Altsounds - The Levellers - Letters From The Underground [CD]

Politics and music are something of a match made in hell aren’t they? Without sounding disrespectful to the likes of the mighty Rage Against The Machine or the not so mighty System Of A Down, you’re always going to sound like a bit of a twat going on about the follies of capitalism and corruption when you’re signed to a major record label and your only real concern being whether to buy your next Bentley in black or blue. The Levellers may not have achieved the household name status of their anti establishment contemporaries but with ‘Letters From The Underground’ being the first album in 4 years from the Brighton based 6-piece they are certainly hell bent on giving crossover appeal one last try.

“Letters From The Underground” is one of those albums with a bit of a two steps forward, three steps back complex, whilst being a mighty progression in the bands overall sound the concept of the record itself is somewhat dated. With George Bush on his way out of office within the next couple of months musicians will need to find a new talisman of hatred to focus their witty lyrical content at, with ‘Letters From The Underground’ The Levellers have tried to leapfrog this gentle process by focusing their attentions on subject matter such as Darfur, the NHS and the 7/7 bombings. Seeing as how Gogol Bordello would rather duet with Madonna at ‘save the planet by wasting millions so a bunch of A-listers can express their disgust’ concerts therefore eradicating any credibility they once had, The Levellers may have just found the perfect niche for themselves as the front runners in gypsy punk. All the tracks have a sort of manic confusion about them, dipping in and out of guitar led madness and fiddle pumping insanity, there is a definite charm to this sound but it gets masked by the fact that the songs themselves aren’t really that good. Nothing technically is wrong with the writing quality on ‘Letters From The Underground’ it’s just that nothing on it really stands out, were I listening to this as some sort of label head honcho I would really have difficulty picking out a single in the tracks on offer here. The first time I listened to Gypsy Punks by Gogol Bordello the one flaw I found in it was the fact that at the end of the album most of the tracks had merged into one, there’s a very similar feel here but you get the impression that with this album you probably won’t be coming back for a third or fourth listen to pick out the real gems

Nothing against The Levellers, you don’t get many bands that can rough it together over years of double figures these days without fading into obscurity, I just think that this one has pretty much run it’s course and doesn’t have the staying power to last another album or two, hat’s off to a career that has seen many trustafarian followers bow at their feet but after sitting through the 35 minutes of ‘Letters From The Underground’ it’s time for the crusty’s to find a new bandwagon to jump on