I always feel my age when I see an anniversary edition of an album I bought first time around. Zeitgeist was released in 1995 and was the band’s fourth and most successful album. As the title suggests it was a statement on the times. This 30th anniversary reissue expands the original to three CDs: a remixed version of the album, a set of nine bonus tracks and a set of demos, interviews and outtakes. The latter two should set fans salivating.
The album begins with the single ‘Hope St.’. If you haven’t heard it, imagine a thundering late-century ‘Streets Of London’ with added angst and political awareness. It really sets the tone for the album but don’t think it’s just post-punk noise. The instrumental breaks, led mostly by Jon Sevink’s fiddle and Simon Friend’s guitar and mandolin, add a very distinctive style. ‘The Fear’ continues to highlight the political climate while ‘Exodus’ is a song of protest on behalf of the underdogs.
A change of pace comes with Rev. Hammer’s ‘Maid Of The River’, a song about what we were doing to the land. It’s open to interpretation, of course – there is a risible AI explanation which takes it literally and would be funny if it wasn’t so naff. ‘Saturday To Sunday’ looks forward to the time when we “feed the flames” and then we come to the drinking with ‘4 AM’ with its bizarre ending and ‘Fantasy’, another political diatribe. In between is the fiddle-driven ‘Forgotten Ground’ and afterwards comes the timely paranoia of ‘P.C. Keen’.
The second single, ‘Just The One’, featuring Joe Strummer, brings a little jollity and ‘Haven’t Made It’ had me looking again for the banjo player – there isn’t one although Simon Friend is credited with the instrument on a later album. ‘Leave This Town’ is a song of ennui but the closing ‘Men-An-Tol’ (referencing neolithic standing stones in Cornwall) finds the lyricist in a state of something approaching contentment. The remix is clean and bold and I dare say that I have enjoyed it even more this time around.
Disc 2 contains nine bonus tracks, including three B-sides from the album’s singles. It opens with the single version of ‘Just The One’ – Joe Strummer is still on board – and later on an acoustic version of ‘Hope Street’ resplendent with harmonica. ‘Drinking For England’ features slide guitar and is every bit as good as any track on the released album. ‘Alive’ is big and bolshie and in my opinion one of their best songs. ‘Searchlights’ appeared on the 2007 re-issue as did ‘Your ‘Ouse’, ‘Miles Away’ and ‘Drinking For England’. ‘A Promise’ and ‘Sara’s Beach’ haven’t appeared before as far as I can tell but put all these tracks together and you have a damn good album that stands up in its own right.
The third disc is really for fans. It contains fifteen demos, most of which appear elsewhere in their finished form and a number of “interviews”. I use the quotation marks because, in the absence of any other information, I reckon that they are actually little improvised monologues and duologues of a generally humorous nature. The demos have a loose energy – they aren’t rough, merely first thoughts – that will later be polished up. The first of these, ‘Alive’, is particularly good and ‘Hope St.’ and ‘P.C, Keen’ are mighty. Several of the songs haven’t appeared elsewhere and some turn up as bonus tracks. So ‘Social Insecurity/Is This Art’ appear as the live cut that was, in part, added to the 1996 Levelling The Land reissue. You’ll get dizzy trying to track down all the originals.
More surprising is a version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Only A Hobo’. Even Levellers can’t disguise the country influences underlying the song but they do their damnedest and ‘Basement 23 Maddy Mix’ is a blast of madness. ‘Zippo Man’ may appear elsewhere in Levellers’ catalogue but I haven’t found it. Actually, it’s probably an excuse to feature ‘Just The One’ again.
Zeitgeist should be held up as an object lesson on how to package an anniversary reissue. There is enough for really serious fans to enjoy and even more for someone like me who knows the band but isn’t obsessive. I’ve enjoyed listening to all three discs although I concede that the interview segments might begin to become wearisome with repeated listening. However, they are short and, rather than interrupting they do actual help the flow rather in the manner of a Zappa album. If I have a criticism (and it is my job, after all) I’d say that more background on the bonus discs would be nice although I suspect it would increase the cost.
Dai Jeffries
Artists’ website: https://www.levellers.co.uk/
‘Hope Street’ – the original official video:
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