I already wrote here before about Jeffrey Lewis, but he had just released a new album and I had to repeat myself. What can I say? I'm a sucker for this witty anti-folker.

"12 Crass Songs", Lewis' new release is a covers album. No, wait. It's a tribute album. Oh, no. it's a charity album. Hmmm… No! It's a love and hate album, I think. It shows Lewis' love to the legendary Crass and represents Lewis' hate of authority, capitalism, violence and basically, in the words of Crass themselves, the system.

Back in those late 70s / beginning of 80s British punk days, Crass were one of the most controversial anarchist bands. They wrote war songs that fought against anything that was normal and everything wrong that came their way. Their Battle maybe seems a bit too oblivious these days, maybe even banal – it's not that I don't agree with their views, it's just that today a good protest comes in a more intellectual way – Still, sometimes the good old clichés are the truest thing around. Jeffrey Lewis looked for these primal anger feelings and found them in Crass.

Jeffrey Lewis Vs. The System

It's not that Lewis couldn't write songs like these on his own, but if he did, it wouldn't feel right. Lewis is too sharp and self aware, and hearing him sing lines about buying stuff that we don't need can be weird. I mean yeah, the system sucks, we all know that.

But Lewis wanted to scream out these thoughts without actually writing songs that don't fit his day-to-day catalog and he decided to record twelve old Crass songs. That way it will be a lovely tribute & a decent protest all at once.

Lewis took the songs into his domain and completely "folked" them out. He even added some lines to make the lyrics more relevant (the war in Iraq & Sarah Jessica Parker are here, of course). The production of the album is a bit more advanced than Lewis' old work, but even though I'm a fan of the low-fi, that isn't necessary a bad thing. "12 Crass Songs" is a beautiful album that actually says something, in the old-fashioned way – Songs like "Punk is Dead" and "I Ain't Thick" are nothing less than brilliant.

If you are worried about Lewis making money over the skeletons of what was once a great idealistic band, don't. Lewis will donate all the money that was earned by this project to several charities. Considering the fact that Lewis never really had his 15 minutes of fame, you've got to agree he is anything but greedy, and that, more than everything else, shows that he is the true current holder of Crass' torch.