When I first heard that my favourite songwriter and future husband Jeffrey Lewis was releasing an album covering the songs of 80’s British punk band Crass it’s fair to say I was more than a little alarmed. What I loved about his music was the use of words; the whimsical, intelligent, insightful lyrics that set him apart from your average “folk” musician. Fortunately, it turns out that that’s exactly what Jeffrey loves as well, and far from being a guitar driven noise-fest it could very easily be mistaken for his original material. The fun comes for me with trying to learn every single lyric to all the songs. “Huh?” I hear you collectively cry, “Isn’t that normal for an album that you like?” Of course it is, but the difference here is that a lot of the songs go at a hundred miles an hour with no room to breath. On top of that, the lyrics are so skillfully written that not one word is wasted. Everything is there to make a cynical statement about the state of our fucked up world or form part of an internal rhyme with nothing left to chance. Now this is exactly what we’re used to with Jeffrey Lewis, with the difference being in the overt politics and criticism of both the 1980s British government and current US administration. Although (obviously, being a super-fan) every track is a winner, the standout tracks for me are Banned From The Roxy and Securicor. The former begins with the bitterness stemming from being banned from a music venue but quickly leads to a scathing attack on modern politics and the government’s use of power and violence: “Defence, it’s nothing less than war/And no-one but the government knows what it’s for/Oh yes, they say it’s defence, say it’s decency/My Lai, Hiroshima know what I mean”. In keeping with the energy of the song, the lyrics (to both songs previously mentioned) are spat out pretty darn fast in a similar fashion to a lot of Jeffrey’s original material (see: Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror). To conclude, if you’re looking for an album that will make you sit up, watch the news, get angry, cry, get angry again and then do something about it, this is the album for you. If that isn’t what you want you should still get it because the arrangements and the lyrics and the humour and the anger is also worth it.

This is my first post, so please excuse any shaky editing, writing, formatting and lack of fancy things. BUY THIS ALBUM! That is all.