Levellers
Levelling The Land
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The Nineties are hardly shaping up as vintage years for idealism in rock. Today's younger artists often seem too jaded for grandiose aims; there is little that is empowering, for instance, in the brooding petulance of Nirvana or the fear and loathing of Guns n' Roses. One band that avoids this cynical trend is the Levellers. On its second album, Levelling the Land, this British group offsets its fierce disdain with altruism in the way that earlier postpunk artists like Billy Bragg and U2 have done. Many of the lyrics on Levelling, in fact, evoke Bono's flair for melodramatic imagery. "Dance the dance that plays with fire/Play guitar and play inspired," Mark Chadwick urges
Read More on the jiglike chorus of "Far From Home," while "One Way" finds him recalling, "We choked on our dreams/We wrestled with our fears/Running through the heartless concrete streets." Musically, the band aspires to be sort of a Celtic Clash, tautly weaving fiddles and banjos with crashing guitars and raw, nasal vocals. For all their goodwill, moreover, the Levellers can address the powers that shouldn't be with a formidable brashness. "Keep the young ones paralyzed, educated by your lies/Keep the old ones happy with the news," Chadwick snarls on "Sell Out," and he asserts on "Liberty Song": "They're trying to get to me.... This means nothing to me/The way we were is the way I wanna be." Though not a masterwork on the order of, say, London Calling or War, Levelling the Land is rife with the same urgency and indomitability that made those records impossible to ignore. "The problems of the world won't be solved by this guitar," Chadwick admits on "One Way," but the Levellers remind us that at its most ardent, rock & roll can convince us that solutions exist. (RS 633) ELYSA GARDNER |
