Jeffrey Lewis

12 Crass Songs

[3/5]

12 Crass Songs occasionally suffers from Dynamite Hack syndrome. Like that group’s country-club version of Eazy E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” Jeffrey Lewis’ desultory folk-rock readings of Crass’ “End Result” and “Banned From The Roxy” convert stark, raw expressions of righteous fury into easy-listening fodder. Lewis intends homage rather than parody, but lines such as “They only wanted well-behaved boys” sound ludicrous when filtered through his polite delivery. On the plus side, it’s much easier to understand Crass’ provocative lyrics without the Cockney accents and bilious sputtering. Lewis performs smart melodic transfusions, turning “The Gasman Cometh” into an eerie mutation of “Convoy”-style country and “Where Next Columbus” into a psychedelic drone. An album’s worth of “you are being oppressed” harangues proves emotionally exhausting despite the musical variation. But whereas the original tunes played like close-range confrontations, Lewis’ best covers smuggle dire content into pleasant, jangly frames. To borrow a Crass title, it’s poison in a pretty pill. (ROUGH TRADE) Andrew Miller