Everybody’s talking about Pop Levi and for good reason. I downloaded one of his songs ages ago, loved it, forgot to look for more information on him, then saw his debut album – The Return To Form Black Magick Party, apparently released a few weeks ago – all over the place in Amsterdam last week. So when aDawgg came home with it a few days ago, I was pretty excited. I finally had a chance to listen to it this morning and it is so much better than I had hoped it would be. Seriously, this album is literally knocking my socks off as I type this.
Pop Levi was born in London but lived, as far as I understand, in both Liverpool and Los Angeles. As well as releasing his own solo singles and EPs, he also played with Ladytron for a while. His music is odd, in the most gloriously magical way, being glam, bubblegum pop, electronic, and rock all at the same time. I was going to write something about Marc Bolan and both 1964 and Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles here, but Ninja Tune’s press release about the album put it way better than I could’ve: “Although the most obvious precursor of his sound might be Mark Bolan, listen carefully and you’ll hear touches of everyone from Jack White, Prince and Hendrix to Dylan, Lennon and Beefheart in there.” It’s true, the Marc Bolan influence is striking and immediate, but I can already tell that this is an album I’ll discover new things in every time I listen to it.
It’s one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time and you need to have it, right now. I’m not saying you should check it out, you really do need it.
Filed under: Music, New Band Day Tagged: | Indie, Pop, Pop Levi, Rock
