thelevellers-lettersfromtheunderground music reviews Virgin Media
Veteran band in incendiary form on protest album
The world is falling apart, conflicts are erupting around the globe and music has rarely been so apolitical. With today's pop mired in a sea of arty solipsism, it takes the hoary old Levellers, now in their twentieth year, to make an album that audaciously attempts to tackle such topics as Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, gun crime in America, CCTV Britain and – let's rock! – "the cracks in the mental health system".
Which might imply that Letters From The Underground is a somewhat dreary, worthy manifesto, but thankfully this is not the case. As ever, the Levellers use their righteous indignation at the state of the world as grist to their musical elbow, firing up a folk-punk storm on Death Loves Youth and Burn America Burn and resembling a turbo-charged Waterboys on the poetic A Life Less Ordinary. This is Levellers business as usual, then, but after two decades, nobody does this better.
More to try: The Men They Couldn't Hang: Silvertown The Pogues: Rum, Sodomy & The Lash The Waterboys: Fisherman’s Blues
Reviews round-up
