The Return to Form Black Magick Party

There's always one that you just don't understand. An album that receives near-unanimous praise, but you can't really understand where it's all coming from. Pop Levi has been around for a while, making brief appearances with several other artists, the most notable of which is probably Ladytron. "The Return to Form Black Magick Party," however, is the artist's first solo album and first opportunity to gain fans of his own. He tries, but oftentimes the album feels more like he's trying too hard to impress. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's just utterly confusing. One thing's for sure, in the 40 plus minutes of Pop Levi's debut there's probably something for everyone, just not enough of it.

The album actually starts off on a high note with the driving distortion and piercing vocals of "Sugar Assault Me Now." Despite a few deliberately missed notes, the song is energetic, fun, and admittedly pretty catchy. Here, as he does throughout the album, Levi stacks layers upon layers of vocals and guitars to make the songs sound fuller and more complete. It works quite well. This great song is followed by the album's first single and arguably strongest song, "Blue Honey." The song is plagued by a repetitive bass line, but is saved by the artist's vocal performance in the chorus ("It's the way you squeeze me, baby"). It sounds like the better moments of classic rock, often stepping into Led Zepplin territory, without fully sounding like a rip-off.

"(A Style Called) Cryin' Chic" has a steady groove to it, but not much else to offer. The lyrics here are repetitive to the point of being annoying. Essentially, Levi takes one line, repeats it four times, and then does the same thing with about a dozen other lines. The actual 2-bar guitar riff doesn't ever change throughout the song, which just adds to the repetitiveness of it. "Pick Me Up Uppercut" is probably my favorite song on the album, despite it being the most obnoxious song since Aqua's "Barbie Girl." It has a very unique appeal to it, and sounds like a mix between glam rock and The Go-Gos.

The album goes off the deep-end from here, never really recapturing the energy or appeal that it began with. "Dollar Bill Rock" is a futile attempt at classic rock n roll, though one could definitely assume that it would be a better song live than it is here. "Flirting" lends the help of a xylophone to give it a more friendly feel, but like so many other songs on the album, it suffers from being incredibly repetitive. To be honest, "From the Day That You Were Born" is the album's only real notable track throughout it's second half. Levi plays acoustic guitar and sings, but not much else is happening. On an album that is full of layers and layers of vocals, guitars, and other noise, the song serves as a peaceful and welcomed break. It ends the album on a positive note, which is always appreciated.

If "The Return to Form Black Magick Party" is the best that Pop Levi has to offer, his career will either be short-lived or elongated on a wave of hype. Fortunately for the artist, however, the album seems to really be the tip of the iceberg for Levi. Though it's really hit or miss, it's high points are good enough to get even the most skeptical listener excited for what this artist has yet to do. That's enough of a reason to give it a listen in my book. Pop Levi is a name you might want to remember, even if this album isn't your thing.

Recommended for fans of classic rock and anyone who wants to hear what the future of indie rock could very well sound like.

Key Tracks:

1. "Sugar Assault Me Now"

2. "Blue Honey"

3. "Pick Me Up Uppercut"

4. "From the Day That You Were Born"

5 out of 10 Stars

English multi-instrumentalist, Jonathan Pop Levi, has to-date released two cds: Return to Form Black Majick Party (2006) and Never Never Love (2008). Songs from an unreleased cd (2010) are available on the net. Pop Levi clearly knows his classic rock, and a few of the songs here are straight rock numbers: Blue Honey and Mornin' Light (where Pop channels the mighty Robert Plant circa 1973). Other songs are acoustic-based, folk-inflected songs (the strongest of the lot): Cryin' Chic, Skip Ghetto, Flirting, and From the Day that You Were Born. The remainder are wild pop-rock songs: Sugar Assault Me, Pick Me Uppercut, Dollar Bill Rock, Hades Lady (my favorite of this group, with Dollar Bill Rock a close second). Pop-Levi's pop-rock has something of the early 80s in them. Finally, one track, See My Lord, is experimental. Never Never Love is every bit as accomplished as this cd is, the only difference being that Return to Form Black Majick Party is a bit rawer, leaner. Both are very well recorded, engineered, and produced. File somewhere between Beck and The Dandy Warhols. Enjoy, Harper

So I stumbled into Schubas in Chicago one day and the next band up was Pop Levi. Aside from having incredible stage presence, awkward dance moves that have to be seen to appreciate, and an overall fun vibe to the music he manages to record a fine album as well.

From the catchy yet grinding hooks of Blue Honey and Sugar Assault Me Now, to the sweeter From the Day that You Were Born, and the always fun Dollar Bill Rock... I don't know what else to say. Every song on here is entirely enjoyable and always good to listen to, but all of them for completely different reasons. The unifying theme being unique, yet entirely familiar all at once.

He's into numerology as well, so there's a lot of that going on in here. I guess this can be called "true" math rock.

On his website you can preview some songs from his album coming out in April, which will be sure to impress. (along with some weird videos and random blogs... an interesting, creative individual this Poppy is) He has taken his sound to a new level, and if you like this album at all the next one will be a must, as well as catching a live performance.

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