This album was described by The Levellers’ biographer, George Berger, as ’’their difficult second album...despite being their third’’ and it isn’t hard to see why he would say that. It has a harder, darker, more depressed feel to it than Levelling the Land (The Levellers actual second album) and was allegedly written at the time when the band were going through a low patch. This album is not considered their best but, to be fair, coming after Levelling the Land it had a hard act to follow! All that said this album, as with a lot of The Levellers’ music, grows on you the more you listen to it.
This band have been described as Folk/Punk and if that is the case then this album is at the punk end of the description. It is loud and thrashy with lots of guitar and drums but still with the distinctive fiddle that is a feature of the levellers music. It is a good album to play when you are fed up and need the catharsis of music played very loud!! And if you want music that protests against what is wrong with the world then all the better ’cos this album does that too.
The track list is:
1.Warning
2.100 Years of Solitude
3.The Likes of You and I
4.Is This Art?
5.Dirty Davey
6.This Garden
7.Broken circles
8.Julie
9.The Player
10.Belaruse
Now I am not going to go through and tell you what each track is about because that is, I believe, down to personal interpretetion anyway but I will try and say a bit about some of the tracks,
Tracks 1 and 2 are loud and rocking as is track 5 which is about the corruption of the justice system, and these three are my favourites on this album. Track 3 is quieter, more contemplative but still good. Track 4 is weird and I have to say I dont like it and usually skip it!! Track 6 is nice and catchy and track 8 is just plain depressing! the others are good but not out of the ordinary.
On the whole this is not the best album The levellers have done, and if you are unfamiliar with this band and would like to hear their music I wouldn’t recommend this as an introduction to them (try Levelling the Land or Zeitgeist) but this album does have some very good tracks on it and if you like The levellers music I would recommend it as an addition to your collection of their music.