What a pig of an album! (Hello Pig - Levellers)

Member Name: loulou6

Product:	Hello Pig - Levellers
Date:	30/06/01 (341 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: ummmmm

Disadvantages: lots!

After finding another Levellers fan in my workplace (v. unusual as most of them like Phil Collins!), I had a re-listen to Hello Pig, the latest offering (well it was out in September 2000) from the once great stompingly/punky/crusty band ever. Yes, I love their ‘older work’ and I’m even in their fan club!

I wanted to cry it took 4 tracks into the album to get to a decent song that I wanted to listen to all the way through, and that doesn’t look too good from a seasoned listener to the Levs! Since ‘Mouth to Mouth’ I had almost given up hope (street) for them to get back to their first 3 album level (groan appreciated here), unfortunately ‘Hello Pig’ goes further the other way, even sounding rather (dare I say it….) ‘pop’ish – aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!

Ok, out of the 13 tracks (unlucky for some) the opening track ‘Happy Birthday Revolution’ (a tribute to Che Guevara) isn’t as bad as all that. I’ll even go as far as saying that ‘Modern Day Tragedy’ is worth a 2nd listen, but the rest of the album is really hard to get into. If you’ve never heard of any of their music, a) what’s wrong with you and b) don’t start off with this album, try ‘Levelling the Land’ instead.

Gone are the days of the chanting anthems and beautiful ballads of the early albums. Maybe they’ve grown up? Maybe they were given a chance to ‘experiment’ by China records? Maybe they should have stopped when Mark (the lead singer) found a megaphone….. (Oh dear)

Too ‘produced’ is my overall feeling in general here, and hopefully the guys from Brighton will have a change of heart with the next album and get back to the ‘let’s have a b****y revolution’ sound, lets hope so!

Summary: