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6 out of 10
You're a farmer. You're ploughing a field ready for some genetically-modified Martian beans, when you turn up a strange coin. One side of the coin is shiny - the sun reflects with a brief dazzle from its golden surface. Some aimless but pretty squiggles are etched into it. Your eldest daughter's going through a bit of a rebellious phase - she'd probably like it. The other side is a bit dirty and corroded with a picture of a familiar, but long-forgotten face. Your daughter would probably like that as well.
BeforeThe End is hardly recognisable as a Levellers song at all - there's no shouty chorus, no widdling violins, no mosh-friendly rhythm. It's very low-key, and shows that there is more to the Brighton band than being sniggeringly mentioned in the music press whenever the word 'crusty' is inadvisably used. Whether it will garner them any new fans is debatable, although the 2008 producer polish makes for a something very Radio Two-friendly. Their PR's fleeting comparison with the Velvet Underground doesn't really stand up - this is the Levellers doing a love song. If you like your Folk, chances are you've seen the band play this very tune - although it wouldn't bring you out of your scrumpy coma.
Flipside TV Suicides starts the head nodding - an acoustic polemic via Billy Bragg and Ben Elton, raging against the machine of mass tedium in most people's living rooms (Not forgetting politicians, of course - the idle, warmongering bastards). Rightfully so, but this isn't some youthful spark in skinny jeans and a copy of the New Statesman found by accident in their private dentist's waiting room, this is a band currently enjoying its 20th anniversary - so there's unsurprising bitterness. 'You should've listened last time' spits vocalist Mark Chadwick, going for the charts' jugular yet again with revulsion at the general public's fathomless ignorance about pretty much everything. Take That must be quaking in their suits. Short and snappy, it's something the band have been doing throughout their career. The Levellers still have a fire somewhere. One can't help but think, though, that without the two-faced evil of politics to rail against, they would simply be producing songs like the first track here - and where would the fire burn then?
Listen: www.myspace.com/levellers
Tracklist:
1. Before The End
2. TV Suicides
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