Letters from the Underground

Album Review

Letters from the Underground was the Levellers' 13th album since they burst onto the punk-folk scene in 1990 with their debut, A Weapon Called the Word. No longer a group to rush into the studio when the bandmembers felt they had something to say, by 2008 the Levellers preferred to gig live and face their audience directly. In fact, this was their first album to chart since 2000's Hello Pig and the first on their new record label, On the Fiddle Recordings, which seemed apt — as most of the songs were dominated by the sound of Jon Sevink and his fiddle. The Levellers had always been a more refined English version of the Pogues with the same Celtic music roots and political edge, but without Shane MacGowan's distinctive vocal style. As for the songs on Letters from the Underground, "Heart of the Country," "Accidental Anarchist," and "Burn America, Burn" were aimed squarely at the Kaiser Chiefs' singalong-style football-terrace crowd, the latter song being the introduction to the album, offered as a free download single two months before the release of the full-length. They had not forgotten their political roots, however, singing about the London bombing in July 2005 on "Behold a Pale Rider," the situation in Darfur on "The Cholera Well," and their feelings about the Virginia Tech shootings on "Death Loves Youth." A return to form for the Levellers, but by 2008 the mainstream world had moved on and somewhat left them behind.