New York anti-folk alumni Jeffrey Lewis takes songs from early 80s British anarchistic rock band Crass and makes folk song reinterpretations out of them. Confused? Don’t be because 12 Crass Songs is crystal clear. The band Crass was obviously pissed at society, but hearing Jeffrey Lewis slow the songs down and add acoustic guitar, really gives you the opportunity to not only see that Crass wrote some smart and witty songs, but that things really haven’t changed at all. Rather than concentrating on making an album of songs that are rehashes of the original, Jeffrey Lewis puts his own spin on the songs that while sound rough, also sound fresh. But that’s punk, isn’t it? That’s also the beauty of this album as Jeff manages to take a previously recorded song and make it his own.
Standout tracks include "I Ain’t Thick" a song that talks about consumerism with Casio keyboard licks, while "Do They Owe," talks about the lies politicians spew. Like I said, not much has changed since these songs were written in the late 70s/early 80s. Rather than preaching against society with no solution, the songs here sometimes do give some sort of comfort in being an individual like on "Big A, Little A," a song promoting non-conformity and change as a solution to beating the system. The songs don’t preach anger at society or violence, but point out what’s wrong while offering smart socially conscious ways to change things. If you don’t like things like religion, then don’t get involved. Plain and simple. The last song "Punk is Dead" tells how punk became a movement and like all other movements, lost its way and died, which is true, and that explains the faux-hawk! |