Review Summary: Levi's words are hard to swallow, but will inspire you and remind you that you are not alone.
Levi the Poet is an interesting case.
Not so much a musician as he is...well...exactly what his name says he is. He's a poet. A spoken-word artist. Of course we've seen the likes of such artists in bands like mewithoutYou, La Dispute and Listener but there's a distinct difference that seperates Levi from his peers.
Levi has had two releases before his most recent: Werewolves and the Monologues EP. I have yet to listen to Werewolves in it's entirety but I have had a chance to delve into the emotionally charged Monologues EP and I can promise you this: It's exhausting. For a mere five tracks he cries and shouts his way through the lowest and highest points of his life. Just listening to one of his poems is enough to wear me out for a good hour. I've often found I have to stop listening to anything all together after hearing him speak as it almost seems disrespectful.
So anyway that's Levi the Poet so far. What is he up to today?
While I probably shouldn't say this seeing as I have yet to listen to his first full-length all the way through, Seasons is certainly far superior to anything I've heard previous. Levi was once just a spoken word project to me that I would listen to once in a while for the extra burst of raw emotion I need in my life. But with this album, he truly shows his capabilities not just as a poet, but a performer. With some help he's even finally included more musical accompaniment scatterered throughout the release, and even a couple of fully realized songs.
Seasons opens with
Harsh Men, which if you had already listened to Levi before, might confuse you a bit. It's the first time Levi has ever recorded a straight, through and through, melodic piece of music. Not that he hasn't sung before but this time you can tell there's a real effort to actually sing. The beginning isn't too surprising in that it's simply Levi's voice singing in a strange, almost off-key kind of tone. Shortly after a female vocalist (I believe it's his wife) joins in harmony with him for a few lines and after that is when it begins to pick up. About halfway through we're greeted with some simple, layered guitar, drums and piano as Levi belts out his powerful poetry:
"Still I, can't fight the fear that he was right,
A notion that has left me terrfied,
Like he was when he went to sleep,
And woke up in glory..."
Levi sings of his father's death (at least that's what I gather from it's meaning) in a passionate, yet straining voice not too dissimilar to Jesse Lacey of Brand New only less refined.
As the final notes of that song fade, percussion builds and leads into the next track
Herman Melville. Filled with a screaming, a dissonant guitar line and rapid snare hits (imagine a marching beat) underneath Levi's harsh screams. It's quite a contrast to the opener. Speaking of contrast, nearly halfway through the instruments come to a halt and Levi speaks a few lines only to begin singing melodically over a beautifully simplistic piano, eventually joined with a few distorted guitar chords and vocal harmonies. Then just as you're getting into it, his vocals explode once again into screaming for one final blow. The song is filled with contrast and a lack of structure but the hectic nature of it is what makes it a stand out in my opinion.
From then on we finally get back to the Levi of old.
The Teacher Speaks and
College-Ruled Lines is very much like the usual Levi poetry. That streak is broken early on by another song,
(In)consistent, which is simple and mellow, but can stir up some intense feelings with his fragile, sorrowful voice mixed with passionate lyrics, praising a God he longs to follow and understand.
That may be the last real 'song' on the album but that doesn't make the rest any less impressive. You're continually assaulted by his inner-most thoughts and feelings as he openly shares about his struggles with faith in God over eerie guitar in
Resentment, his father's death and his doubts of God's love in
Van Morrison Reminds Me Of You, his poetry and how he write's in
Dear Pianist and the glory of God in the subtle closer
Boundless.
To listen to Levi is a different experience than simply listening to music or even lyrics. You feel his words seer into your brain and speak to you in ways you never knew could. Whether you're a Christian or not, his messages are endlessly powerful and can leave you on the verge of tears. It's not only the context of his words either. They're very well written, yet make sense. They're direct, yet never sound too forced and they flow just a beautifully as anything you'd find in any mewithoutYou song without too much of the metaphorical craziness.
His raw delivery has been perfected on this release as well, using inflections and volume control in a way to convey the perfect emotions for the perfect moments. In
Resentment you'll laugh as he recounts and jokes about wanting to be a cowboy and then Superman as a kid and wearing his cowboy boots over his costume and being "Cowman". Only moments later he turns that right around and pummels you with his voice, screaming about how he feels like a cow for the lustful thoughts he used to have.
The only real flaw with the album as a whole though is how exhausting it can be. Individually the poems and songs work very well but when listened to as a whole project, it leaves you tired. That may or may not be a good thing depending on how you view it though. On one hand you may WANT to feel that. Though at the same time it has a tendency to detract from the later half of the album as by the time you get there, you've already been listening to him pour his heart out for a while and you won't get the same effect. The best way to listen to it is in pieces like I did. Levi Macallister's brand of spoken word certainly won't be for everyone regardless. It's barely music and if you're looking for something that accentuates excellent guitar-work, or technical drumming or anything of the sort, then you shouldn't bother with this in the first place.
It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's a satisfying forray into the mind of a struggling Christian man looking for contentment in his life. Levi the Poet is the ultimate medicine for anyone looking for the emotion they've been missing in life. It will move you, it will inspire you and it will most definitely intrigue you.
But most importantly, it will remind you that you aren't struggling alone in the world.
Recommended Tracks:
Harsh Men
Herman Melville
The Teacher Speaks (A Time To Keep And A Time To Cast Away)
Dear Pianist
Resentment
(And hey you can get it for free so why not?: http://www.comeandlive.com/CLD/LeviThePoet-Seasons/)
