more than his voice and acoustic guitar, he had little to offset ham-fisted lines like "I crossed the frozen wasteland/And in the bitter cold did freeze." On The Fabled City, Morello augments his acoustic guitar with stirring arrangements on piano, mandolin, cello and drums, as well as backup vocals from System of a Down's Serj Tankian and outlaw spawn Shooter Jennings. The new dynamics complement Morello's voice, which is more nuanced here, moving from the melodrama of Nick Cave ("The Lights Are On in Spidertown") to the minimalist purr of Leonard Cohen ("Rise to Power"). Lyrically, Morello still goes over the top, piling on biblical references and Dylanesque nonsense like "one-eyed crow, tappin' on the windowpane." But with a solid band behind him, he seems much more confident in his new role as a modern protest troubadour.