Customer Reviews

Letters from the Underground

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The Levellers were one of my favorite bands of the mid-Nineties, sort of a cross between the Clash and the Oysterband with a connection to the anti-roads movement of Britain at the time (see George McKay's Senseless Acts of Beauty (Verso 1996) for documentation of the Donga Tribe at Twyford Down and other non-violent direct action campaigns).

Their albums declined in quality and I had not kept up with them, but then I saw that this new one, LETTERS FROM THE UNDERGROUND, was being hailed as a "return to form" by British fans, so I decided to check it out. I'm sorry to say it is definitely not a return to music as good as their best albums, Levellers (1994) or Zeitgeist (1996). They have lost the knack for songwriting they once had -- the only good stand-alone song here is "A Life Less Ordinary," with the chorus concluding "We rise with the sun to the hope of freedom." Overall, though, the album is energetic and rousing, an inspiration for militant anarchists, and that electric fiddle still sounds great!

No longer on a major label, LFTU was recorded in the band's Metway Studio, and is released on the band's own ON THE FIDDLE records. While the Levellers have not maintained the same high quality of new music over the years that the Oysters have (see my reviews of their most recent Rise Above (2003) and Meet You There (2007)), I'm glad that they're still around and kicking against the system!

I'm sure they still sound great live, where they can play all their best songs, and there's a 2007 DVD called Chaos Theory for those of us not likely to make it to the U.K. to see them in concert any time soon.

I love The Levellers. They are, hands down, my favorite band. I do think they've put out some less than stellar material at times though, but this album is fantastic. Not quite on par with Levelling the Land, but I'd say it's as good as A Weapon Called the Word or Zeitgeist -- and that's saying something!

And they don't let up on their standard anti-imperialist, individual empowerment message either -- which I like.