Saturday 7 April 2018

Bands of a certain vintage always have a few tricks up their sleeves to prolong a career....
  • First is tour a classic album in full, record the tour and release a live album
  • Second record a covers album, usually of "songs that inspired us.."
  • Finally record an acoustic album of your hits
The Levellers have finally succumbed to the third option and bring us We The Collective. This seems a bit odd as the band are fairly acoustic anyway and this sounds like their Drunk in Public persona that they occasionally take out live


As with all these type of albums it's rather hit and miss....Subvert sounds like a muscular version of Kitty Jay (by Seth Lakeman) but with lyrics advocating direct action protest. Exodus works remarkably well with an orchestra and the spoon playing percussion in One Way is rather inspired

Dance Before the Storm doesn't work as it's no different to the original and Liberty Song lacks the urgency that makes it a live favourite

There are a couple of new tracks of which Drugs Bust McGhee is the best - a tale of undercover policing which begins with "I stole my name from a dead baby"

Still a band that works best in the live arena

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